First Mayor of Mérida
On the occasion of the 466 years since the founding of the city of Méridait is necessary to specify the relationship of the founding of the city of Mérida, which I offer below.
The fundamental book to know the truth is that of Roberto Picón Parra entitled “Founders, first inhabitants and colonial families of Mérida”, in 4 volumes, edited by the National Academy of History, which contains his research on the file of the trial against the Captain Juan Rodríguez Suarez and other valuable documents. I had a certified copy of the Founder’s Evidence in the trial that followed him in Bogotá, which I donated to the Archdiocesan Archive of Mérida.
First.
October 9, 1558. Captain Juan Rodríguez Suarez founded the city of Mérida near the site where the city of San Juan de Lagunillas is currently located, which the conquistadors then called El Realejo or La Guazábara (which means brawl or confrontation). There, the founding ceremony is carried out in accordance with the established protocol, and the City Council is appointed, with its councilors, mayors and other main officials.
The Founder and the Cabildo send to Pamplona the documents or papers with the relationship of the foundation of the new city. Nothing is known about the founding document until now. Perhaps Captain Juan Rodríguez Suarez ordered it destroyed when he knew that a trial would be opened against him for founding the city without royal permission.
Second.
November 1, 1558. Twenty-two days later, Captain Juan Rodríguez Suarez moved the city a few leagues higher to La Punta on the Tatuy plateau, where the city of La Punta, La Parroquia or Santiago de la Punta is currently located. After the second move to its current location took place, the Spanish called it La Ranchería Vieja. In that place he outlines the city, defines the main square that is the current one, lays out the site of the church, the town hall, assigns Indians and distributes land among its people. He and his men cover almost the entire geography that years later will be the States of Mérida and Táchira: The moorland, the entire valley of the Chama, Mucujún, Mocotíes, Mucuchachí rivers, Alto Caparo, the mountains of the south and north, the southern plain. and they recognize the indigenous names of places, rivers and other geographical features, or sometimes they give them their own.
Third.
February 19, 1559. Juan de Maldonado imprisons the founder and some of his men in Mérida (La Punta) and sends them detained to Pamplona and Santa Fe de Bogotá, where he is sentenced to death for founding Mérida without authorization. He manages to escape and takes refuge in Trujillo. His adventures end near Caracas, arrowed by Guaicaipuro and his Indians.
Room.
May 5, 1559. The commander and lieutenant of justice Martín López, by order of Juan de Maldonado, moved the city of Mérida to the site it occupies today. Because it is the day of Saint John the Evangelist, he baptizes it with the name of Saint John of Las Nieves. He respects most of the orders and distributions made by Captain Juan Rodríguez Suarez and makes his own among his people. It also respected the urban plan, mandatory according to the norms established in the Capitulations and in the royal provisions, with blocks of 80 the apse towards the east, town hall, school, prison, cemetery and the homes from the center towards the periphery, from the Albarregas River ravine to the Chama River ravine.
Quinto.
July 25, 1559. Juan de Maldonado founded the city of Santiago de Los Caballeros in the land of the Cuica nation, a little below Timotes, on the left side of the Motatán River, in a small valley that he called El Valle de Las Quebradas de Diego García. This foundation generated a jurisdictional conflict with Diego García de Paredes, founder of the city of Trujillo, and abandoned the project.
Sixth.
October 17, 1559. Juan de Maldonado returns to the city of Mérida, until that day called San Juan de Las Nieves, because he named it Santiago de Los Caballeros, the city he had founded in Trujillo; However, the city founded by Captain Juan Rodríguez Suarez did not lose its original name, which it maintains to this day.
Seventh. The city of Mérida had a single foundation and three names: Mérida, San Juan de las Nieves and Santiago de los Caballeros. Mérida, created by Captain Juan Rodríguez Suarez, merges with the one established by Juan de Maldonado to form one: Santiago de los Caballeros de Mérida. In the end, the two irreconcilable enemies unite in the name of the city.
References:
Aguado, Fray Pedro de. 1906. History compilation; written in the 16th century. National Printing Office. Bogota.
File of the trial of Captain Juan Rodríguez Suarez. Consulted by the author of this short work.
Febres Cordero, Tulio. 1960. Decades of the History of Mérida. In Complete Works. Volume 1. Editorial Antares. Bogota.
Picón Parra, Roberto. 1988. Founders, first inhabitants and colonial families of Mérida. 4 volumes. National Academy of History.
*Fortunato González Cruz
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