Tejano History
Ortiz De Ayala, Simon Tadeo
Tejanos |
ORTIZ DE AYALA, SIMÓN TADEO (1788–1833). Simón Tadeo Ortiz de Ayala, Mexican colonizer and writer, was born on October 18, 1788, at Mascota (now in the Intendency of Guadalajara), Jalisco, to unknown parents, almost surely of a well-to-do merchant family. He studied Latin and philosophy in Mexico City after doing his first studies in Guadalajara. In 1809 he ended his formal training and moved to Spain, where he became a supporter of Mexican independence. Later (1811–13), in Philadelphia, Washington, and New Orleans, he engaged in military activities with José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois and José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Laraqv to liberate Texas from Spain and tried to obtain an official appointment as a representative of leaders in the cause of Mexican independence, a position he failed to attain. He appeared in Nueva Granada (1814–15), Buenos Aires (1818–19), England (1820), and Spain (1820–21), often posing as a diplomatic agent of the Mexican revolutionary government. In 1821 he was appointed a commissioner of the Mexican Empire and reported to Quezaltenango, Guatemala; he was blamed for the disorder in Guatemala and soon lost his position there. In 1822, after returning to Mexico, he proposed a plan to colonize Texas in a company with Diego Barry and Felipe O'Reilly. They planned to settle 10,000 Irish and Canary Island immigrants on 6,000 leagues of land. Nothing came out of that proposal.
.png)
Full article on the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas Online
Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.
Join
Us
