![Viceroyalty Peru 1721 comuneros](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Viceroyalty_Peru_1721_comuneros.png)
Fernando de Mompox y Zayas ( 1730–1731) (alternatively spelled "de Mómpo y Zayas", without an x) was a leader in the
Revolt of the Comuneros of Paraguay. His presence in
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
in 1730–1731 was short but influential; despite being an outsider, he quickly became the most influential man in the region in only 6 months. He was a fiery orator who provided an ideological backing for the actions of the rebel comuneros that took over the province from 1731 to 1735.
Biography
Background
Mompox's origins are cloudy and poorly documented. According to some accounts, he was born in
colonial Panama
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 ...
; others that he was born in
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
(presumably the one in Europe, but perhaps possibly
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
,
New Kingdom of Granada
The New Kingdom of Granada ( es, Nuevo Reino de Granada), or Kingdom of the New Granada, was the name given to a group of 16th-century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Royal Audience of Santa ...
). He lived in New Granada for some time. He was educated and possibly a lawyer. For many years, he worked in
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...
, the capital of the
Viceroyalty of Peru
The Viceroyalty of Peru ( es, Virreinato del Perú, links=no) was a Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed from ...
, possibly as a lawyer at the
Real Audiencia of Lima The Real Audiencia and Chancery of Lima ( es, Audiencia y Cancillería Real de Lima, links=no) was a superior court in the New World empire of Spain, located in the city of Lima, capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru. It was created on November 20, 154 ...
. However, he acquired a reputation as a troublemaker and was imprisoned. During his imprisonment, he probably met
José de Antequera y Castro José de Antequera y Castro (Panama, 1689—Peru, July 5, 1731) was a Panamanian lawyer and judge in the Viceroyalty of Peru (then including Panama, Bolivia and Paraguay), and the leader of an insurrection in Paraguay against the viceroy and the ...
, who was put in prison in Lima in 1726/27. Antequera had appointed himself as Governor of Paraguay after a contentious legal case and incurred the wrath of Viceroy
Diego Morcillo Rubio de Auñón, leading to Antequera's sentence. Regardless of whether he met Antequera as a fellow prisoner, he eventually left prison in early 1730, whether from escape or exile. Mompox made his way first to Chile, and then to
Asunción
Asunción (, , , Guarani: Paraguay) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay.
The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of ...
in the
Governorate of Paraguay
The Governorate of Paraguay ( es, Gobernación del Paraguay), originally called the Governorate of Guayrá, was a governorate of the Spanish Empire and part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Its seat was the city of Asunción; its territory roughly e ...
, where he arrived in July 1730. In Paraguay, the most controversial issue of the day was the
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
and their
reductions
Reductions ( es, reducciones, also called ; , pl. ) were settlements created by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such redu ...
. The Jesuits controlled a large amount of land, had many
Indians under their protection, were economic competitors, and enjoyed the favor of the Spanish royal court. Most Paraguayans wished to check perceived Jesuit privileges, seize land and livestock in the reductions, and to take the Indians under Jesuit protection into the
encomienda
The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military ...
, a form of slavery.
A statesman of the people
In Paraguay, he immediately visited and befriended Fernando Curtido, one of Antequera's allies. Curtido, a cabildo (town council) member, introduced Mompox to Governor
Martín de Barúa Martín de Barúa (d. Buenos Aires, Governorate of the Río de la Plata, August 18, 1739) was a Spanish soldier and administrator in the Spanish Empire. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Santa Fe between 1714–1716 and 1717–1722, and ...
; Barúa was so impressed with him that Mompox became one of his advisors. There, he spread radical, proto-democratic ideas, previously largely unknown to the less educated inhabitants. Drawing on writers such as
Juan de Mariana
Juan de Mariana, , also known as Father Mariana (25 September 1536 – 17 February 1624), was a Spanish Jesuit priest, Scholastic, historian, and member of the Monarchomachs.
Life
Juan de Mariana was born in Talavera, Kingdom of Toledo. He stud ...
, he said that the government's authority rested on the assent of the , the community. Kings have power not directly from God, but from their work for the welfare of the community, and if they fail to uphold that, then defying them is legitimate. This meant that the Paraguayans had been within their rights to resist governors who had gone against their will during the disputes of the 1720s. Mompox presented all of this in simple words, meaning even illiterate people in the countryside were soon discussing Mompox's views. One of his charismatic quotes was that the power of the people was greater than even the King or the Pope.
