The Guane Cacique Ritoque, a fantastic founder.Hypothesis of Santa Cruz founding. The first established peninsulars. The act of foundation and proclamation of the town of Santa Cruz. Name of the founders and first authorities. Royal Villa. Baptism, cabalistic sings, mass, challenge, distribution of public lands and foundings on paper.How it was named Santa Cruz and San Gil of the Nueva Baeza. Primitive boundaries. Financial silver coins for the priest. Indians of war.Ordinary mayors of the Santa Hermandad.The royal ensign.
Several historians have emitted opinions about the foundation of San Gil founded on hypothesis and documents of some value. Some like Eladio Mantilla and Luis F. French agree that the foundation of the town took place in 1620. They assert that it was the most outstanding population of Spaniards in the seventeenth century in the zone between the rivers Surez and Chicamocha. French’s geography textbook, which all our parents studied, stated: “San Gil was founded in the year 1620 she is wealthy and its people are industrious and mercantile”. Some tradition, worthy of mentioning, afrms that the foundation was due to Cacique Guane Ritoque in 1600. But, we will see later, none of these dates have a documented handle. The historiographer from San Gil Carlos D. Parra (19) points out the date of foundation to the license in 1689. Twenty one years earlier, in 1668, the attorney Leonardo Currea de Betancur raised a memorandum to Gil de Cabrera y Dvalos President and Governor of the New Kingdom of Granada (1686-1703), requesting a license for the foundation of the town. Such license was given by the previously named president or governor in Santa Fe de Bogot, on March 17, 1689. On May 11, of the same year, the Royal Audiencia sent a despatch to Madrid to extol to the king the conrmation of the license. On October 27, 1694, King Carlos II, The Bewitched, forwarded the conrmatory royal certicate giving San Gil its correspondent coat of arms and ratication title. On December 12 of the same year, Leonardo Currea received the expected royal certicate.
Julio Cesar Patintilde (20), a student of history, afrms in a manuscript on the foundation of San Gil that the majority of authors point out the year 1620 as the date of erection of the town of San Gil. He does not mention the day and the month. His hypothesis states: “The primitive name of the town, Santa Cruz, suggests two dates which Christianity honors the sacred instrument of Redemption, on May 3, the anniversary of the nding of the venerated wood in the year 323, and September 14, the date the relic was rescued, in the year 628, from the Persians. The relic was in Persian possession since King Cosroas II took Jerusalem in the year 615. The first date is the most likely as we shall see. Thus, in the San Gil Cathedral Church, since colonial times, existed until rather recently, where the parochial images of the patrons in the main altar are kept, the wooden kneeling efgy of the Empress Santa Elena embracing the cross. This scene is allusive of its nding on May 3, of the year 323. The cross garnished with laminated silver is preserved at present and enriched with a reliquary which contains an authentic particle of the Holy Cross. These items are carefully sheltered by Elena Rueda v de Silva relatives. The primitive name of the city, the iconographical hypothesis of Mr. Patintilde, and the excessive cult of the Sangilentildes for the Holy Cross, which has been embedded on the four hills surrounding the town, showed the correct possibility that the foundation was on May 3, 1668. Several years ago, I addressed the then President of the Academy of History of Santander, physician Mario Acevedo Diaz, a document which was published in the newspaper El Frente of Bucaramanga. It annotated different aspects of the foundation of the city and the coat of arms. I sustained, based on confrontation of documents from the National Historical Archives and the petition for the foundation, that the city of San Gil had a foundation “de facto and de jure”. As far as the “de facto” foundation of 1620, it is known that at the beginning of the seventeenth century, a small cluster of houses existed on the right bank of the Mochuelo River (today Fonce River) in the southern urban section of San Gil. There is an ancient oral tradition that there were about twenty stone masonry constructions and huts made of straw with a church which was replaced by the Santa Brbara Church. The brothers Juan and Bernardo de Rueda were the first peninsular noblemen to live there in 1636. They were named the first political -administrative authorities. The “de jure” foundation of San Gil became possible, because of their influence in the Guane Region. The municipal council and government performed the foundation of San Gil in 1668.
