JUAN PABLO VISCARDO Y GUZMÁN: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán (1748 - 1798) was a Peruvian Jesuit and writer, known for being one of the activists for the Independence of Latin America. More specifically, it is recognized for being a staunch enemy of the Spanish Crown for its colonialism in Peru and Latin America.

The role of the Peruvian writer in England was crucial, especially in the relations of the British with Latin Americans: he was a tenacious mediator who tried to solve the pressure of the Spanish in the American colonies.

s / d, 19th century, via Wikimedia Commons

Since he was exiled to Italy, Viscardo was moved by the longing for the independence and emancipation of Spanish America, so he began to write and plan a series of strategies accompanied by his brother, José Anselmo.

Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán is recognized for having been the author of the work entitled Letters to the American Spanish, a document in which he insisted that the Independence of Hispano-America be given from the Spanish forces.

After his death, the Venezuelan hero Francisco de Miranda released this document worldwide.

Biography

Early years and studies

Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán was born on June 26, 1748 -according to the information in his baptismal certificate- in the village of Pampacolca (current department of Arequipa, Peru). He was a descendant of a Creole family, of good economic position.

Viscardo was one of the children that Gaspar de Viscardo y Guzmán had with Manuela de Zea and Andía. His family came from a Spaniard who lived and settled in the Camaná Valley in the 17th century.

During his early years, he stayed in his hometown with his parents and siblings. It is believed that she had three sisters, although José Anselmo was the best known of the family.

As was common at the time, both Juan Pablo Viscardo and his brother José Anselmo were sent to Cuzco to study at the Real Colegio de San Bernardo del Cuzco (a Jesuit institution).

Although the Viscardo brothers had all the privileges to enjoy a good situation, the death of their father, in 1760, completely changed their plans. After that mishap, they had no choice but to try to solve their educational and economic situation.

Education and expulsion

Both brothers (Juan Pablo and José Anselmo) decided to start as novices in the Ignatian Order of the Society of Jesus, although they were not of the age that the order required. In fact, the decision to accept them was considered controversial, since the age requirement to allow them to enter was discarded.

In 1767, King Carlos III of Spain ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain and the Spanish-dominated countries of the Americas. Both the king and his supporters believed that the religious group had been the provocateur of the revolt in Madrid against the Crown.

Viscardo and the other Jesuit students were arrested and expelled from the Peruvian capital, with the intention of being shipped to Spain. In August 1768, the Jesuits arrived at the Bay of Cádiz and were distributed in the different convents of the place.

After several insinuations on the part of the Crown to the religious, many of them made the decision to leave the Jesuit organization; the Viscardo brothers were some of the members who decided to leave the institution.

Stay in Italy

The Spaniards had promised a group of Jesuits, including the Viscardo brothers, all their documents and files processed to renounce their religious vows. They were then transported to settle in Italy.

However, when they arrived in Italy, the documentation of the Jesuit group was not available and, otherwise, they were prohibited from returning to their place of origin in Latin America. The pressure reached the point of being threatened with the death penalty if they disobeyed any of the royal rules.

Finally, in 1771, Juan Pablo and José Anselmo managed to settle in Massa and Carrara, Italy, in the home of the Cybo family. The Viscardos spent years without speaking with their relatives due to the restrictions of the Spanish Crown.

In compensation for the radical treatment and decisions of the Spaniards, they awarded each a pension (equivalent to the lowest salary in any country). The brothers lived for a few years living on little money from the pension, without being able to afford any luxury.

They both fought to take their share of the family inheritance; however, his sisters were in charge of dividing their father's estate among them, excluding his brothers, who were still exiled in Italy.

Conspiracy against the Crown

Apart from the family disappointments on the part of her sisters, months later the news of their mother's death reached them. In 1781, Juan Pablo and José Anselmo learned of the rebellion organized by the indigenous leader Túpac Amaru II in Peru.

Later, Juan Pablo Viscardo contacted the consul of England, informing him about the rebellion of the native. At that time in history, Spain and England were rivals, so Viscardo took advantage of the situation to fight in favor of Spanish America.

Spain was at war with England, so Viscardo tried to count on English support for the American colonies to achieve absolute independence from Spain. Juan Pablo offered himself as an intermediary between the Peruvians and the English, since he was fluent in English perfectly.

The English invited Viscardo to London for a formal meeting, after showing interest in the Peruvian's arguments. The brothers managed to sneak off to Germany, under the pseudonyms Paolo Rossi and Antonio Valessi.

Stay in london

Before landing in London, Viscardo invited the English government to send forces to South America with the purpose of settling in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Viscardo's strategy consisted of advancing through Buenos Aires to achieve a first conquest victory.

As the British were on the verge of losing 13 American territories (specifically in North America), the plan drawn up by Viscardo interested them strongly.

For two years, Viscardo remained in London, protected by the English government. At that time, the transition of government in England produced decisive international changes that completely altered the political scene. As a consequence, Great Britain signed a peace agreement with Spain.

