Don Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

José de Guzmán y Meléndez, 1st Viscount of San Rafael de la Angostura, 1st Baron of San Miguel de la Atalaya (c. 1740 in

Hincha Hinche (; ht, Ench; es, Hincha) is a List of communes of Haiti, commune in the Centre (department), Centre Departments of Haiti, department Haiti. It has a population of about 50,000. It is the capital of the Centre department. Hinche is the ...

– 1792, in San Miguel de la Atalaya), was a Dominican cattle rancher, colonizer, and a peer of the

Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in East (disambiguation)#Geography, the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and ...

. Guzmán was born in Hincha, in the Spanish colony of

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

, into a rich and powerful

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 ...

family; he was the son of José de Guzmán, who was mayor of Hincha in the 1730s, and María Meléndez. He married Gregoria de Luna y Andújar (daughter of Blas de Luna y Guzmán and Gregoria de Andújar y Valera), but had no children. Guzmán was designated mayor of Hincha in 1765; he later founded within the lands of his family the village of San Miguel de la Atalaya in 1768, near the border with the French colony of

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...

. On 8 October 1778, King

Charles III of Spain it, Carlo Sebastiano di Borbone e Farnese , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Philip V of Spain , mother = Elisabeth Farnese , birth_date = 20 January 1716 , birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain , death_d ...

created Guzmán ''Baron of San Miguel de la Atalaya''. In the 1780s, Guzmán made efforts to populate the Valley of Guaba with Canarian settlers and the Spanish Crown bestowed upon him the title of ''Viscount of San Rafael de la Angostura''. Within the military, he had the rank of

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

. He died childless in 1792 in San Miguel de la Atalaya, his nephew José de Guzmán, 2nd Viscount of San Rafael de la Angostura, succeeded him; shortly later, after the Haitian occupation , the 2nd Viscount moved to

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guzman, Jose, 1st Viscount of San Rafael de la Angostura 1740s births 1792 deaths Dominican Republic people of Spanish descent Barons of Spain Nobility of the Americas Viscounts of Spain Spanish colonels Mayors of Hinche White Dominicans