José Luis Gabriel Terra Leivas (Montevideo, 1 August 1873 - Montevideo, 15 September 1942) was a lawyer and politician of batllista origin in Uruguay, and advisor to all Uruguayan governments on diplomatic, Economic and financial issues between 1900 and 1938. He spent part of his childhood and adolescence in his father's (José Ladislao Terra) farm and studied Law at UDELAR while also specializing in economic and financial science, graduating in 1895. He practiced as lawyer and Justice of the Peace at the end of the 1890's and he was professor at the Higher School of Commerce (known since 1935 as the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Administration) from 1901. He was a national deputy from 1903 to 1907, minister of Industry, Labor and Public Instruction from 1907 to 1911. He founded the industrial oxygen production company CINOCA in 1908 and was a member of the National Constituent Assembly of 1917, Minister of the Interior from 1919 to 1921, member of the National Administration Council from 1926 to 1929. He was Constitutional President between 1931 and 1933, but became a de facto president from March 1933 to May 1934 after launching a self-coup. However, he once again became a de jure Constitutional President until June 1938. Terra was president of the Banco de la República Oriental del Uruguay in 1938. However, he suffered a stroke that same year, causing him to remain paralytic for four years until his death in 1942. Terra died in poverty, passing away in an armchair on the early morning of 1September 15, 1942. At his funeral he received the corresponding state honors, and the country entered a mourning period. His remains were accompanied by hundreds of thousands of people along the procession. However, due to his presidency beng very controversial, his coffin was spat on by editors of the newspaper El Día, causing a fight to break out. The location of his grave is unknown. Terra left no economic inheritance or political party. He remains a controversial president and his name spurs disgust in Uruguay. Background Terra graduated as a lawyer in 1895 from UDELAR and had a lengthy political career, being a national deputy, he was deputy, minister of Industry, Work, and Public Instruction, a member of the 1917 Uruguayan Constituent Assembly, and member of the National Board of Directors. He was affiliated to the Colorado Party, although he was often independent of the dominant