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Jacobo De Villaurrutia and the Audiencia of Guatemala, 1794-1804

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Dewitt S. Chandler
Dewitt S. Chandler*
Affiliation:
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
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Extract

Scholars are presently re-examining the status of creoles in Spanish colonial administration at the end of the eighteenth century. All historians accept that the Crown discriminated against Americans but the degree and effect of that prejudice is the subject of much current research. Most have rejected Bolívar's sweeping generalization that Spain excluded Americans from all responsible positions, but few agree on the extent of creole participation. Recent studies suggest that creoles held more high positions than had been suspected. These studies further suggest that a new interpretation of the effect of creoles on administration and the independence movement is overdue. The road to this synthesis must be paved with case studies of individuals.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , January 1976 , pp. 402 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1976 

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References

1 See Burkholder, M.A., “From Creole to Peninsular: The Transformation of the Audiencia of Lima,” HAHR, Vol. 52, No. 3 (August 1972), 395–415;Google Scholar Campbell, Leon G., “A Colonial Establishment: Creole Domination of the Audiencia of Lima in the Late Eighteenth Century,” HAHR, Vol. 52, No. 1 (February 1972), 1–25;Google Scholar Burkholder, M.A. and Chandler, D.S., “Creole Appointments and the Sale of Audiencia Positions in the Spanish Empire Under the Early Bourbons, 1701–1750,” Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 4, Part 2 (November 1972), 187–206;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Brading, D.A., Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico 1763–1810 (Cambridge, 1971).Google Scholar

2 Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla (hereafter AGI), Guatemala, legajo 648, “Relación de los Méritos,… del Doctor, y Maestro Don Jacobo de Villaurrutia López Osorio,…,” Madrid, December 13, 1787; Orozco, Manuel y Berra, (ed.), Apéndice al Diccionario Universal de Historia y Georgrafía (Mexico, 1856), 3, 908–914;Google Scholar Díaz, Rafael Matos, “Hombres de América, los Villaurrutia,” Anales de la Sociedad de Geografía e Historia de Guatemala, 31 (1958), 167–173;Google Scholar unless otherwise cited, all biographical material on Jacobo and his family is taken from these sources.

3 Evidence from Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (hereafter AHN), Ordenes, legajo 1614, “Prueba de Don Joseph de Villa y Urrutia naturai del Consejo de Zalla, Señorio de Vizcaya-1694;” Magdaleno, Ricardo (ed.), Títulos de Indias: Catálogo XX del Archivo General de Simancas (Valladolid, 1954), 135,Google Scholar and the aforementioned Relación de Méritos in the AGI indicates that two José de Villaurrutias, uncle and nephew, came to America at the end of the seventeenth century. Jacobo’s grandfather was the younger. The elder José became Corregidor of Zacatecas and possibly interim governor of Tlaxcala. Nieto, Rafael y Cortadellas, , Los Villaurrutia: Un Linaje vasco en México y en La Habana (Havana, 1952),Google Scholar maintains that the governor was Jacobo’s direct ancestor, but Nieto’s treatment of the American branch of the family in the eighteenth century is so full of factual errors as to be completely unreliable. He confuses and mixes elements from the lives of father and son, brother and brother, etc. (pp. 20-23).

4 Medina, José Toribio, Biblioteca Hispano-Americana (Amsterdam, 1958–62), 4, 303,Google Scholar “Relación de Méritos del Bachiller D. Antonio Bernardino de Villaurrutia y Salcedo, Colegial actual en el Mayor de Sta María de Todos Santos de … México;” Archivo General de Simancas (hereafter AGS), Dirección General del Tesoro, inventario 24, legajo 181, document 21, San Ildefonso, September 18, 1742; Konetzke, Richard (ed.), Colección de Documentos para la historia de la formación social de Hispano-américa (Madrid, 1962), 3, part 1, 243,Google Scholar “Consulta del Consejo de las Indias sobre licencia dada a un oidor para contraer matrimonio,” Madrid, January 14,1749.

5 AGS, Dirección General del Tesoro, inventario 2, legajo 47, document 265, San Lorenzo, October 21, 1763; AHN, Consejos, legajo 21691, “Sentencia dada en vista da la resida tomada a Dn Antonio de Villaurrutia … del tpo que servido la plaza de … Oydor de la R1 Auda de Sto Domingo,…,” October 27,1774.

