Zavala, José Víctor (1815–1886)

José Víctor Zavala (b. 1815; d. 1886), Guatemalan military leader. As a young corregidor, Zavala provided aid that was crucial to José Rafael Carrera's 1848 return to power. By 1854 Zavala was a core member of Carrera's new government, which also included Zavala in-laws José Najera, Manuel Francisco Pavón Ayciena, and Luís Batres Juarros.

Zavala continued his military climb with the successful 1854 siege of Omoa and with the command of Guatemalan troops during the National War (1856–1857) against William Walker. Zavala returned to Guatemala as a national hero and proven Carrera ally. His general popularity as a moderate progressive led to public outrage over his loss in the 1869 presidential election. Zavala climaxed his career as commander in chief of the army of Liberal Justo Rufino Barrios, who attempted to unify Central America.

See alsoCorregidor; Walker, William.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Joaquín Zavala Urtecho, "Huellas de una familia vasco-Centroamericana en cinco siglos," in Revista de pensamiento conservador de Centroamerica 24, no. 1 (1970): 140-190.

Ralph Lee Woodward, Rafael Carrera and the Emergence of the Republic of Guatemala, 1821–1871 (1993).

Additional Bibliography

Clegern, Wayne M. Origins of Liberal Dictatorship in Central America: Guatemala, 1865–1873. Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1994.

Pompejano, Daniele. La crisis del antiguo régimen en Guatemala (1839–1871). Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 1997.

                                Edmond Konrad