José Ignacio Flores de Vergara y Ximénez de Cárdenas, the "Pacificator of Peru," (b. Latacunga, Ecuador, 1733; d. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1786), second-born son of don Antonio Flores, the 1st Marquis of Miraflores, was the first governor of the
province of Moxos from 1772 to 1781 and the 20th president of the
Royal Court of Charcas
The Real Audiencia of Charcas ( es, Audiencia y Cancillería Real de La Plata de los Charcas) was a Spanish '' audiencia'' with its seat in what is today Bolivia. It was established in 1559 in Ciudad de la Plata de Nuevo Toledo (later Charcas, to ...
from 1781 to 1785.
A refined and cultured man, he embodied the best human qualities of optimism, generosity and idealism of the
Spanish American enlightenment in the late 18th century. He taught the
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
and
mathematics at the
Royal Seminary of Nobles of Madrid. Upon his return to America, as a colonel in the Royal Army, he set about the arduous tasks of keeping the
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
from gaining control of the banks of the Madera,
Mamoré and
Itenez waterways in the upper
Amazon Basin and of pacifying the rebellious Aymara Indians led by
Tupac Katari, who in 1781, in present-day
Bolivia, had laid siege to the city of
La Paz for several months as part of a failed
Andean
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S l ...
rebellion against
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
domination. This
Criollo
Criollo or criolla (Spanish for creole) may refer to:
People
* Criollo people, a social class in the Spanish race-based colonial caste system (the European descendants)
Animals
* Criollo duck, a species of duck native to Central and South Ameri ...
from Quito who was a fluent
Aymara
Aymara may refer to:
Languages and people
* Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language
** Aymara language, the main language within that family
** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...
-speaker (he also spoke
Quechua
Quechua may refer to:
*Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru
*Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language
**So ...
) was able to break the siege imposed on La Paz and to save the lives of its residents, only to face "one of the most profoundly unjust deaths recorded in the annals of Spanish American history." He was summarily removed from office, replaced with a heavy dose of
nepotism by the Minister of the Indies
José de Gálvez's nephew, and charged with "false pacification" for having displayed a minimum of decency and
sympathy
Sympathy is the perception of, understanding of, and reaction to the distress or need of another life form. According to David Hume, this sympathetic concern is driven by a switch in viewpoint from a personal perspective to the perspective of an ...
with the rebel leaders. He died in a loathsome dungeon, in mysterious circumstances, while placed under arrest by the viceroy of Buenos Aires; he supposedly left an unsigned and apocryphal last will and testament, clearly falsified as part of an official cover-up about his death. During the many decades of
struggle for independence from Spain in the 19th century, Flores became a symbol for a series of injustices perpetrated by European-born Spaniards against the Criollo upper class in the Spanish Americas.
[Luis Paz, ''Historia general del Alto Perú'', vol. 1, p. 470-71 (1919)]
Notes
References
*Antonio de Alcedo, ''The geographical and historical dictionary of America and the West Indies'', vol. 1, p. 366 (trans. by G. A. Thomps 1812)
*Rodolfo Pérez Pimentel, "Flores de Vergara y Jiménez, Ignacio", ''Diccionario Biográfico del Ecuador'', vol. 3 (1987)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flores, Ignacio
1733 births
1786 deaths
18th century in Bolivia