A liberating family. A call up of Sangilentildes Heroes. Biographies of Ignacio Sanchez Tejada, Pedro Fermin de Vargas y Sarmiento, Antonia Santos Plata, Juan Jose Cordero, Juan de la Cruz Gomez Plata, Manuel Gonzlez, Tadeo and Diego Fernando Gomez, Rafael Otero Navarro, Rito Antonio Martinez, Carlos Martinez Silva, Nepomuceno Navarro, Luis Domingo Mantilla, Pedro Silva Otero, Pedro Leon Calderon, Jose Maria de Rueda y Gomez, Antonio Maria Rueda Gomez, Manuel Maria Rueda, Eleuterio Rueda Navarro, Ramon Rueda Martinez, Rodolfo Rueda, Raimundo and Genaro Rueda Rueda, Luis Felipe Rueda, Froiln Gomez, Luis Maria Cubillos, Trino Posada Reyes, Carlos Parra, Gustavo Silva and Eugenio Martinez.

To this publication of local flavor, I have tried to contribute to an approximation of the truth by using heterogeneous judgments. That is why I have dedicated a large chapter to the maximum deed of our race, the Comunero Revolution. For the following warlike actions, I have collected fractional data for a chronological citation of the people and the places involved with every epic outburst. In 1781, the Comunero Galn with two hundred men attacked the Royal town of San Gil its Mayor, then, was Melendez Valdez. After the rebellion was declared, Lorenzo Alcantuz grabbed and stepped on the Royal Coat of Arms, and organized volunteers to military discipline, and marched toward the capital of the new kingdom. During the beginning of the Republic, the destiny of the nationality was dened in Paloblanco, when the Federalist Forces of Antonio Baraya defeated the Centralists of Jose Miguel Pey. Later, in 1840, the Sangilentilde Colonel Manuel Gonzlez, rebelled against the central government. He was defeated in Bogot by the armies of Colonel Neira. In 1859, a battle initiated by Leonardo Canal, Blas Hernndez, Mariano Ospina Rodriguez, Adolfo Harker Mutis, Aristides Garcia Herreros, Emigdio Bricentilde, Santos Gutierrez and Rito Antonio Martinez was dened in Campohermoso. In 1876, the town initiated a revolt in the country by Sergio Camargo, Alejandro Posada, Fortunato Bernal, Daniel Hernndez, Jose Maria Samper, Carlos Martinez Silva, Sebastin Ospina, Quintero Calderon and Salvador Camacho Roldn.
Then, toward the end of the last century, there was the war of a thousand days. The region formed a heroic Guanent Battalion which triumphed and, at other times, was defeated. It was commanded by General Rodolfo Rueda. And, during the Second Republic, there was a failed attempt to overthrow the government system implanted by the majority of the two parties.
Many illustrious Sangilentildeas families gave their best children with unusual patriotism for the cause of independence and restoration of liberty, such as the Sanchez, Vargas, Tejadas, Acevedos, Gomez, Ruedas, Fernndez, Silvas, Saavedras Santos, Martinez, Gonzlez, Cordero, Alcantuz, etc. From the family home of the “People’s Tribune”, Jose Acevedo y Gomez, several Fathers of the Country can be cited. Acevedo y Gomez was born in the old Parish of Mongui, San Gil Jurisdiction, on February 4, 1773. He, with his oratory and valorous actions, induced the people to revolution on July 20, 1810 which led to the denite independence from the Spanish Rule. His daughter, Josefa Acevedo de Gomez, was a writer and poetess. She married Diego Fernndo Gomez. His sons were General Jose Acevedo Tejada who fought in the campaigns of 1820, 1821 and 1822 in the south of the country, in Maracaibo in 1823, Tescua and Aratoca in 1839, Governor of Cauca and Minister of War, Pedro Acevedo Tejada, soldier of the independence, Governor of Antioquia, writer, geographer and academician, Alfonso Acevedo Tejada, soldier of the 1824 Campaign, writer, Member of Congress, diplomat to the Holy See and the youngest Juan Miguel Acevedo Tejada, prisoner of Bocachica and Puerto Cabello. The wife of the Tribune, Catalina Snchez de Tejada, was a heroic sister of the Father of the Country, Ignacio Snchez de Tejada. The following is a list of history of Sangilentildes who gave their blood, suffered jail, exile, or persecution for the noble cause of liberty. They were: Captain LORENZO ALCANTUZ, his head was exposed at the entrance of the road to Santa Fe, in San Gil.
Captain ISIDRO MOLINA, his head was also taken to San Gil. He was hanged in Bogot, on January 30, 1782.
Captain RAMON ARDILA died in Piedecuesta, on October 13, 1813. Commander PEDRO BLANCO died in the Battle of Ayacucho, on December 9, 1814. Captain PEDRO CARDONA died in Angostura, on January 18, 1817. Captain ELIGIO DURAN died in Chipaque, on April 17, 1822. Commander VICENTE GALVIS died in Cumarebo, on July 11, 1821. Ensign JOSE JIRON, hero of the Queseras del Medio, died on May 24, 1822. Captain SEBASTIAN GALVIS died in Comayagua, on December 5, 1822. Lieutenant EUSTAQUIO LINEROS died in the Castle of San Carlos, in Venezuela, on September 8, 1822.
Captain JOSE Maria LIZARAZO died in San Diego de Cabrutica, on January 11, 1815. CANDIDO LIZARAZO died in Chitag, on November 25, 1815. Lieutenant PASTOR MESA, hero of Quesera, died in Vigia Baja, on May 30, 1820. Commander EZEQUIEL MESA died in Casa Fuerte of Barcelona, on April 7, 1817. Sergeant RAMON NARANJO died in La Puerta, on June 14, 1814. Colonel MATIAS OTERO died in Monteria, on September 20, 1815. Corporal FELIX ORTIZ died in Chitag, on November 25, 1815. JOSE MANUEL OTERO shot by ring squad, in Tunja, on September 20, 1816. Lieutenant MAURICIO OTERO died in Chitag, on November 25, 1815. Captain NEPOMUCENO PLATA died in Barinas, on November 2, 1813. Colonel RAMON SILVA died in the Alczares, on September 6, 1816. FERNANDO AZUERO, patriot executed by shooting, in Socorro, on August 4, 1810. JUAN JOSE CORDERO, see his special biography. ANTONIA SANTOS, heroine, see her special biography. Colonel MANUEL GONZALEZ did the campaigns of Venezuela, Carabobo, Peru, Montecarlo and New Granada, see his special biography. Captain JOAQUIN SALGAR served his cause with an unequal valor. He suffered the loss of an eye, his left arm and his right foot. FELIX SOLER died in the battle of Yaguachi. MATIAS CORNEJO shot by ring squad, in Bauza, in January 1819. Commander VICENTE VARGAS VESGA executed by shooting in Portobelo on April 15, 1871. This list was taken from the books: Proceres Santandereanos, published by the Santander Academy of History in 1930, and La Antigua Provincia del Socorro y su Independencia (The old Province of Socorro and its Independence), by Horacio Rodriguez Plata, pages 703 to 723. Since there is no plaque or stone with these names in San Gil. It might be proper to put the sentence: “It is believed, generally, that the first duty of a soldier is to die for his country. Not so. The first duty is to try that the enemy soldier die for his”. by David Goldberg Jewish Commander in Jerusalem, in the 1967 War against the Arabs.

