CASTORENA Y URSÚA, JUAN IGNACIO DE

First Mexican journalist and bishop of Yucatán; b. Zacatecas, July 31, 1668; d. Mérida, Yucatán, July 13, 1733. He was a member of a noble, wealthy family, the son of Capt. Juan de Castorena Ursúa y Goyeneche and Teresa de Villarreal. He studied in Mexico City under the Jesuits and received a doctorate in law from the university and a doctorate in theology from the University of Ávila, Spain. For some time he lived in Madrid, where he was attached to the nunciature as a theologian. He was also an honorary chaplain and preacher at the court of Charles II. When he returned to Mexico, he received a royal appointment as canon of the cathedral of Mexico City. He served as censor of the Inquisition and as rector of the University of Mexico. In 1721 he founded a school for girls in Zacatecas, the Colegio de los Mil Angeles. He became bishop of Yucatán in 1729. Castorenay Ursæa is best known as the founder of Gaceta de México. Although news sheets had been published sporadically in Mexico since 1541 and gazettes since 1666, this was the first news periodical. It began on Jan. 1, 1720, and came out once a month. It contained religious, commercial, maritime, and social news and book reviews. On the occasion of the National Journalism Exposition in 1944, the Mexican government published a series of postage stamps honoring Castorenay Ursúa and a bio-bibliography on him.

Bibliography: m. ochoa campos, Juan Ignacio María de Castorena Ursúa y Goyeneche: Primer periodista mexicano (Mexico City 1944). a. agÜeros de la portilla, El periodismo en México durante la dominación española (Mexico City 1910). x. tavera alfaro, ed., El nacionalismo en la prensa mexicana del siglo XVIII (Mexico City 1963).

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