Damaso Antonio Larrañaga

Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga Pires (Montevideo, December 9, 1771 – Ibidem, February 16, 1848) was a religious, architect, rancher, naturalist and Uruguayan botanist, one of the main people responsible for the founding of the National Library of his country, also contributed to the creation of the University of the Republic. As a diplomat he had a relevant role in the birth of Uruguay as a nation. He was the maternal uncle of Bernardo Prudencio Berro ^{[citation needed ]} .

Biography

Son of Manuel de Larrañaga, a Spanish Basque, member of the Cabildo in the viceregal era, and Bernardina Pires, a native of Montevideo, daughter of Felipe Pires and María Garín (owners of a ranch between the Sauce and Toledo streams, and related with the Artigas family), studied in Córdoba and completed his preparatory studies at the Royal College of San Carlos, being a fellow student of Gregorio García de Tagle with whom he jointly presented a thesis that dealt with issues of physics, chemistry, astronomy—universal mechanics, sunspots, planetary system—, geography and mathematics showing knowledge of Descartes, Newton, Leibiniz, Maupertuis, Boscovich—precursor of the theory of relativity—, Nollet and Franklin. Returning to Montevideo in 1799, where he was made chaplain of the militias.

In 1804 he was lieutenant priest of the Matriz, contributing to the construction of the new temple. In the English Invasions he marched with the troops on the expedition to reconquer Buenos Aires and in the taking of Montevideo he showed great zeal in caring for the wounded. Once they were completed, he continued his religious activities, also engaging in scientific work and in his library, activities that he continued until his death.

For his ideas he was expelled from Montevideo in 1811, along with other patriotic priests, following Artigas' victory in the Battle of Las Piedras. Already in Montevideo, collected in the Berro farm, in the Manga area, he was commissioned by the orientals to attend as a Delegate to the Constituent Assembly of 1813 in Buenos Aires, being bearer of the Instructions of the year XIII. Congress ignored his representation, alleging a lack of form, but the true purpose was to exclude from the Assembly citizens who represented very dangerous tendencies for the absorbing plans of the centralist majority.

To win him over to their cause or retain him there, the Buenos Aires Board of Directors offered him the position of public librarian, which he accepted, holding it until 1815, the year he returned to the Eastern Province bringing with him the first acacia trees to acclimatize in the country. white.

Being Parish Priest of the Mother Church of Montevideo, he went to Paysandú to resolve the differences between Artigas and the Cabildo of Montevideo. On the way he wrote his Travel diary from Montevideo to Paysandú. This text, the best known by Larrañaga, has the value of a document and, in turn, is part of the Uruguayan literary canon. In addition, he tried to gather elements for his essays on the Chaná language. In May 1816 he was appointed director of the National Library, of which he had so much to do with its creation together with Miguel Barreiro.

In the decline of the Artiguista cause, Larrañaga joined the Portuguese domination, until accepting from the humiliated Cabildo of Montevideo the sad honor of moving to Rio de Janeiro, together with Jerónimo Pío Bianqui, on a mission of gratitude to King John VI From Portugal. In 1821 he was a deputy to the Cisplatin Congress convened by Carlos Federico Lecor, in which the definitive incorporation of the Banda Oriental to the Portuguese monarchy was agreed.

At that time he devoted himself more firmly than ever to everything that concerned progress and social well-being, leading to the establishment of the Casa Cuna for abandoned children in 1818 and the inauguration of the Lancasterian School in November 1821, installed in the same house as the Government Fort. In 1824 he was confirmed as vicar apostolic equivalent to that of diocesan bishop.

He did not get involved in the liberating revolution of 1825, since his investiture in the Church forced him to be respectful and faithful to the Brazilians, who then ruled.

When the Republic was established in 1830, he was elected Senator for the department of Montevideo until 1835. He presented, among others, a bill restricting the death penalty to special cases, and one in favor of slaves by which it was facilitated their emancipation. At the end of his senatorial period he dedicated himself to ecclesiastical functions and his studies, until 1840 when his vision and his health had greatly decreased.

Retired to his country house in the outskirts of the capital, the Great War found him, creating the Government of Defense with the presidency of Joaquín Suárez and the Government of Cerrito led by General Manuel Oribe with a similar position as the previous one.. Larrañaga as apostolic vicar, respected by all and above discord, knew how to reconcile the exercise of his ecclesiastical office with the duality of these two civil authorities.

When he died of a stroke, posthumous honors were paid to him in the Cerrito field, when he was buried in the chapel of the Sacra Familia, while the Defense Government ordered the celebration of the funeral services in the Montevideo compound. They corresponded to his dignity by decreeing him the honors of general of the Republic.

In his capacity as the highest ecclesiastical authority of Uruguay, he had been appointed by Manuel Oribe to serve as the first rectorship of the University of the Republic, but because it was inaugurated a year after his death, in 1849, the position was given to him. It was awarded to Lorenzo Antonio Fernández, who succeeded him as apostolic vicar.

In 1922 the Historical and Geographic Institute of Uruguay published its research.

Work

Some publications

• Written by Don Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga. Montevideo: Instituto Histórico y Geográfico del Uruguay, 1922-1924, 3 v.
  • Take 1. (Diary of Natural History [1817])
• Written by Don Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga. Atlas. Part 1. Botanical. 1927
• Written by Don Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga. Atlas: Part 2. Zoology, paleontology and maps,
• Indian language Buenos Aires: Arandu, 1944
• Montevideo trip to Paysandú Montevideo: Library of March, [1973] and Montevideo: Editions of the East Bank,
• Historical notes on the discovery and population of the East Bank of the Rio de la Plata and the cities of Montevideo, Maldonado, Cologne, etc...Montevideo,
• Diary of natural history, 1808-1814 Montevideo: Ministry of Education and Culture, 2015.
• Centenary of the Public Library of Montevideo, 1816. May 26, 1916. Speech at the opening ceremony Montevideo, State graphic workshops,
• American Fables: in line with the country's natural uses, customs and history. Montevideo: Print of Dornaleche Brothers,

Tributes

The Catholic University of Uruguay is named after him.

Since 2003 his effigy has circulated on the 2000 Uruguayan peso bill, the denomination with the highest value currently in force.

A street in the Nueva Córdoba neighborhood of the Argentine city of Córdoba bears his name.

Eponyms in species

• (Apiaceae) Eryngium larranagai M. Hiroe

• (Poaceae) Paspalum larranagai Arechav.

As a botanist he identified and named 650 new species, many of which are grasses (Poaceae).

• The abbreviation "Larrañaga" is used to indicate Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga as an authority in the description and scientific classification of vegetables.