GUZMÁN Y LECAROS, JOSEPH JAVIER

Franciscan priest and first historian of Chilean independence; b. Santiago, 1759; d. there, 1840. While still very young he entered the Franciscan convent and was distinguished for his culture and intelligence. After his ordination in 1782, he became a teacher of grammar and sacred theology. He took advanced courses in the University of San Felipe, obtaining the bachelor's and doctor's degrees. On the eve of the independence movement his adherence to the doctrines of the Catholic Enlightenment led him to support the cause of the patriots against Spain, and he influenced his colleagues in the order with his preaching. When the republic was proclaimed (1817), he was hailed as a benefactor of the country. His ecclesiastical career was brilliant: he was the Franciscan prior four times, and only his death prevented his being made bishop of Santiago. His literary career began with the simple autobiographical pages Noticias peculiares a mi and culminated in 1833, when the government entrusted to him the editing of a history of Chile. This was published in popular editions under the title of El chileno instruido en la historia, topográfica, civil y política (Santiago 1834). Modeled after the Historia of Abbé Molina, it employed the didactic form of a dialogue between uncle and nephew, with a division into lessons on the following subjects: geographical environment; conquest and colonization of the country; spiritual and temporal government; preliminaries of, and struggle for, independence; and a vigorous defense of the aborigines. The merit of the work rests more in its magnanimous spirit than in its content, which was not based on historical research. The pages devoted to description of the life of the capital in those years are interesting. He died at an advanced age, high in public esteem, as expressed in the obituary notices written by the famous humanist Andrés Bello and by the liberal historians Diego Barros Arana and Miguel Luis Amunátegui.

Bibliography: g. feliÚ cruz, Historiografía colonial de Chile (Santiago 1958–).

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