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English
Syntesis
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Rafael de Sobre Monte:
Founder of Towns
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Introduction
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The
essential part of this subject is the Marquis don Rafael de Sobre Monte who, as
an official of the Spanish Crown during the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, commanded the foundation of
many towns in the provinces of San
Luis, Córdoba, San Juan y Mendoza. There are many different reasons why this
Spanish man was taken to carry out these foundations. In this site, we’ll try
to clarify these reasons, thus revealing historical, economical and present
aspects of the different towns. We’ll also present here the biography of this
man who became viceroy from Rio de la Plata, as well as the role he played
during the English Invasions.
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Development
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Rafael de Sobre Monte, Núñez,
Castillo, Angulo, Bullón, Ramirez de Arellano, third Marquis of Sobre Monte,
was born in the heart of a distinguished Spanish family in Seville, on November
27th, 1745.
He was then appointed Secretary of
the Vice royalty of Rio de la Plata with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in the age of Viceroy Vértiz (1779). During more than 15 years, he was Mayor
Governor of Córdoba de Tucumán, revealing himself as an administrator with
excellent capacity. In 1804, he succeeded Mayor-general del Pino in his
position of Viceroy.
In June, 1806, from the terrace
roofs of his rooms in the fort, he supervised the battle of the English
soldiers with a telescope. Sobre Monte encouraged the soldiers who were
gathered in the spot: “There no need for you to be careful, as the English will
learn their lesson in the end”. For the first and last time, the Viceroy’s
words were acclaimed.
However, the enthusiasm toward Sobre
Monte would not last much. The resulting news finally arrived: the English had
defeated the weak defensive lines, and were already marching over the city. In
that moment, the Viceroy thought of running away to the interior with his
family and the real wealth. After Reconquista, the people didn’t let him
reassume command, and on August 14th, 1806, the Cabildo Abierto
named Liniers officer in command of the square.
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Sobre Monte stayed in
Rio de la Plata until 1809.
Back in Spain, he was subjected to a
court-martial that cleared him from any charge. This process was qualified as
partial by his opponents, who assured that the few testimonies against him, had
been invalidated in it.
In 1865 Vicente G. Quesada appraised
the personality of the Marquis of Sobre Monte: “If his role during the English
Invasions was an unsuccessful one, we must be fair in praising the
determination he showed as administrator for the Mayoralty of Córdoba to
progress”.
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Sobre
Monte, theatrical work of Ignacio Apolo
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La Carolina
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In the report the Marquis of Sobre
Monte passed on the Viceroy, he attributes the finding of the gold mines of San
Antonio de las Invernadas, afterwards La Carolina, located at the foot of the
Tomolasta hill, to Bartolomé Arias Renzel.
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La
Carolina
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The report also stated that, at the
end of 1784, two people started exploring that spot and found golden grains.
Taking the grains with them, they asked for possessions or stakes, which were
given to them to promote the improvement of work, following the ordinance of
New Spain (Mexico).
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Río Cuarto
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Villa de la Concepción de Rio Cuarto
was founded on November 11th, 1786, by Rafael de Sobre Monte, who
gave command to his neighbour don Juan Gualberto Soria to form the new town of
Concepción, in previously chosen lands at the south of the river Cuarto.
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Río
Cuarto
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Merlo
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In 1794, Sobre Monte commanded the
foundation of Villa de Melo in the place of Piedra Blanca, occidental slope of
the hills of Córdoba in “puntana” jurisdiction.
This Villa, according to data
of the time, “is in fair memory of Viceroy Pedro Melo.” With the passing of
time, this villa was known with its present name: Merlo.
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Merlo
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San Rafael
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Starting in the year 1758, a
phenomenon called Araucanización took place, resulting from the mix and
conversion of the Indians into nomads. These Indians were the ones that lived
in the southern region of Mendoza, together with the ones coming from Chile,
expelled from their country due to the lack of food and the war with the
Spanish.
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San
Rafael
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The new araucanizadas regions strengthened the attacks to farms, towns
and villages, for which the Viceroy of Rio de la Plata, following the defensive
political strategy implemented on April 2nd, 1805, created the Fort
San Rafael del Diamante in the banks of the homonymous river, where today its ruins
can be seen inside the present district 25 de Mayo.
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La Carlota
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Its Act of Foundation makes
reference to the existence of a town in the middle of the Southern Frontier of
Córdoba de Tucumán , conferring to this new town the title of “Villa” with the
name La Carlota.
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Since his first steps as ruler of
this province, Sobre Monte had warned about the perjuries caused by the
dispersion of rooms in the Campaign, specially in the Southern Frontier, and
that one of the means to defend it from the constant attacks of the Pampas
Indians, was to take advantage of their territories for formal towns.
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La
Carlota
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Others
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In some sources consulted, other
towns of the Mayoralty of Córdoba de Tucumán are mentioned like places founded
by Rafael de Sobre Monte. It will be intended a synthesis of the information
found in this section. Anyway, if it is considered necessary later, a html
document will be opened for this single town. Some of the mentioned
towns are Villa de Tulumba (Cba.), Chañar (Cba.), Nono (Cba.), Valle Fértil (San
Juan), Bell Ville or Fraile Muerto (Cba.), Luisiana (Cba.), Villa del Rosario
del Rio Segundo (Cba.).
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Inicio
/ Introducción / Sobre
Monte / El Virreinato
del Río de la Plata
Invasiones Inglesas
: 1º Invasión / Reconquista
/ 2º Invasión / Destitución
Las fundaciones
: Merlo / La Carlota
/ La Carolina / Río IV / San Rafael / Otras
Actividades / English
Syntesis / Fuentes / Enlaces
Actualizaciones / Bitácora / Autores
/ Mapa del sitio
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© Grupo Sobre Monte
Colegio Nº
9 Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
San Luis - Argentina
Realizado
en Agosto-Diciembre de 2003
Contacto: cjvera@educ.ar
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