Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo
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Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo (Spanish, with variant name: Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco de Padilla y Horcasitas, segundo conde de Revillagigedo) (1740, Havana—May 2, 1799, Madrid) was a Spanish military officer and viceroy of New Spain from October 17, 1789 to July 11, 1794). He is known as a great reformer and one of the finest administrators of the Spanish colonial era — perhaps the last able viceroy of New Spain.
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[edit] Youth and military career
From a young age, Güemes Padilla Horcasitas served in the army, and distinguished himself fighting the British in the siege of Gibraltar. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was a knight of the military Order of Charles III, baron of Benilova y Rivarroja and lord of the bedchamber to his majesty.
[edit] First days as viceroy
He arrived at Veracruz on October 8, 1789 and took up the offices of viceroy, captain general and president of the Audiencia on the seventeenth. He became the third Criollo viceroy. His father, Juan Francisco de Güemes y Horcasitas, 1st Count of Revillagigedo was captain general of the island of Cuba, where the son was born, and later viceroy of New Spain (1746-55). The son was said to sleep only three to four hours a night, arising at 1 a.m. to begin a day's work.
Within a week of Güemes Padilla taking office, a gang of outlaws murdered Joaquín Dongo, a merchant and principal citizen of the capital, and ten of his employees. Güemes Padilla took only 13 days to have the gang located, tried and executed for the murders. Blanco, Aldama and Quintero, all Spaniards, were garroted for the murders on November 7, on a scaffold in the Plaza de Mexico. For this, he was often called the Vindicator of Justice.
Two other prominent murders occurred during his term. The first was that of the prefect of the monastery of Merced, killed by a priest of his order September 23, 1790. The other was the murder on June 25, 1792 of Lucas de Gálvez, governor and captain general of Yucatán.
[edit] The challenges of his administration
He found the capital run down and dirty — the streets, the markets, the promenades. Most of the people appeared in public wearing nothing but thin robes and battered straw hats. Houses were badly made and badly cared for. Public education had deteriorated. There were no free primary schools and other public schools were deficient. Most streets had not been maintained, and were fit for travel only by foot or by mule. The state of the army was shocking.
[edit] His reforms
He immediately ordered the cleaning of the viceroy's palace, banishing the food-sellers' stalls. He prohibited the population from throwing trash in the streets. He removed stray animals from the streets. He ordered that no building be constructed without a license from the authorities. He continued the cobblestone paving of the streets outside of the city center.
He did much to lessen the bribery and corruption among government employees. He implemented a new administrative system of intendancies in the government (begun by a previous viceroy, Alonso Núñez de Haro y Peralta). He reorganized the courts and founded schools for Indigenous in various cities. He hired competent teachers for the Academy of San Carlos, and founded a chair in mathematics. He also set up a chair in anatomy at the General Hospital of the Natives.
He ordered plans be created for the principal cities, stimulated the establishment of factories, and continued the work on the drainage system of Mexico City. He stimulated the cultivation of plants for textiles — cotton, hemp, flax and mulberry — and regulated the cutting of wood.
Güemes Padilla cleaned up Mexico City and continued to install street lights there and in various other cities. All of the principal streets of Mexico City were lighted by the end of his term. He intensified the construction of highways to Veracruz, Acapulco, Guadalajara, San Blas and Toluca and established biweekly mail service to the capitals of the intendencies. He promoted the construction of needed public buildings and aqueducts. He instituted night patrols and fire brigades. He also established the general archives of the colony, bring together old and important documents. He ordered that cemeteries be outside the city. He had new ships built for the protection of the coasts.
As a reaction to the French Revolution, he prohibited the importation of books and periodicals expressing the new ideas. Spain's war with France was very expensive, and Güemes Padilla sent three million pesos to the mother country, in addition to the usual remittances.
He initiated excavations in the Plaza de Armas in Mexico City, during which the Aztec calendar stone was discovered (1790). (This was part of a project to level the streets.) In 1792 he founded the Royal College of Mining. He aided the botanical investigations of Martín Sessé y Lacasta, which were to result in the Flora mexicana (1894). He ordered that a census be taken of the colony. There were 4,484,000 inhabitants.
On November 14, 1789, for the first time on record the Aurora Borealis was seen in Mexico City. This caused much consternation; people believed that the heavens were on fire, and the end of the world was approaching.
On December 27, 1789 the new king, Charles IV was proclaimed in Mexico. The famous Mexican engraver and medalist Jerónimo Antonio Gil cast a series of medals for the event.
On February 21, 1794, Antonio López de Santa Anna, many-time president of the Republic of Mexico, was born in Jalapa, Veracruz.
[edit] Explorations
In accordance with instructions from the king, he sent Captain Alejandro Malaspina to California in the frigates Descubierta and Atrevida in order to secure the Spanish possessions there from the British.
In 1791 Güemes Padilla sent an exploration fleet under the command of Francisco de Eliza to the Pacific Northwest. In June 1792 Güemes Padilla sent out an expedition that carried the Spanish territorial claims north of the California coast. This was under the command of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano. The expedition sailed from San Blas in the Mexicana and the Sutil.
Because of his sponsorship of exploration, several places in North America bear his name, such as San Juan Island, Orcas Island, and Guemes Island, among others. When he took the office of viceroy in 1789, the Spanish claims in North America had reached their widest extent. Although he sponsored exploration, he did not see the Pacific Northwest as being worth what it would cost to maintain possession of it and he resisted his predecessor's efforts to build up the army there.
[edit] End of his administration
In 1794 complaints from the Ayuntamiento (city government) led to a juicio de residencia against the viceroy before the Council of the Indies. (He had made enemies by his fight against corruption.) The viceroy was ordered to return to Spain to mount a defense against the various charges. He was absolved and the councilmen were ordered to pay costs.
Despite his good work and popularity with the people he ruled, Güemes Padilla lasted only five years in office. Although King Charles IV was the nominal ruler of Spain, his queen, Maria Louisa of Parma, and her lover, Manuel de Godoy, held most of the power. Godoy wasn't in agreement with Güemes Padilla's reforms and lack of territorial ambitions in the Pacific Northwest. Godoy replaced him as soon as he could.
[edit] Death and legacy
Revillagigedo Island, in the Alexander Archipelago of southeast Alaska was named for him, as were the San Juan Islands in what is now the United States state of Washington and the Revillagigedo Islands, southwest of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. There is also a Revilla-Gigedo Palace in Gijón, Spain.He has a great great grand son named Saul Aguayo
He died on May 2, 1799 (some sources say May 12) in Madrid. He was greatly mourned in New Spain. In his honor, Charles IV made his descendants grandees of Spain.
[edit] References
- (Spanish) "Güemes Pacheco de Padilla, Juan Vicente de," Enciclopedia de México, v. 6. Mexico City: 1987.
- (Spanish) García Puron, Manuel, México y sus gobernantes, v. 1. Mexico City: Joaquín Porrua, 1984.
- (Spanish) Orozco L., Fernando, Fechas Históricas de México. Mexico City: Panorama Editorial, 1988, ISBN 968-38-0046-7.
- (Spanish) Orozco Linares, Fernando, Gobernantes de México. Mexico City: Panorama Editorial, 1985, ISBN 968-38-0260-5.
| Preceded by Manuel Antonio Flores | Image:NewSpainFlag.jpg Viceroy of New Spain 1789 - 1794 | Succeeded by Miguel de la Grúa Talamanca y Branciforte, marqués de Branciforte |
fr:Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo nl:Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco y Padilla, graaf van Revilla Gigedo no:Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco y Padilla