Toward the end of 1664, the royal authorities established Captain Francisco Diaz Sarmiento provisional mayor of the Santa Hermandad, replacing one of the Ruedas. Later, others arrived: attorney Leonardo Currea de Betancur as General Trustee, Jose Durn as General Prosecutor and his cousin Cristobal Rodriguez Durn as alderman. These were the second authorities known who prepared and received the future courtesy of the King.
To Leonardo Currea Betancur is owed the litigation to obtain the license for the “de jure” foundation. This gentleman with his vast knowledge, resources, strong civic spirit and overcoming multiple obstacles, wrote the petition to Gil de Cabrera y Dvalos duly authorized by the municipal council and government of the city. On March 17, 1689, the town was founded “Parroquia y Villa Realeza” by the then President of the New Kingdom of Granada Gil de Cabrera y Dvalos in whose name the foundation was afrmed, the following May 3, as San Gil. The Royal Audiencia of Santa Fe requested conrmation, which was legalized on October 27, 1694, by King Don Carlos II The Bewitched, by means of a royal letter issued in his palace of Madrid. San Gil was given a coat of arms because it was founded by royal noblemen. It was adopted and made by the Heraldic Council of the Kingdom. Thus, it was conrmed the “de jure” foundation of the “Most noble and most loyal town of Santa Cruz and San Gil of the New Baeza in the New Kingdom of Granada”.This title of nobility comes from a royal document dated February 23, 1694, which I will insert later and which is published for the first time. The annals of the city of San Gil preserved in the National Historical Archives in Santa Fe de Bogot give an interesting account of the long procedures involved in the foundation of a city. The attorney Currea de Betancur presented his petition to request a license for the foundation in 1668. The primitive inhabitants and authorities of San Gil had to wait twenty-six years before the packed tablets of the royal letter arrived. Generally, as it happened to many foundations, the discoverer or conquistador would arrive to a village like San Gil established with huts made of straw, crops etc. and change the name given by its natives. He would do some cabalistic gestures with unsheathed sword,. state some formal words to take possession in the name of the reigning monarchs of Spain, challenge to single combat whoever was opposed, and later, the registrar would sign with witnesses the correspondent act of foundation in which, as it is natural, he would appear as the only and true founder. To what has been said before, about town foundations in the New Kingdom of Granada,”The founders took advantage of the labors and experience of the natives”. The majority of the towns of the New kingdom were not founded by Spaniards but by the papers and signatures of the registrars!. When there was no Indian town upon the arrival of the founders, the public lands were distributed among the present, leaving a record according to tradition.
In other parts, the conquistador and his troops had a chaplain who would say mass, in the lands, the following morning to the foundation. This happened in Santa Fe de Bogot in 1538, when the attorney Gonzalo Jimenez de Quezada, the Priest de las Casas and the rest were in the ravine of Bacat. During those times, the most important populations of the Guanentina Region were:Charal (Mongui), Oiba (Coima), Chanchon and Velez. The last one was founded by Captain Martin Galeano on July 3, 1539, from where branched the second independent town of San Gil. This was vehemently opposed by the Velez Municipal Council. The Velez neighbors headed by the priest Diego de Arteaga asked the Fiscal of the Audiencia of Santa Fe not to issue a license in order not to break the curacy, as the brothers Jose and Francisco de Rueda, other Spaniards, Indians and mestizos were resolute to build their homes on the right bank of the Mochuelo River. To counter the opposition of the Velez and Guane neighbors, the attorney Betancur had to resort to the venerable Dean and Municipal Council of Santa Fe, presenting the benets of the foundation to the Catholic Church. Betancur, a generous and patriotic man, donated part of his lands and personal security of one thousand gold pesos to the King’s Chamber to guarantee the promise to build a church and the priest’s home within three years. It was notied that if this would not happen, they would lose the foundation and their possessions would be conscated in favor of the royal patrimony. Some curiosity must be causing, to the kind Sangilentilde readers, this grapple, with a completely different version from the one consecrated in time about the important events of the foundation of San Gil. Different versions, discussions, orders, scal prospects and conclusions of the Royal Audiencia and Government of Santa Fe are known. The Royal Letter issued by the reigning monarch in Madrid was also known, but the foundation record of the town was not known. The founder, attorney Bernardo Currea de Betancur, rose the petition of law for the license in a long litigation of a quarter of a century full of petty legalities with the most illustrious Municipal Council and Justice of Velez and the Priest of the City of Guane.
