Pedro Aquilino López

Pedro Aquilino López
Senator of Colombia
In office
7 August 1921 – 7 August 1924
ConstituencyTolima
Minister of Trasury
In office
7 August 1918 – 10 August 1918
PresidentMarco Fidel Suárez
Preceded byPedro Blanco
Succeeded bySimón Araújo
Bogotá City Council
ConstituencyLiberal
Personal details
BornPedro Aquilino López Medina
(1857-01-04)January 4, 1857
DiedOctober 13, 1935(1935-10-13) (aged 78)
Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
Resting placeCentral Cemetery of Bogotá
PartyLiberal
Spouse
Rosario Pumarejo
(m. 1912)
Children
Parents
  • Ambrosio López
  • Felisa Medina
RelativesLópez family
Occupation

Pedro Aquilino López Medina (4 January 1857 –13 October 1935) was a Colombian businessman and politician who served as a senator in Colombia from 1921 to 1934.[1] A member of the Liberal party, López also served as minister of Treasury and as a councilman of Bogotá.[2]

Born in Bogotá, he is the patriarch of the López family. He is the founder of the López Bank.

Early life

Pedro Aquilino López Medina was born on January 4, 1857, to the craftsman Ambrosio López and Felisa Medina.[1] He grew up in Bogotá and left school at age 15 to work in the family's craft business.[3] In 1871, he moved to Honda, Tolima, where he served as an executive member under the industrialist Silvestre Samper, with whom he established connections between Bogotá and Honda.[1] To establish his own businesses, he experimented with the regional export of exotic skins and coffee, as well as products made from animal hides, with Cúcuta, North Santander, as his main area of operations.[1] In 1878, he returned to work again for the Samper family, this time as an assistant to Rafael Samper, Silvestre Samper's eldest son.[1][3]

The escalation of bipartisan violence in Colombia led the Samper family to eventually move to New York, leaving Pedro in charge of the Colombian businesses, most notably the Honda Trading House, where his eldest son, Alfonso, would be born years later.[1] In 1880, he joined Samper & Co., where he distinguished himself by his role in expanding the company's business.[3] Meanwhile, López simultaneously ventured into independent lending.[1] In 1881, a year later, he entered the import of chemical and decorative glassware. In 1889, López ended his ten-year relationship with the Samper family, relocating his businesses abroad due to the escalating violence following the devastation of the Regeneration.[4] In 1899, the López family settled in New York for security reasons related to Alfonso, Pedro's eldest son, who was a prominent and influential leader within the Liberal Party.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Trayectoria empresarial de Pedro Aquilino López Medina | Tiempo y economía". revistas.utadeo.edu.co. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  2. ^ a b Editorial (2018-05-10). "Nace el banco de los bancos colombianos". Colombia (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-18.
  3. ^ a b c "Página Autobiográfica de Don Pedro A. López". news.google.com. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  4. ^ Tiempo, Casa Editorial El (1996-02-07). "CASA MUSEO ALFONSO LÓPEZ PUMAREJO". El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-09-10.