Ulises Francisco Espaillat

Ulises Francisco Espaillat Quiñones was born on 9 February 1823 in Santiago, officially known from 1822 to 1844 as Saint-Yague, into a wealthy family of French, Canarian, Aragonese and Genovese descent; he was the only son of Pedro Ramón Espaillat Velilla (Santiago, 1796−idem, 1882) and María Petronila Quiñones Tavares (1804−1874). His father was the tenth and junior child of Francisco Espaillat y Virol —a Frenchman native to Masclat that settled in Santiago in 1758 in an epoch where one-third of the population was of French origin— and Petronila Velilla Sánchez —whose father was born in Aragon. He was described by his contemporaries as a tall, pale-complexioned, blue-eyed, dark blond-haired man.

In his early childhood and adolescence he received lessons in English, French, music, mathematics and other disciplines, within the limited possibilities of school education that the country lived under the Haitian occupation. He later received medical lessons from a paternal uncle, Dr. Santiago Espaillat (who later became President-elect in 1849). Ulises Espaillat established a pharmacy in the early 1840s.

In 1845, he married his first cousin, Eloísa Espaillat Rodríguez, the daughter of his uncle Juan José Espaillat Velilla.[1]

Espaillat served in many offices, including Senator, member of the House of Representatives, Customs Inspector of Puerto Plata, and member of the Provincial Deputation of Santiago.[2] He opposed the 1861 Spanish colonial restoration, and as a result, he was exiled; he returned to his country in 1863. He served as Vice President in 1864.

With the support of Gregorio Luperón, Espaillat won the March 24, 1876, presidential election. Espaillat was a political and economic liberal who wished to broaden the personal freedoms of the Dominican people and improve the country's economy by taking from the producers of the society in order to pay for his ideas. However, he was forced to resign (on December 20, 1876) before he could set in motion any plan of action, due to rebellions in the south and east.[3]

Espaillat Province, as well as the Ulises Francisco Espaillat metro station in Santo Domingo are named after him.

President Espaillat has been identified as the most recent common ancestor for most of the Dominican oligarchy and aristocracy, since his offspring managed to establish bonds with the most prominent families from Santiago, who became later the richest families of the country.[4]