Moziño, José Mariano (1757–1820)

José Mariano Moziño (b. 24 September 1757; d. 19 May 1820), natural scientist, theologian, and author. Moziño, born in Temascaltepec, Mexico, to Spanish parents, received a bachelor of philosophy degree from the Seminario Tridentino in 1776 and was awarded an academic degree in scholastic theology and ethics in 1778. Turning his attention to other fields, Moziño earned his bachelor of medicine from the Royal and Pontifical University in 1787 and completed the course in botany at the Royal Botanical Garden in Mexico City in 1789. In 1792 he joined the expedition of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra to the Pacific Northwest, where he wrote a description of the Nootka Sound area of Vancouver Island that included a detailed history of the native peoples. Upon returning to Mexico in 1793, Moziño conducted field trips throughout southern Mexico and Guatemala before traveling to Spain in 1803. He served as president of Spain's Royal Academy of Medicine and director of the Royal Museum of Natural History. Caught up in the problems of the French invasion, Moziño was exiled to France in 1812. He received permission to return to Madrid in 1817, but he died en route in Barcelona. Moziño was a dedicated scientist who, under different circumstances, could have brought international recognition to Spain and Mexico in the fields of botany and ethnography.

See alsoBodega y Quadra, Juan Francisco de la .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Iris H. W. Engstrand, Spanish Scientists in the New World: The Eighteenth-Century Expeditions (1981).

Rogers McVaugh, Botanical Results of the Sessé and Mociño Expedition, 1787–1803 (1977).

José Mariano Moziño, Noticias de Nutka: An Account of Nootka Sound in 1792, translated and edited by Iris H. W. Engstrand (1970, 1991).

Additional Bibliography

Aceves Pastrana, Patricia. Química, botánica, y farmacia en la Nueva España a finales del siglo XVIII. México, D.F.: Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Xochilmico, 1993.

Lozoya, Xavier. Plantas y luces en México: La real expedición científica a Nueva España (1787–1803). Barcelona: Ediciones del Serbal, 1984.

                                   Iris H. W. Engstrand