Joaquín Zavala Solís was the President

President of Nicaragua

The position of President of Nicaragua was created in the Constitution of 1854. From 1825 until the Constitution of 1838 the title of the position was known as Head of State and from 1838 to 1854 as Supreme Director .-Heads of State of Nicaragua within the Federal Republic of Central America...

 of Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

 from 1 March 1879 to 1 March 1883 and from 16 to 25 July 1893. He was a member of the Conservative Party of Nicaragua

Conservative Party of Nicaragua

The Conservative Party is a conservative political party in Nicaragua.The party's colour is green and its emblem is a torch of freedom in a circle. Its slogan is “Dios, Orden, Justicia” , often depicted on the three sides of a triangle.-History:The conservative party is the oldest currently...

.

He is now remembered especially for having thwarted the request of the young Rubén Darío

Rubén Darío

Félix Rubén García Sarmiento , known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo that flourished at the end of the 19th century...

, later to become one of the most well-known Spanish-language poets, for a government scholarship to study in Europe. In 1882 Darío, then 15 years old, read some of his poetry to a group including the President - whereupon Zavala reportedly reproved him: "My son, if you so write against the religion of your fathers and their homeland now, what will become of you if you go to Europe and learn worse things?"