Gorriti, Juan Ignacio de (1766–1842)

Juan Ignacio de Gorriti (b. June 1766; d. 25 May 1842), Argentine priest and independence leader. Born in Los Horcones, Gorriti's early education in Latin and philosophy was directed by the Franciscans in Jujuy. From 1781 to 1789 he studied theology and literature at the Colegio Nusetra Señora de Monserrat in Córdoba, and he obtained a doctorate in sacred theology from the University in Charcas in 1791. He briefly worked as a parish priest in Cochinoca and Casabindo, small villages in the altiplano of Jujuy, earning distinction for his sermons. He participated in Argentina's independence movement, arguing that the authority of the viceroys and other Spanish officials had expired when the French deposed the legitimate king of Spain. In September 1810, he was named representative of Jujuy to the revolutionary Junta de Buenos Aires. He remained in politics as Salta's representative to the Congress in 1824 but was exiled to Bolivia by political enemies in 1831. There he wrote "Reflexiones sobre las causas morales de las convul-siones interiores de los nuevos estadoes americanos y examen de los medios eficaces para remediarlas" (Valparaíso, 1836), an early attempt to solve the problems facing the newly formed nations of South America. Gorriti died in Sucre, Bolivia.

See alsoFranciscans; Jujuy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Emilio A. Bidondo and Susan M. Ramírez, Juan Ignacio de Gorriti: Sacerdote y patricio (Buenos Aires, 1987).

Juan Ignacio De Gorriti, Papeles (Jujuy, 1936).

Abel Cháneton, Historia de Vélez Sarsfield (Buenos Aires, 1969).

Additional Bibliography

Calvo, Nancy, Roberto Di Stefano, Klaus Gallo, and Natalio R. Botana. Los curas de la revolución: Vidas de eclesiásticos en los orígenes de la Nación. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2002.

                                 J. David Dressing