Liendo y Goicoechea, José Antonio (1735–1814)

José Antonio Liendo y Goicoechea (b. 3 May 1735; d. 2 July 1814), Central American educator and scientist, founding member of the Economic Society of Guatemala. Born to a creole family in present-day Cartago, Costa Rica, Goicoechea was instrumental in introducing the Enlightenment to late colonial Central America. He entered the Franciscan order in his native Costa Rica, and it was during his studies to enter the order that he was first exposed to scientific training. In 1767 he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of San Carlos. He moved to Guatemala sometime during the late 1760s, and in 1769 he published a paper on experimental physics. In the 1780s Goicoechea visited Spain, where he was exposed to the "new learning" so popular at the time. He examined the libraries, botanical gardens, and natural history exhibits of Spain, an experience that provided him with the basis for his later work in Guatemala. He returned to Guatemala in 1788.

Along with other "enlightened" figures, on 20 November 1794 Goicoechea signed a petition to the crown calling for the establishment of an economic society modeled on those existing in Europe. He and his associates hoped that the society could help to enliven Guatemala's moribund economy, so backward in comparison with what Goicoechea had seen in Spain. But economic revival threatened many entrenched interests, and the crown ordered the suppression of the society in 1800, ostensibly because Goicoechea and another member, Antonio Muró, argued that Indians should be allowed to wear European-style clothing.

Goicoechea taught a generation of Guatemalans destined to lead the former Spanish colony as an independent nation. In addition to his article on Indian clothing, he wrote articles on indigo cultivation, the Indians of Comayagua, and poverty in the capital city. He died in Santiago de Guatemala.

See alsoGuatemala, Economic Society of .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John Tate Lanning, The Eighteenth-Century Enlightenment in the University of San Carlos de Guatemala (1956).

Elisa Luque-Alcalde, La Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País de Guatemala (1962).

Robert Jones Shafer, The Economic Societies in the Spanish World, 1763–1821 (1958).

Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Class, Privilege, and Economic Development: The Consulado de Comercio of Guatemala, 1793–1871 (1966).

Additional Bibliography

Raventós de Marín, Nury. "Dr. Fray José Antonio Liendo y Goicoechea, hombre de la ilustración." Revista de la Universidad de Costa Rica 31 (September 1971): 71-90.

                                      Michael Powelson