6 AGS, Dirección General del Tesoro, inventario 2, legajo 71, document 95, El Pardo, March 28, 1787; inventario 24, legajo 188, document 535, Aranjuez, April 18, 1791; inventario 2, legajo 78, document 121, Aranjuez, June 19, 1791; AGI, Guatemala, legajo 648, Sebastián Martín de Rojas to Exmo Señor, Madrid, July 4, 1798.

7 AGS, Dirección General del Tesoro, inventario 2, legajo 71, document 207, San Ildefonso, September 2, 1787; inventario 2, legajo 90, document 141, San Lorenzo, September 17, 1806; Costeloe, Michael P., “The Administration, Collection and Distribution of Tithes in the Archbishopric of Mexico, 1800–1860,” The Americas, 13, No. 1, (July, 1966), 3–27;CrossRefGoogle Scholar The University of Texas Archives, Gómez Farías Collection, Folder 44B, document 205, Ygnacio de Cuéllar to Exmo Sr Valentín Gómez Farías, Mexico, October 17, 1833.

8 For the Fagoagas see Brading, D.A., Miners and Merchants 173–183, 348.Google Scholar

9 Méndez, M. Isidro, El Intendente Ramírez (Havana, 1944), 22, 25,Google Scholar identifies Lorenzana as Villaurrutia’s uncle. Other writers refer to the churchman as Jacobo’s pariente.

10 Under his own name Villaurrutia edited and published a translation of an English novel, Memorias de la historia de la virtud (Alcalá, 1792). Under the name lópez, Jaime Villa he wrote Pensamientos escogidos de las máximas filosóficas de Marco Aurelio y de Federico II de Prusia (Madrid, 1786);Google Scholar (ed.), Rudimentos de Latinidad de Manuel Maniere (Guatemala, 1801); (ed.), Instrucción sobre el misterio de la Eucaristía de Monseñor Martini Arzobispo de Florencia (Guatemala, 1801 ) ; As Diego Rulavit y Laur he translated another novel, La escuela de la felicidad (Madrid, 1786). In the mid-1870’s, Villaurrutia apparently began a history of the universities of Spanish America —see Eguiguren, Luís Antonio, Diccionario Histórico Cronológico, (Lima, 1940–51), 3, 183;Google Scholar I am indebted to Dr. M. A. Burkholder for this citation.

11 Méndez, El intendente, 82.

12 AHN, Consejos, legajo 13592, expediente 17, Joaquín Zengotita y Bengoa to Juan Ignacio Ayesturan, Alcalá, September 25, 1817 (Zengotita was the first royally-appointed corregidor after the Crown took over the jurisdiction in 1814). For Señorío eclesiástico see de Moxó, Salvador, La disolución del régimen señorial en España (Madrid, 1965).Google Scholar

13 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 648, Villaurrutia to Rojas, n.d., marked “recivdo en 11 Fro 802.”

14 Méndez, , El Intendente, 26–28.Google Scholar

15 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 503, Title of Appointment, Madrid, July 28, 1792.

16 For the economic society and other material on Villaurrutia in Guatemala see Alcaide’s, Elisa Luque valuable La Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País en Guatemala (Sevilla, 1962).Google Scholar For further information on Villaurrutia in Guatemala see Lanning, John Tate, The Eighteenth-Century Enlightenment in the University of San Carlos de Guatemala (Ithaca, 1956)Google Scholar and Bumgartner, Louis E., José del Valle of Central America (Durham, 1963).Google Scholar See also the older standards such as Salazar, Ramón A., Historia de veintiun años (Guatemala, 1928)Google Scholar and Historia del desenvolvimiento intelectual de Guatemala, Vol. I, La Colonia (Guatemala, 1897); Beteta, Virgilio Rodríguez, Evolución de las ideas (Paris, 1929);Google Scholar Jáuregui, Antonio Batres, La América Central ante la historia 2 vols., (Guatemala, 1916-20);Google Scholar and Antonio, Villacorta C, Historia de la Capitanía General de Guatemala (Guatemala, 1942).Google Scholar

17 Samayoa Guevara, Héctor Humberto, Los Gremios de Artesanos en la ciudad de Guatemala (1542–1821) (Guatemala, 1962), 61–62.Google Scholar

18 The dates of Villaurrutia’s petitions for vacancies are recorded in longhand on the margin of a copy of his Relación de Méritos filed in AGI, Mexico, legajo 1642.

