Juan Manuel de Canas

Juan Manuel de Cañas-Trujillo y Sánchez de Madrid (b. Puerto de Santa María, Spain, July 2, 1763 - d. possibly in León, Nicaragua, after 1830) was a Spanish soldier, interim governor of the Province of Costa Rica (1819-1820) and subordinate political leader of the Party of Costa Rica (1820-1821).

Flag of the Spanish Empire.

Personal data

He was born in El Puerto de Santa María, (Cádiz, Spain), on July 2, 1763 and was baptized in the parish of Los Milagros in that city on July 4. His parents were Don Nicolás Francisco de Cañas-Trujillo y García de Pastrana (born in 1735), perpetual alderman of the port of Santa María and captain of naval milias, and Doña Magdalena Sánchez of Madrid and Bacaro, both born in El Puerto de Santa María, who married on June 4, 1758. Both through his paternal and maternal lines, he was descended from prominent noble families and his mother was a niece of the Marquis of Casa Madrid

In his first marriage, he married Tomasa Avendaño (Bendaña) Zurita y Moscoso, born in León, Nicaragua (daughter of Juan Antonio de Avendaño y Moscoso, married to Josefa Jacinta de Zurita y Pasos, born in Granada, Nicaragua), in Nicaragua. she died in San José, Costa Rica, on June 24, 1810. From this marriage three children were born:

• Manuel Antonio, n. León, Nicaragua, income to Costa Rica with just 5 years of age (housed in Costa Rica in 1814 with Ana Josefa Hidalgo Muñoz de la Trinidad, Costarricense).
• Juana Francisca Maria Dolores.
• José María Cañas-Trujillo and Avendaño (fallen in 1797).

He married for the second time in Maracaibo on April 28, 1808, with Mrs. María Rosa de Albuquerque y Sánchez, daughter of Mr. Francisco de Alburquerque, colonel of the royal armies and knight of Calatrava and Mrs. Josefa Antonia Sánchez. With daughters:

• Victoria
• Vitalia, n. Puerto Cabello, Venezuela 1810, m.Cádiz 1874, married to Guillermo Sityar.
• Sabina
• Eloísa

He also had four extramonial children with Feliciana Ramírez Pacheco (died February 21, 1806): María del Pilar (single) b. Costa Rica, José Nicolás (born in 1802, Costa Rica and still living in 1883, married to Feliciana Alvarado y Velasco), José Manuel (b. 1803 Costa Rica -1886, married in 1825 to Rita Alvarado) and Juan Francisco de la Rosa Cañas Ramírez (born in 1805 Costa Rica). From Nicolás copious descendants remain in Costa Rica.

Children of Manuel Antonio Cañas Avendaño (Bendaña) with Ana Josefa Hidalgo Muñoz de la Trinidad:

• Juan José de los Dolores Cañas Hidalgo, born in San José, baptized Parroquia Nuestra Señora del Carmen on March 13, 1816.
• María Ramona Máxima Cañas Hidalgo, born in San José, baptized in the parish of Nuestra Señora del Carmen on February 18, 1817.
• José María Calixto Cañas Hidalgo, born in San José on 14 October 1819.
• María de los Dolores Simona Cañas Hidalgo, baptized in Cartago on February 28, 1821.
• Juan de la Rosa Cañas Hidalgo, baptized in León in 1830, who radiated in Costa Rica, where he married in 1857 and had descended.
• Manuela Cañas Hidalgo, born in León (c.1839), Nicaragua, based in his mother country, Costa Rica, since the 7 years of age according to Jurada declaration of her carnal aunt Margarita Hidalgo Muñoz de la Trinidad, married in the parish of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, in San José, Costa Rica, on April 26, 1868. with Álvaro Contreras and Membreño, Costa hondur. Manuela Cañas Hidalgo was heir to the Presbyter Felix Hidalgo Muñoz of the Trinity.

Juan Manuel's daughter-in-law, Ana Josefa Hidalgo, returned to Costa Rica as a widow with several of her children and died in San José in 1847. His granddaughter Rafaela Contreras y Cañas, daughter of Álvaro Contreras and Manuela Cañas Hidalgo, was the First wife of the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío.

Military career

He served in the Seville infantry battalion and later presented military service in Guatemala, San Salvador and Nicaragua.

He settled in Costa Rica in 1795. He was sergeant major of the Provincial Battalion and was in charge of directing it during its expedition to Nicaragua in 1812. He reached the rank of Colonel.

King Ferdinand VII granted him the title of Knight of the Order of San Hermenegildo in 1819.

Interim Governor of Costa Rica

In June 1819, due to the death of Governor Juan de Dios de Ayala y Toledo, he assumed the military command of Costa Rica, and on December 3 of that year the Royal Court of Guatemala named him interim governor of the province. He was sworn in on the 29th of that month in the city of Cartago. He was the last Spanish governor of the province.

Junior political chief of Costa Rica

In 1820, when Costa Rica once again became a party of the Province of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Cañas Trujillo became its junior political chief, subordinate to the superior political chief resident in León de Nicaragua, Miguel González Saravia y Colarte. Due to difficulties with this, he resigned on April 17, 1821, but continued in office because the first mayor of Cartago, Santiago de Bonilla y Laya-Bolívar, who was responsible for temporarily taking charge of the position, refused to assume it.

During his administration, news was received in Costa Rica of the proclamation of independence from Spain by the superior authorities of León.

Costa Rica's patriotic political chief

In the early morning of October 29, 1821, upon the news that the absolute independence of Nicaragua and Costa Rica had been proclaimed in León on October 11, the Cartago barracks were taken by José Santos Lombardo y Alvarado, with which dissipated the possibility that Cañas-Trujillo tried to prevent it, and rather it corresponded to him to sign the act of independence of Costa Rica signed in that city on the same day.

For a few days he retained the exercise of political command, with the title of patriotic political chief, but on November 12 of that year he resigned and power was assumed by the Peoples Legacy Board chaired by Nicolás Carrillo y Aguirre.

Last years of his life

After his resignation, there were rumors in Cartago that he intended to organize a movement to resubject Costa Rica to Spanish rule, but on November 16, 1821, he appeared before the Board of Legacies to reject those accusations..

At the beginning of 1822 he moved to Nicaragua. He was residing in the city of León in 1830, when he sponsored his grandson Juan de la Rosa Cañas e Hidalgo in baptism.