Miguel Martinez Serrano was born in 1888 in Trujillo Peru while his father was in Exile. He was their 7th child. As a young boy he is known to have been close to his sister Julia who was three years older than he. His mother gave birth to a brother Rafael after him and then when he was four years old his mother died giving birth to the 9th child, Maria Martinez Serrano. Four years later, when he was 8 years of age, his father married a second wife, Maria Teresa Del Pozo Santos who became his stepmother.

Miguel came of age during some of the most critical years of Ecuador’s history – years that also had a great impact on the fate of his own family. He was an eight year old boy at the time of the great “Liberal Revolution” in 1896 when Eloy Alfaro first came to power entering his first term as president of Ecuador. Dr. Martinez served in several important cabinet posts during this time.

Statue of President Emilio Estrada in Guayaquil. Standing in front of the statue (L to R): Miguelito and Maria Elvira Martinez Davalos, son and daughter of Miguel Martinez Serrano, and Patrick Connolly Martinez grandson of Dr. Martinez.

Miguel was an 18 year-old young man as Alfaro entered his second term in 1906. He would become a lawyer. He was 23 years of age in 1911 when Eloy Alfaro was surprised by a military coup, overthrown and forced to leave the country for Panama.  The clouds of chaos started to gather around Ecuador as Alfaro’s old and sickly successor Emilio Estrada rose to the presidency. Three months later he would suddenly die leaving a dangerous power vacuum in Ecuador which was still reeling from the recent coup.  With the vital reforms of Alfaro now endangered by a candidate (Leónidas Plaza )  who pandered to the landed aristocracy, Pedro Montero, the commander of the Guauaquil Garrison announced that he would not support the new Quito Government and declared a new provisional government centered in Guayaquil with himself as (temporary) “Jefe Supremo” (Supreme Commander).  In this extremely dangerous situation Dr. Martinez announced his support of Montero accepting a cabinet position in the new provisional government. His son Miguel also accepted a position in this new provisional government, performing key services in the support of Montero.  This provisional government did not succeed but Dr. Martinez was able to slip out of the country unnoticed, escaping the barbarity that ensued.  Miguel told his son Miguelito how it had happened and a century later, in 2013, Miguelito recounted the harrowing details in a video which is available here (click).

Later, Miguel married and had two children. Their names are Maria Elvira and Miguel (“Miguelito”). Miguelito married a woman named Anita who came from the family of Dr. Martinez’ second wife, the Del Pozo Santos family. Today (2020) Maria Elvira, Miguel and Anita live together in Guayaquil and several of the videos on this website were made at their home. In the video below, we meet all three of them and Miguel and Anita explain the circumstances that brought them together: