Florencio del Castillo

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Florencio del Castillo (October 17, 1778 – November 26, 1834) was a Costa Rican cleric and politician.

Early life

Florencio del Castillo was born in Ujarrás, Costa Rica, near the colonial capital of Cartago, on October 17, 1778. He was the third child of Cecilia del Castillo Villagra (sometimes Cecilia del Castillo Solano), widow of the Frenchman François Lafons. His father is not known; it is possible he was the illegitimate son of the village priest, Luis San Martín de Soto. He grew up in the convent of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception de Rescate de Ujarrás, where he made a living cleaning and working as an altar boy. Doña Cecilia belonged to a distinguished family in Costa Rica and was the owner of some money that allowed her to send her son to the Seminario Conciliar in León, Nicaragua (which later, in 1814, was converted into the University of León), to follow an ecclesiastical career. After being distinguished for his intelligence and spotless record, don Florencio del Castillo presented billiant exams, obtained a baccalaureate and was ordained priest in 1802; the next year he was already a professor of geometry at the same university with an official recommendation.

He returned to Costa Rica preceded by the fame that his merits and virtues had acquired him in Nicaragua, and in 1806 he was named priest to the incipient town of Villahermosa (later Alajuela; but aspiring to a higher destination, he returned in 1808 to León, entering the Tridentine University where he gained the post of professor of Philosophy, which had been one of his most gifted disciplines, and later the more important charges of synodal examiner, prosecutor and vicerector. These rapid promotions, combined with the prestige won during his short return to Costa Rica, meant that when it came time to select a deputy for the province of Costa Rica to the General and Extraordinary Courts in Spain, convened for the salvation of Spain's independence, which was threatened by the formidable power of Napoleon, his name was included, along with that of fray José Antonio Taboada y don José María Zamora.

Deputy to the Cortes

In 1810 Costa Rica selected him to represent it in the General and Extraordinary Courts of the Spanish Crown (Cortes de Cádiz), where he was called the "American Mirabeau" for his magnificent oratory. He was distinguished for his struggle in favor of the Indians and blacks and achieved the abolition of the Mita, the Encomienda, Indian tribute and the Repartimiento. He presided over the courts for a brief period. He also campaigned against other forms of racial discrimination. He also represented Costa Rica in the ordinary courts of 1813-1814, until their dissolution by Fernando VII.

Deputy to the Mexican Congress and Imperial Council

After the dissolution of the Courts, he moved to Mexico, where he represented Costa Rica in the Constitutional Congress of 1822. Afterwards he was a member of the Council of State of Emperor Agustín I (Agustín de Iturbide).

Death

Del Castillo died in Oaxaca on November 26, 1834, where he was a canon and governor of the bishopric. In 1971 his remains were returned to Costa Rica, where they were interred in a mausoleum built in the central park of the town of Paraíso, near his birthplace of Ujarrás. His remains rested there until they were stolen in September 2011.

The Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica declared him a "Benemérito de la Patria", or "Worthy Citizen of the Fatherland". The highway between San José and Cartago bears his name.

References

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