ISIDRO MOLINA ROLDAN

Like Lorenzo Alcantuz Sarmiento, he was the other great martyr of the Comunera Revolution. His cradle rocked in the town of San Gil in 1754, and with his parents Antonio Molina and Rebeca Roldn, he was one of the main inhabitants of the neighboring locality of Curiti, after 1773. Isidro was twenty-eight years old when he joined the Comunero Movement. With Galn, he attacked San Gil in 1781. Galn named him in this town, Captain of Watch and member of the Great Sangilentilde Commons. Molina was one of the most combative and loyal rebel ofcers of the Comuneros Campaign. From the careful analysis of the process of prosecution of Alcantuz and Molina, a historian could extract a couple of biographies. The actions in Neiva, San Gil, Puricacion, Ambalema, Piedras, Espinal and Honda could ll a historical volume. The late Socorrano poet, Alberto Roldn Ramirez, said that Isidro Molina was his ascendant and in his poem “Los Volantes de Don Isidro”, he made a beautiful epic song to the Comunero soldiers. He also said that the correct spelling of San Gil was San Jil, as it was written on the old Colombian maps. I consulted a map of 1827, published in Paris by Manuel Restrepo. The country was divided into four Departments and the City of San Jil was in the Boyac Department.. There are other cities and even Departments which spelling has changed like Guajira, Rizaralda, Cesare, Cordova, etc. and I am out of the biographical theme.

