O'Donojú, Juan (1762–1821)

Juan O'Donojú (b. 1762; d. 8 October 1821), Spanish army officer and politician. Born in Seville, O'Donojú became a liberal Mason, serving as minister of war during the first constitutional period (1801–1814). Unique among Spanish liberals, O'Donojú supported Spanish Americans in their quest for home rule. When the constitution was restored in 1820, leading Mexican liberals such as Miguel Ramos Arizpe arranged to have him appointed Jefe Político Superior, the office that replaced the viceroy in the new system.

When he arrived in Veracruz in July 1821, O'Donojú discovered that most of the country was in the hands of the insurgents. As a liberal, he attempted to ensure that constitutional rule was firmly implanted in Mexico; as a Spaniard, he sought to retain whatever ties were possible with the mother country. Therefore, on 24 August 1821 he signed the Treaty of Córdoba, which recognized Mexican independence. He became a member of the new regency and entered Mexico City peacefully in September. Unfortunately for his new land, he died of pleurisy shortly thereafter.

Besides assuring Mexican independence, O'Donojú was also responsible for consolidating and expanding Masonry in Mexico.

See alsoMasonic Orders .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jaime Delgado, España y México en el siglo xix, vol. 1 (1950), pp. 25-79.

William Spence Robertson, Iturbide of Mexico (1952), esp. pp. 105-129.

Jaime E. Rodríguez O., The Emergence of Spanish America: Vicente Rocafuerte and Spanish Americanism, 1808–1832 (1975), esp. pp. 38-42.

Additional Bibliography

Rodríguez O., Jaime, editor. Mexico in the Age of Democratic Revolutions, 1750–1850. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1994.

                             Jaime E. RodrÍguez O.