Such expedient in deplorable state was rescued by me, from the mountain of expedients of the tumble down archives of the Mayor’s Ofce of San Gil. The expedient does not specify if it is a copy or an original. It is made up of three books with a total of two hundred folios. They are yellowish some are stuck by the humidity and others are eaten by book worms, time and dust. The majority is written with imperceptible writing of very difcult reading because of the profusion of abbreviations and very ancient vocabulary acceptations, and destruction of pages during careful handling. With the proper interest of an investigator who does not become afraid of the grippe, dust and infection of such important document, I tried to save them from oblivion by coping them for this writing and placing them in a locked box in the Casa de Santander of San Gil.It was a great surprise to me to nd out the importance of the document, the record of the foundation and proclamation of the town of Santa Cruz made by its most illustrious municipal council and government. Besides this sensational document, there are in the archives, records of the appointments and possessions of the high viceroyship public ofcials of the town and other records of privileges, ancient duties on imports or exports, prebends and in general the organization and good government of a recently founded town. Before copying the inedited fragmentary record of the foundation of the city of San Gil as a royal town, it is important to make the following considerations of what used to be the thoughts on the foundation. The probable dates of foundation of San Gil given by traditions and historians are summarized thus:In the year 1600, foundation by the Guane Cacique Ritoque (Ruitoque), In 1620 foundation according to Eladio Mantilla, and Luis F. French. May 3, 1620 and September 14, 1620 are the dates by Julio Cesar Patintilde. The first authorities of the City of Velez are named in 1664. In 1686 the license for the foundation made by the municipal council authorizes the use of the name “Villa de la Santa Cruz y de San Gil”, and October 27, 1694, the date of conrmation of the foundation by the Monarch Carlos II, by means of a royal letter. But, it is true that the serious and logical hypothesis, oral traditions, writings and chronicles, may have a defect in asseveration and documental proof. We know that there is a lot of phantasmagoria given by some historians and geographers in the history of the foundations of towns not only of the Viceroyship of New Granada, but of Mexico and Peru. It is also true that many towns grew from marginal Indian towns, as natural daughters of progress, without prebends and privileges of royal towns, without noblemen and men of letters. In Santa Cruz, where there was adoration for the Sacred Wood, the authorities proceeded to the foundations in the name of their majesties.The priest gave his blessings in the name of religion. The Municipal Council gave a power of attorney to the nearest attorney to request a license and to obtain royal ratication. The foundation of the town according to the viceroyship modus operandi, and the context of the conrmatory royal letter easily established that the town of Santa Cruz and San Gil, to flatter governor Gil de Cabrera y Dvalos, and taking rigorously the name of the Spanish Province of Baeza, as all the populations of peninsulars did, was founded on May 3, 1668 by public record of the most illustrious Municipal council, justice and town government by unanimous proclamation.
Before I insert the record of the foundation on these pages, I would like to say here, abusing of the imagination and interpretation of the text of the description of the old town of San Gil Foundation, that in 1968, three centuries ago, the town was made of about twenty straw huts disseminated on the right bank of the Mochuelo River (Fonce) in the fresh area of El Alisal (Barrio de San Juan de Dios). There was a small chapel for the priest and homes for the main families. It is also easy to imagine that day of the foundation. The registrar and the municipal council got together among the neighbors and cheering their majesties, the memorable act of the foundation started. Some authorities may have arrived from the mountains on well groomed beasts of burden with a pair of leather trunks, accompanied by a Guane or Macaregua on a burro, because there were no slaves there. After tying their horses and drinking water at the fountain in the plaza, the visitors joined the council in deliberation of the august act and honor before the pennon of Castilla, including the ad vocation to the Reedimig Cross. Among the noise of Indians and mestizos and vivas to the King Our Lord, the following proclamation was read which I copied respecting the orthography of such an important fragmentary document found in poor state of conservation. It promotes disillusionment, pity and hilarity to expose it to the public.