Diego Jose Abad

Diego José Abad y Sánchez (Hacienda de Buenavista, Jiquilpan, June 1, 1727-Bologna, September 30, 1779), was a New Spanish theologian, poet and writer.

Biography

The son of Pedro Abad, a peninsular Spaniard and Teresa Sánchez, from Jiquilp, he studied philosophy at the Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City. At an early age he entered the Society of Jesus on July 24, 1741.

He was director of the College of Querétaro, and when the Jesuits were expelled from the country in 1767 he went into exile in Italy, settling in Ferrara. He left some notes on the exact sciences, translated some Virgil's eclogues, in Italian he wrote the Treatise on the knowledge of God . After his death, the definitive edition of his most popular work was published, De Deo deoque homine heroica , a singular theological compilation in Latin written in verse.

Poetic work

Poet and lover of wisdom, intellectual, master reformer of philosophical teaching, among other garments and virtues, he unfolded his days and hours in the century XVIII New Spain. The jiquilpense Abad performed with the group "pleni-ilustrado" from Alegre, Campoy, Clavijero and others. Banished to Europe in 1767, he left in his work the testimony of "endearing love for his country, full of feeling, nostalgia and even some sadness."

In the "operous task of indefatigable dedication," as in that of all his companions in misfortune, our Diego José Abad showed his pure Mexicanism, an unmistakable trait in them; Creoles, yes, and some like Clavijero or the Abbot himself, immediate children of Spanish peninsulars, but they no longer felt Spanish but rather Mexican, by right of culture, "and they proclaim it so with noble pride on the cover of their works&# 34;.

His paternal family history would be Pedro Abad García who left the old world around 1722. A fugitive from the Castilian agricultural crisis and attracted by America, he came from the kingdoms of Castile, from the archbishopric of Burgos, where he was born at the dawn of the 18th century, in the town of Quintana. Behind him he left his parents Pedro and María never to return.

He arrived in New Spain "in the second fleet of General Serrano". He entered through Veracruz, and via Mexico he soon passed to San Francisco Xiquilpan where he worked under his compatriot Diego Sánchez Morcillo or Alcaraz, a merchant established in Jiquilpan, province of Michoacán.

Pedro Abad served for several years as a cashier, "administering someone else's wealth and forced to do different correspondences", in the store and business of Captain Diego Sánchez. Miscellaneous store where chocolate, paper, goods, cotton and wool blankets, villalta blankets, sayal, blankets, balleta acambareña, revesillo de indigo, butter, salt, wax, candles, soap, candy, cheese, tobacco, & #34;half-high shoes", woolen hats, etc., etc.

Don Diego Sánchez, one of the main residents and merchants of San Francisco Xiquilpan, held the position of commissioner of the Holy Brotherhood in the matter of police and good government in the region and also participated as deputy and butler in the local brotherhood del Santísimo Sacramento, which, founded in 1680, owned nearby land, furniture and money.

Pedro Abad married at the beginning of 1726 with Teresa Sánchez de Alcaraz, native and neighbor of Xiquilpan and legitimate daughter of D. Diego Sánchez de Alcaraz y de Da. Mariana Ruiz de Mendoza y Guerrero.

The Abbots and Sánchez, with the dowry of four thousand two hundred and sixty pesos, four reales in marriage and a modest homestead in the town, would have the support of Don Diego, who as steward of the brotherhood " he seated as brother and brother of the Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament [a] Dn. Pedro Abad Garcia" on July 19, 1726, delivered his regulatory alms of two pesos; In addition, Mr. Abad leased the pasture of "Nuestro Amo", property of the brotherhood, two leagues from Jiquilpan, to the southwest, heading towards the ranch of Animas, in payment of 30 modest pesos per year. Round deal which allowed him to first rent and later buy, thanks to the marriage dowry, savings and mortgages, the San Antonio Buenavista hacienda for four thousand nine hundred pesos from Quiterio Álvarez del Castillo from Jalisco.