In November 1730, Asunción received news that the new governor
Ignacio de Soroeta Ignacio de Soroeta was a Spanish administrator who was a corregidor in Cuzco and then briefly Governor of Paraguay in 1731. Soroeta's governorship is notable only in that it was in name only; he never ruled nor was accepted as governor within col ...
would soon arrive. Rumors spread that Soroeta was a friend of the hated Jesuits, unlike Barúa. Barúa and
Bishop Palos, while skeptical of the Jesuits, counseled for Asunción to accept the new governor, fearful of meeting Antequera's fate. Mompox rallied his followers, the comuneros, to oppose Soroeta. On December 28, a group of around 300 comuneros entered Asunción and demanded that the cabildo deny Soroeta entry to the city. The cabildo stalled for time and asked for the comuneros to leave, but were refused; Governor Barúa resigned in frustration. Mompox demanded and got new elections to the cabildo; with the comuneros in control of the city, only comunero-friendly cabildo members were re-elected, while new men replaced the others.
Unofficial leader of Paraguay
The new Mompox-aligned cabildo refused Soroeta entry into the city. Soroeta waited in a hermitage around a day's ride from the city at the advice of Bishop Palos to see if the situation would improve. Mompox implored Barúa to take back up the governorship, but Barúa said if he took the governorship, it would only be to hand it over to Soroeta immediately after. Barúa was placed under house arrest. Soroeta was approached by 200 men sent by the new cabildo and informed his services were not needed toward the end of January. Soroeta managed to arrange a brief tour of Asunción under the condition he leave within 4 days. Soroeta was kept under constant watch as a near-prisoner of the comuneros as he learned of the radical shift in mood among the Paraguayans. Convinced there was nothing to be done, Soroeta left Asunción on January 28. Two government-aligned councillors were promptly exiled from the city thereafter as well. Bishop Palos and Barúa both left, as well; Barúa convinced the comuneros there was no way to convince him to retake the governorship.
Under the law at the time, if there was no governor nor replacement governor, official leadership fell to the alcalde of the cabildo, the young and recently elected José Luis Barreyo. Mompox presumably considered Barreyo an ally and a person amenable to his influence. Despite his recent arrival, Mompox was considered the most influential leader in Paraguay. However, in early February 1731, Mompox sought to build a new, parallel government structure on democratic lines: the ''Junta Gobernativa'', whose members would be filled by election. This made Barreyo an enemy of his; Barreyo considered this new rival structure a threat and competitor for control, as well as making it ever more likely the royal government would take action against the restive province.
Barreyo quietly built a power-base inside the city, allowing back some of the moderates who had been exiled before back to the city. Meanwhile, Mompox moved in the countryside, spreading his message of the power of the people and building support for the more radical comuneros. In early April, Barreyo set out from the city with some guards loyal to him, and arranged to meet Mompox. To Mompox's surprise, Barreyo arrested his former ally and immediately sent him south, through the Jesuit missions in
Itatín
Itatín ( pt, Itatim) was a 17th century region, corresponding to the western half of the 21st century Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The indigenous people (''Indians'' or ''Indios'') inhabiting the region gave their name to Itatín. The It ...
and eventually to a jail cell in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
. Barreyo and his men returned to Asunción.
In mid-April 1731, the imprisoned Mompox was sent on a journey under guard to be tried at the capital of Lima, along with a document detailing Mompox's activities in the province. However, his journey was short; near
Mendoza, he managed to escape. Rather than attempt to return to Paraguay, he made his way to the nearby Portuguese Empire: first to
Colonia del Sacramento
, settlement_type = Capital city
, image_skyline = Basilica del Sanctísimo Sacramento.jpg
, imagesize =
, image_caption = Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento
, pushpin_map = Uruguay
, subdivisio ...
(then under Portuguese rule), and from there to
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. Here, his history again becomes murky, but according to a work of
Pedro Lozano
Father Pedro Lozano (1697–1752) was a Spanish ethnographer, historian and Jesuit Missionary.
Life
He was born in Madrid and arrived in the Americas at an early age, in 1714, bound for the Jesuit Reductions of Paraguay. He studied at the Univer ...
, he lived out the rest of his life quietly as a merchant in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
.
References
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17th-century births
18th-century deaths
18th-century Spanish lawyers
18th-century rebels
Viceroyalty of Peru people