Valentin de Foronda y González de Echávarri (14 January 1751, in Vitoria – 24 December 1821), was Spanish general consul in Philadelphia from 1801 to 1807 and Spanish plenipotentiary minister in the U.S. from 1807 to 1809—tense times because of American ships' lack of discipline in trading with Cuba and the U.S.'s support for

Francisco de Miranda Sebastián Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez de Espinoza (28 March 1750 – 14 July 1816), commonly known as Francisco de Miranda (), was a Venezuelan military leader and revolutionary. Although his own plans for the independence of the Spani ...

, who led an attempted revolution for Venezuelan independence from Spain. He returned to Spain upon the arrival of Luis Onís, who replaced him, and who was nominated by the "Junta Patriótica" opposed to the invasion of Spain by

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

. He taught at the Basque Institutional School, known as Seminario de Vergara, was promoted to Knight of the Military Order of Santiago in 1793, a Knight of the

Order of Carlos III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III ( es, Real y Distinguida Orden Española de Carlos III, originally es, Real y Muy Distinguida Orden de Carlos III) was establ ...

in 1801 and was later a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1802. In November 1799, De Foronda wrote a letter to the then Spanish Secretary of State Mariano Luis de Urquijo, another Basque, concerning the financial crushing of the "Banco de San Carlos", a precursor to the present-day Bank of Spain, where he had invested the proceeds of the sale of his land and farms. Its reception probably resulted in his diplomatic nomination to the Spanish consulate in Philadelphia. His "Observaciones sobre algunos puntos de la Obra de Don Quijote", Philadelphia (1807), motivated his inclusion on the shortlist of people phobic against seventeenth-century Spanish writer

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best kno ...

(September 29, 1547 – April 23, 1616).

References

Article by R. Sidney Smith from Duke University, (US), 40 pages in pdf format, ''Valentin de Foronda, Diplomático y Economista'': http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:rMDAS0npvvEJ:www.cepc.es/rap/Publicaciones/Revistas/11/RECP_023_005.pdf+%22Correo+de+Europa%22+Foronda&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=es {{DEFAULTSORT:Foronda, Valentin de 1751 births 1821 deaths Spanish male writers Spanish economists