Paz, José María (1791–1854)

José María Paz (b. 9 September 1791; d. 22 October 1854), Argentine general and unitarist. Born in Córdoba, Paz abandoned law studies to join the army during the War of Independence. He served in the Army of the North and lost an arm at the battle of Venta y Media. In January 1820, with Juan Bautista Bustos, caudillo of Córdoba, Paz revolted against Buenos Aires. He subsequently declared himself a unitarist and fought to establish a league of provinces under a central government. He was one of a number of military leaders who returned from the war against Brazil (1825–1828) determined to oppose the rise of Federalism. This brought him into conflict with Juan Manuel de Rosas and his allies. Victories over Bustos and Juan Facundo Quiroga in 1829–1830 enabled him to make Córdoba the center of the Liga del Interior with a centralized structure in opposition to federalist Buenos Aires.

For the next two decades Paz combined military and political action. In 1831 he was taken prisoner by Estanislao López, who saved him from the execution ordered by Rosas. As his league collapsed in the interior, he moved his base to Corrientes. But he was frustrated by the political rivalries in the Littoral and the rise of the federalist Justo José de Urquiza. In 1846 he resigned his military command and retired to Brazil. There he remained until 1852, when he returned to Buenos Aires after the defeat of Rosas, in time to take part in the defense of the city against the excesses of its liberator Urquiza. He was briefly minister of war, and in 1854 was elected to the legislature.

Paz was a humane and educated man, regarded by Domingo Sarmiento as a model general and a representative of "civilization" against the barbarism of the caudillos. His Memorias are rich in detail and perception, and a prime source for the history of the period.

See alsoArgentina: The Nineteenth Century; López, Estanislao; Rosas, Juan Manuel de.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

José María Paz, Memorias póstumas, 2d ed., 3 vols. (1892).

Aurora Rosa Caminos De Artola, La acción del general Paz en el interior 1829–1831 (1962).

Tulio Halperín Donghi, Politics, Economics, and Society in Argentina in the Revolutionary Period (1975).

Additional Bibliography

Raed, José. Plan para secuestar al gobernador Juan M. de Rosas: Artigas y Paz exiliados. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Humus, 1996.

Ruiz Moreno, Isidoro J. Alianza contra Rosas: Paz-Ferré-Rivera-López. Buenos Aires: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1999.

                                          John Lynch