Emilio Reus Bahamonde

Emilio Reus Bahamonde was born on November 8, 1858 in Spain. Son of the jurist and politician José Reus y García and Concepción Bahamonde, he received his doctorate in Philosophy and Law from the Central University of Madrid. He was the author of philosophical and legal articles, as well as plays. He directed the Revista General de Legislación y Jurisprudencia, and actively participated in the Ateneo of Madrid. In the political sphere, he was elected deputy for Ecija within the progressive current.

He married Ana Canalejas, with whom he had a daughter, Silvia. After losing his fortune in stock market investments, he disappeared from public life and moved first to Buenos Aires and then, in 1886, to Montevideo. Shortly after his arrival, he suffered the loss of his daughter Silvia. In Montevideo, together with Ana, they adopted their second daughter, named Gloria.

In the Rio de la Plata, his legacy was so significant that he not only gave his name to a neighborhood, but also to an era. Reus embodied the investment fever, the spirit of progress and modernity that characterized the period of stability that followed the internal wars and lasted until the end of the nineteenth century. In just five years, he promoted an infinite number of ventures of the most diverse nature, leaving almost no sector unexplored.

In 1887, at the request of President Máximo Tajes, he founded the Banco Nacional, bringing together a syndicate of Rio de la Plata capitals. In 1888 he created the Compañía Nacional de Crédito y Obras Públicas, with which he realized his real estate ambition: to urbanize and populate areas such as the current Barrio Reus, La Aguada and Barrio Solís (today part of the Prado). Through this company he financed projects such as the Gran Hotel Nacional, the Gounoulhiou Spa and the Establecimiento Médico Hidro-Termo-Terapéutico, where MAPI is currently located. These projects are evidence of his intention to replicate in Montevideo to replicate European models of urbanism, architecture and welfare in Montevideo.

However, a scandal related to the issuance of shares above the allowed amount in his savings company led him to resign and to cover a large part of the liabilities with his own assets. His entrepreneurial spirit led him to venture into projects as varied as tramways, electricity, agricultural colonies in Paysandú, gold exploration and railroad works in Paraguay.

After the international financial crisis of 1890 Reus lost his entire fortune. Although the debacle is often attributed to the international context, it can be stated that insolvency was inevitable. He died on May 7, 1891, of a heart condition that many attributed to his intense life and passionate temperament. Even today it is still possible to find traces of his figure in the spaces he helped to shape.

As he himself expressed in 1889:

“My sin has been to have too much faith in the progress of this country. I have wanted to do in one, two or four months what cannot be done but in an equal number of years.”

Just as his constructions were not always completed, the figure of Emilio Reus remains, in part, unfinished: between myth and history, between progress and risk. His brief but dazzling passage through the Río de la Plata left traces in the urban fabric and in the collective memory. Even today, walking through certain neighborhoods of Montevideo, one can wonder what city we would be if Reus had not dreamed the impossible.