The farm located five leagues to the west of the town, in the Mazamitla Valley, next to the Guaracha latifundio, was received by the owner "without fences, competent houses or offices"; with an extension of three sites for large cattle, a site and a half for small cattle and three caballerias "of bread to carry"; the same lands that after some time were fenced off and "benefited for sowing wheat, corn, chickpeas and other seeds with irrigation, and necessary implements"; populated with cattle and horses, in addition to having "houses and competent offices", a tank or dam and a tannery.

Country house "large and spacious" in the eyes of the new occupants; medium-sized agricultural company with plant and temporary servants, tenants and "arrimados". Even so, Buenavista once religiously paid tithes to the Church fifty bushels of corn, one of beans, four loads of wheat, ten calves, eight foals, six arrobas of cheese, and one pig; that is, the equivalent of one tenth of the production in a regular season.

By then the number one of the six children had already been born. Diego José, the eldest son, saw the light in the calendas of June, the first day of 1727 in Jiquilpan, within the limits of the Michoacán bishopric. Event remembered in verses by the protagonist years later, in exile:

Or who screws her up.

cradle, that in tears would wet later,

He chose the flag from his homeland;

and he could with his knowledge

even the parents make sure he was born,

and its nature and

to your taste to forge, or your structure?

(Canto X)

He was followed by José, Pedro Víctores, Plácida Josefa, María Josefa and Tomás, the youngest. By the way, Dieguito (Diego for the grandfather who did not get to know the grandson and José for the devoted guardian saint of the Jiquilpenses Creoles) would take his first steps in the ancestral home of the Sánchez Alcaraz family, of the grandmother Mariana Ruiz de Mendoza y Guerrero or Quintero, recently widowed, since she tore the child from her mother's arms, "because her sons and daughters had been settled for a long time with the appropriate decorum, she wanted to have a consolation for her loneliness in the care of her beloved grandson".

Abad received "that most liberal, indulgent and generous education" in which "children, would be accustomed to tend towards higher things and to think magnanimously". However, one blemish resulted from such coddling and petting--and one that he would later often regret, "but always with pleasant affection for his grandmother"--: it was not taught "in school of suffering" nor did he temper his character as he should to face adversity.

The years passed, and when counting seven, in 1734, the head of the Abad family rescued the son that the grandmother Doña Mariana was spoiling a lot and took him to the Buenavista hacienda, in the civil confines of Jalisco, the new abbey headquarters, so that he could learn the first letters with his brothers. In view of the fact that the tutors in the region were scarce and of little talent, the demanding father brought some better ones from Guadalajara, more at hand, and entrusted them with the instruction of the first offspring.

With great art my industrious fingers

fold and apply in singular uses;

with three of them now

feather holding

I'm bringing ingenious signs to thousands...

(Canto V)

Once he had learned the beginnings of grammar, Don Pedro thought it convenient to look for other horizons for the two older pupils, whom he wanted to get away "from the mother's cuddly arms and relatives' caresses"; in such a way that, making use of the family coffers, he sent the pair to Mexico City, where "the studies of letters and sciences flourished".

Diego José, who counted "among the unique benefits, his father's determination and dedication", left for the plaza, followed by José, in the season of 1739. Both entered the Colegio Máximo de San Pedro and Saint Paul attended by the disciplined hosts of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. As for the eldest, it is known that he finished "what he lacked in grammar, as well as the poetry and rhetoric course". What's more, this machete student began to study philosophy when he was not yet twelve years old and learned very well, "with high praise" of his teachers.

At this point their father, related to people from the Church, administered some Jesuit ranches in the region. Hence, this was another factor, if not decisive, but influential so that at the age of fourteen, on July 24, Diego entered the ranks of the Society of Jesus, in which his countryman Francisco Javier Anaya had been a member for eight years. In his own curriculum vitae we can read; & # 34; In the year 1741 (one thousand seven hundred and forty-one) he entered the Company in the Province of Mexico and after his Novitiate in Tepotzotlán he went to review philosophy at San Ildefonso de Puebla & # 34;.

About José, the brother, there is less news outside of his collegiate stay at Máximo de San Pedro. Also directed in the known world of the church, Pepe chose for himself the familiar habit of San Francisco and the name of José Abad de Jesús María, in the province of Santo Evangelio de México.