JUAN LORENZO ALCANTUZ SARMIENTO

He was the son of Juan Alcantuz and Belarmina Sarmiento, married to Eudosia Becerra, worked in a cotton mill, born and raised in San Gil. He was thirty-ve years old during the revolution. He had some culture for the times knowing reading, writing, religion, arithmetic and grammar. He was a weaver of blankets, and owing taxes, he went out of business, the reason for which he joined the Charalentilde Galn’s Revolution. Cotton fabrics were very important economic items in the markets and a sort of currency in San Gil. According to the historian Horacio Rodriguez Plata, the Municipal Council of San Gil made an agreement to accept cotton and its products, as currency, within the territory of the jurisdiction. The writer Pedro Fermin de Vargas Sarmiento narrates that his native city and Socorro were the industrial centers of the Eastern part of the Kingdom.
The martyr Lorenzo Alcantuz was executed in Santa Fe and his head cut off and sent to San Gil. His head was exposed at the “Esquina de la Cruz” (The Cross Corner), of the town of San Gil. Nothing is known of his two sons. JOSE MARIA DURAN
Emilio Pradilla wrote of him (110): “He was a devoted and efcient servant of the New Colombia. His merit is associated with the honor of the first maritime endeavor of the liberating revolution, serving on the ship Dardo during the siege of Cartagena in 1815”.

JUAN JOSE LOSADA

According to the declaration against the Comuneros given in Bogot, Losada, alias “El Chapeton”, was an efcient spy of the patriots. The main prosecuting evidence of 1871 stated: “He was the son of a Spaniard, born and neighbor of San Gil, a farmer, single, twenty-ve years old”. He was not sentenced to death, but suffered long incarceration with Blas Antonio Torres, the latter a traitor to the King from Bogot.

MARIA MELCHORA NIETO DE PAZ

Sister of the Mayor of San Gil, Jorge Nieto de Paz, they were both descendants of Spaniards. Maria studied in Santa Fe and married there. She was one of the first ladies who did not use her late husband’s last name. Someone commented in the official magazine of the Academy of History of Bucaramanga that Melchora is the only name used in a plaque in the Municipal Palace of Bogot. Her brother, Jorge Nieto de Paz, signed many communications of political order in San Gil, to join this city with the State of Cundinamarca, separate from Socorro, in a treaty notied by General Antonio Narintilde, on February 24, 1812.

IGNACIO SANCHEZ DE TEJADA

He was born on October 23, 1759. His parents were Segundo Sanchez and Encarnacion Tejada from Velez. He was the first Colombian representative to the Holy See. He died in Rome, on October 25, 1837.
Ignacio Sanchez de Tejada learned his first letters in San Gil and continued his studies in the Nuestra Sentildera del Rosario College in Bogot. After a trip to Europe, he returned home in 1801. In 1810 he was in Bogot and later left for Europe, again, as a diplomat. On April 7, 1824, he was transferred to Rome, a choice of Vice President Santander. Tejada had cultivated magnicent relations in Europe. He had a delicate mission he was prudent and discrete, to counter Spanish diplomatic influence before the Papal Government. In September 1824, he arrived in Rome, with great difculties, trying to negotiate his passage through countries friendly with Spain and the Holy See. He accomplished the recognition, by the Holy See, of the Great Colombia as a new independent state.
Pope Gregory XVI sent a letter to General Santander, in October, 1835, in which Minister Sanchez de Tejada is praised as “Dilecto lio”, after revealing important negotiations, and the official recognition of the Government of the Great Colombia.


