José María Yrigoyen

José María Yrigoyen served in Peru’s Washington legation before the acting leadership recorded in the mid-1890s. The Office of the American Republics’ contemporary manual lists him as secretary and chargé d’affaires while Pedro Alejandrino del Solar was absent. ¹

A surviving 1904 letter offers a glimpse of a later business career in New York. In the transcription published by antiquarian bookseller David M. Lesser, Yrigoyen pressed John Winfield Scott for overdue company payments and explained that delays had affected remittances and commitments in Lima. The accompanying catalog identifies him as a director of the Pacific Company, a concern with South American transport and financial interests. This commercial episode is documented more narrowly than his diplomatic career; the catalog’s identification remains the basis for linking the letter to the former chargé. ²