19 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 648, Villaurrutia to Rojas, n.d., marked “recivdo en 11 F ro 802.”

20 Speaking of one of his daughters in ibid., Villaurrutia noted that she “empieza a criar gueguecho, qe es una deformidd orrorosa, mui jeneral y sin remidió, qe se padece aqui, y son unos enormes promontorios q e salen en la garganta, mui varios en la figura, y qe no permiten mui larga vida.”

21 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 648, Rojas to the King, Madrid, May 13, 1802. Salaries of the Guatemalan audiencia at this time were 3,300 pesos annually while the Mexican judges made 4,500.

22 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480B, Villaurrutia to President Antonio González, Guatemala, September 22, 1801.

23 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480B, González to José Antonio Cavallero, Guatemala, November 2, 1801.

24 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 479, Villaurrutia to President José Domas y Valle, Guatemala, Aprii 23, 1798.

25 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 514, Ambrosio Cerdán y Pontero to Miguel Cayetano Soler, Guatemala, April 22,1802, No. 99.

26 For the Diario de México see Wold, Ruth, El Diario de México, primer cotidiano de Nueva España (Madrid, 1970).Google Scholar

27 Alejandro Ramírez was an important figure in his own right, and later became Jacobo’s son in-law. See Méndez, El Intendente.

28 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 515, Cerdán to Cayetano Soler, Guatemala, November 2, 1802, No. 117.

29 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 649, Domas to Villaurrutia, Guatemala, February 20,1798.

30 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 649, Villaurrutia to Domas, Guatemala, March 25,1799.

31 Ibid.

32 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480A, Royal Order to the Viceroy of New Spain, San Lorenzo, November 18,1797.

33 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480A, Royal Order to the Captain-General of Guatemala, Aranjuez, April 20,1799.

34 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480A, Testimonio No. 1, April 28, 1800. The next three paragraphs are taken from this document. This material was used by the writer in “A Foreign Trade Project in Guatemala, 1799–1800, and its Significance,” Unpublished MA Thesis, University of Oregon, 1967.

35 For the attitude of most Guatemalan merchants on the question of free trade, see Woodward, Ralph Lee Jr., Class Privilege and Economic Development: The Consulado de Comercio of Guatemala, 1793–1811 (Chapel Hill, 1966).Google Scholar Woodward also has valuable information on current economic thought in the colony.

36 Salazar, , in Veintiun Años, 75 Google Scholar, indicates that Domas was quite old and in poor health. The President began service as a naval cadet in 1733.

37 Woodward, , Class Privilege, 106–107.Google Scholar

38 For examples see the Gazeta de Guatemala, March 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, April 6, 13, 20, 27, May 2,18,25, June 1,8,18, July 6, and 13,1801.

39 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480A, Villaurrutia to Domas, Guatemala, January 4,1800.

40 Alcaide, Luque, Sociedad Económica, 28–29,Google Scholar saw this report in AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480A, dated November 3, 1799.

41 Sergio, Villalobos R., “El comercio extranjero a fines de la dominación española, “Journal of Inter-American Studies, 4, (October, 1964), 526–527,Google Scholar indicates that a Yankee merchant ship consigned to Irisarri of Guatemala called at Valparaiso, Chile in 1801 attempting commerce but was turned away.

42 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480A, Testimonio No. 2, April 28,1800.

43 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 515, Villaurrutia to Cayetano Soler, Guatemala, March 18, 1800.

44 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 514, Villaurrutia to Muy Poderoso Señor, Guatemala, June 23, 1800.

45 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480A, González to the Minister of Grace and Justice, Guatemala, October 3, 1801, Reservada No. 5. González said, ”… pensaron y aun dieron pasos los Ministros Regente, Collado, y Campo para quitarle al mando al Presidente Domas …” Luque Alcaide also mentions this; Sociedad Económica, 34.

46 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480A, González to the Minister of Grace and Justice, Guatemala, October 3,1801, Reservada No. 5.

47 See Woodward, , Class Privilege, 106.Google Scholar

48 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 514, Cerdán to Cayetano Soler, Guatemala, April 22, 1802, No. 99.