PEDRO FERMIN DE VARGAS Y SARMIENTO

With the second centenary of the birth of Pedro Fermin de Vargas y Sarmiento in San Gil, of the Father of our Independence, the Board of Patriotic Festivities placed a plaque in the Florero House of the capital, on July 3, 1962, which states: “He scrutinized the New Granada nature, discussed with wisdom the social and economical future of the country and worked for her, in Europe and New Granada, risking his life to make justice prevail and to impose human fraternity by which to reach national grandeur”.
This plaque states his birthday as July 3, 1962, but some biographers, including Father Roberto Maria Tisnes, cites July 2, taken from his baptism certicate. His parents were Pedro de Vargas and Laura Sarmiento. His brothers were Presbyter Lorenzo de Vargas of the Parish of Charal in 1791 who sympathized with the Comuneros, reason for which, he was sent to Venezuela as a Canonist of the Merida Cathedral, until his death in 1804, Francisco, owner of the hacienda Aguascalientes and intimate friend of General Antonio Narintilde and Juan, a brother with whom he owned businesses and had some liberties. The young Pedro Fermin heard of the Comunero Revolt at the Rosario College. The events and their tragic ending caused a great impression among the students. He obtained a degree of Philosophy and Law.
He loved Botany more than Law and became part of the Botanic Expedition of April of 1783, under the direction of the learned Jose Celestino Mutis. Vargas became one of the best investigators of the natural resources with Clergyman Diego Garcia, Bruno Lendete and Jose Camblor. After a year, he became secretary of the Viceroy Archbishop and traveled to Cartagena during the English attacks. In his famous defense, General Narintilde denies that he had translated the Rights of Man and Citizen, and the Laws of the United States of America. Vargas, the Sangilentilde, instigated Narintilde and doctrinated him with words and acts. During the prosecution by the authorities, Miguel Tadeo Gomez and his cousin Jose Acevedo y Gomez were imprisoned. Vargas was the creator of the conspiracy. A poem eads: “Women sad, without onions or wheat crying after seeing themselves lost from estate and husbands they cry lost, without bread and given to vices after the cost of thousands of sighs. The Chapetones have been the cause of our affliction. They have been the tyrants since the Conquest. Why should we be humans with them?” Pedro Fermin was planning to go to the old continent with Barbara Forero and false passports under the alias names of Fermin Sarmiento until 1797, Pedro Uribe until 1801 and a third, Peter Smith, given by the English in 1801. The biographers follow the steps of this adventurer to his brother, the canonist, in Merida, to Guaira, the Antilles, Paris and London where he met Francisco de Miranda, the Venezuelan Father of the Country. During the war between England and Spain, Pedro Fermin de Vargas was arrested because he was mistaken for a Spanish spy. In Jamaica, he presented to the Governor a plan to invade the New Granada with 120 men which worried the authorities in Santa Fe. On his way to the United States, he left Barbara in Cuba on her way back to New Granada. When he traveled from the United States to Europe, he wrote to Barbara a copy of the Rights of Man on February 20, 1799.
In London, Vargas and Miranda became close friends. The Venezuelan historian Mariano Picon Salas states that Vargas met Napoleon in 1800 requesting his cooperation toward the independence of New Granada.
First, men, arms and munitions. Second, ships to transport them. The obligation would be to form an alliance for commerce. This idea of Vargas is rejected by the French. Then, conspiracies followed among Vargas, Miranda and Narintilde in the Antilles. Later, as Mariano Ospina Perez said in a speech, “The events of the Boyac land followed, the cradle of liberty where the battles for democracy, the battles for the national act of living together and the battles for true social justice occurred”. Biographers agree that no one deserves the title of Father of the Country than Vargas. He planted the revolutionary seed everywhere. Miranda and Narintilde shine more in the constellation of Fathers of the Country, but Vargas was the most unfortunate and the most forgotten.
Pedro Fermin lived alone and fought alone with his own resources in New Granada, in the Antilles where he became a physician in the old continent. He even had the envy of the people who were pursuing the same ideals. Vargas did not have the bellicose impetuosity of the Venezuelan, nor the heroism of the Santaferentilde. He had adventures of emancipation and board rooms. His existence was not comfortable, but because of his culture, merit was denied to him. But as today, to the constitutional crisis, followed the moral ones and the opportunistic took the guerdons.
Pedro Fermin wrote with pseudonyms, in clandestine gazettes and contributed to science in the Botanic Expedition. He only published two works: Memorias sobre el Guaco which appeared in a Santa Fe newspaper in September 1791 and the Rights of Man and Citizen, published in Madrid in 1797 and in Santa Fe in 1813. After July 20,1810, Jose de Acevedo y Gomez and Francisco Jose de Caldas thought of editing his works. Now, after so many years, the printing ofce of the Ministry of Education, has tried to gather his dispersed works for future studious generations of the country.