Romero, Emilio (1899–1993)

Emilio Romero (b. 16 February 1899; d. 1993), Peruvian geographer, economist, lawyer, and writer. Born in Puno, Romero was the son of Eladio and Honorata Padilla Romero. He studied at schools in Arequipa and Lima, receiving his doctorate at the National University of Arequipa in 1932. Between 1920 and 1933, Romero taught school at the secondary and university levels and, beginning in the 1930s, began a government career while continuing to hold academic positions. After holding a ministerial post as chief of the Bureau of Colonization and Mountain Lands, he was elected deputy to the Constituent Congress in 1932–1933. In 1939, he became director of commerce and finance and continued his political career as a senator from Puno from 1945 to 1948.

In the 1950s, Romero wrote essays on the Indian practice of chewing coca leaves, claiming that the Indian use of the hallucinogen coca was similar to, but no more damaging than, the North American practice of chewing gum or smoking cigarettes. In a 1955 book, Perú por los senderos de América, he also praised the Incas for their religion and way of life, insisting that their idea of love and marriage surpassed that of the Spaniards who had conquered them.

See alsoIncas, The .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Percy Alvin Martin, Who's Who in Latin America (1940).

Fredrick B. Pike, The Modern History of Peru (1967) p. 10.

Marvin Alisky, Historical Dictionary of Peru (1979), p. 91.

Additional Bibliography

Luque Talaván, Miguel. "Bibliografía del Doctor Emilio Romero Padilla (Puno 1899–Lima 1993)." Revista complutense de historia de América 28 (2002): 213-216.

Padilla, Feliciano. Antología comentada de la literatura puneña. Peru: Fondo Editorial Cultura Peruana, 2005.

                                        Jack Ray Thomas