49 AGS, Dirección General del Tesoro, inventario 13, legajo 9, document 40, Aranjuez, March 5, 1803.

50 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480B, González to José Antonio Caballero, Guatemala, November 2, 1801, No. 13.

51 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 493, Gonzalez to the King, Guatemala, February 3, 1804, No. 35.

52 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 617, Unsigned opinion of a fiscal of the Council of the Indies paraphrasing a letter from Collado and Camacho dated August 3, 1803.

53 The issue of the executive’s control over the assignment of commissions and the influence this gave him over the audiencia was a recurring complaint. Juan Jabat criticized this practice after his fact-finding trip to New Spain in 1808-1809. See AHN, Estado, legajo 58, expediente E, document 101, “Advertencias útiles para la conservación tranquila y permanente, del Reyno de Nueva España con la debida sumisión y Obediencia a sus Legítimos Soberanos,” Sevilla, January 16,1809.

54 AGS, Dirección General del Tesoro, inventario 2, legajo 88, document 58, Aranjuez.

55 For a full account of the events in Mexico during the summer and fall of 1808 see Ferrari, Enrique Lafuente, El Virey Iturrigaray y los orígines de la independencia de Méjico (Madrid, 1941).Google Scholar

56 Alamán, Lucas, Historia de Méjico (Mexico, 1849-1852), 1, 344.Google Scholar For an example of detrimental reports about Villaurrutia which were sent to Spain, see AGI, Mexico, legajo 1321, Francisco Antonio Blanco Bernardo de Quirós to Marqués de Campo Sagrado, Mexico, July 8,1809.

57 AGI, Mexico, legajo 1484, Viceroy Félix Calleja to the Minister of Grace and Jus-tice, Mexico, January 24,1814.

58 Diccionario Universal, III, 912; AHN, Consejos, legajo 18514, “Pretendientes a la Plaza de Regente de la RI Audiencia de Cataluña …,” n.d. (about 1819), and legajo 18516, “Estado de la Audiencia de Cataluña, con arreglo a la ley de 9 de Agosto de 1812 …,” n.d. (1820–1821) prove that Villaurrutia was still suffering discrimination. In 1819 he was the senior oidor in Barcelona; after the return of the Constitution of 1812 the audiencias of the peninsula were re-structured and he appears in the second or subdecano position.

59 de Bustamante, Carlos María, in Diario Histórico de México (Zacatecas, 1896), 1, 392–393 (May 7, 1823),Google Scholar and 413 (May 28, 1823) records the return to Mexico of his old friend and associate Villaurrutia.

60 Diccionario Universal, III, 912; Breve Idea de los Méritos del Ciudadano Jacobo de Villa Urrutia (Méjico, June 7, 1827).

61 Lanning, John Tate, in his seminal essay “The Reception of the Enlightenment in Latin America,” Whitaker, Arthur P. (ed.), Latin America and the Enlightenment, 2nd ed. (Ithaca, 1961), 71–93,Google Scholar notes that Cerdán joined in the fashionable denunciation of the worship of Aristotle by Scholasticists (p. 78); for a more complete account of Cerdán’s activity in Lima see AGI, Lima, legajo 892, “Representa a V. M. Sumisamte con documentos, sus Servicios en los destinos qe atenido en America,” Lima, June 10, 1782 (document made available to the writer by Dr. M. A. Burkholder).

62 AGS, Dirección General del Tesoro, inventario 2, legajo 76, document 121, San Ildefonso, August 17, 1792; Urbina, Luís G., Ureña, Pedro Henríquez, and Rangel, Nicolás (eds.), Antología del Centenario (Mexico, 1910),Google Scholar Part 1, II, 1006, identifies Campo y Rivas as a costariqueño.

63 AGI, Guatemala, legajo 480A, González to the Minister of Grace and Justice, Guatemala, October 3,1801, Reservada No. 5.

64 Diccionario Universal, III, 900. However, the Crown’s complex motivation can be seen in the eventual appointment of a salaried European-born asesor as Cerdán had wanted: see AGS, Dirección General del Tesoro, inventario 2, legajo 89, document 208, Aranjuez, May 1, 1805 (appointment of Joaquín Ibáñez Ramos as asesor to the Captain-General of Guatemala).