Although the changes were positive for both European powers, Viscardo's plans were no longer interesting for the English, so he decided to go back to Italy. In those years, he was in charge of claiming the inheritance that both his sisters and the Spanish Crown had taken from him.

Europe travel

In 1791, Juan Pablo Viscardo headed to London again in the hope that this time England would help the Spanish-American colonies to achieve their independence. On this occasion, he did not have the support of his brother José Anselmo, after his death six years earlier.

Viscardo decided to move to France, at a time with strong political and social conflicts due to the rise of the French Revolution. It was in this country where he wrote his most recognized work, entitled Letter to the American Spanish.

In this work, Viscardo invited the Creoles of America to rise up against Spanish oppression. In fact, the play was first written in French and then translated into Spanish. During those years, the Peruvian writer was only concerned with thinking of strategies with solid arguments to achieve the Independence of America.

Venezuelan politician Francisco de Miranda was the one who translated many of Juan Pablo Viscardo's most important manuscripts into Spanish. Viscardo got to know Miranda on one of his trips to Europe and, seeing that they shared the same ideals of freedom, they generated mutual affinity.

Last years

"Plaque commemorating Juan Pablo Viscardo and Guzmán in London". Simon Harriyott from Uckfield, England, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1795, he moved to London again in order to go to the British to help him achieve the Independence of America. Britain had other problems at the time, which made it impossible to provide its aid to the American colonies.

Even so, Viscardo continued to draft new strategies that were appealing to the British court. As time went by, the Peruvian writer's health deteriorated and his economic situation became increasingly precarious.

Juan Pablo Viscardo was in total solitude when he died on February 10, 1780, at the age of 50. He had left his voluminous papers to the American politician and diplomat Rufus King, who at that time was taking over as the United States minister to England. The American handed the documents to Francisco de Miranda.

Plays

Letter addressed to the Spanish

Letter addressed to the Spanish or also called Letter addressed to the American Spanish, is a document written by Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán published in 1799 in French and in 1801 in Spanish.

In this work, Viscardo invited Hispano-Americans to achieve the Independence of their nations from Spanish rule; it constitutes one of the first calls for freedom by a Latin American with Spanish blood.

Viscardo died without knowing that his work would have a great impact on the Spanish-American peoples. The document reached almost all the colonies in North America, Central America, and South America.

In fact, none of his manuscripts had been published, and otherwise European countries had not paid attention to him.

Viscardo's manuscripts in the hands of Miranda

When the American Rufus King gave the documents to Miranda, he begged her to translate all the documents into English. Miranda had the opportunity to read all the works written by Viscardo and translate them.

The Venezuelan hero had been dazzled by Viscardo's content and form of writing, so he made the decision to exhibit them in the Americas and around the world. He noted that all the ideological approaches regarding Hispanic American emancipation were strategies that he himself shared.

Miranda affirmed that the work constitutes an impeccable epistle where a series of erroneous expositions on the part of the Spaniards is collected, among other things: the bad administration of the colonies, the conformism of the Creoles and the convenience of British support. These were some of the topics that Viscardo mentioned in his letters.

When Francisco de Miranda landed in La Vela de Coro (Venezuela) for his liberating expedition, he cited many of the proposals of the Charter addressed to the Spanish. Miranda was influenced by Viscardo's ideas for his proclamation of independence from the Americas.

General ideas of the work

In the work Letters addressed to the Spanish, Viscardo addresses the American Spanish; that is to say, to the descendants of the Spaniards born in American lands (also called peninsular or creole).

The work is introduced with a review of 300 years of American history, characterized by abuses and ungovernability on the part of the Spanish. Furthermore, it expresses the injustices of the Spanish Crown towards the Spanish descendants who lived in America.

Also, it explains in an impeccable and detailed way that the emancipation of Spanish America was a right and a duty of Spanish Americans: it practically demands that they must defend their sovereignty.

In short, Juan Pablo Viscardo cataloged the American Spanish (including himself) as cowards by not defending the homeland that belonged to them. It does not excuse the apathy of the Latin American people. In addition, he gave importance to the natural rights of the American peoples, liberty and security.

Modifications of the work

The first edition of the work was made in the French language, although it was published for the first time in London. The Spanish version appeared in 1801, translated by Miranda, who also added a series of notes and details at the bottom of the page to explain and reinforce Viscardo's ideas.

Miranda made several references to the chroniclers Antonio de Herrera and Fray Bartolomé de las Casas; it also included references to expelled Jesuits who were still in exile in Italy.

A few years later, Spanish-American Independence finally triumphed, but the document had been forgotten as a reference to events. In the 20th century, the work was reissued and investigations were carried out on both the work and Juan Pablo Viscardo.

Other literary works

Letter to the Spanish was not the only work by Viscardo related to the idea of ​​Hispanic American emancipation. The work entitled Project to make Spanish America independent was a text written in 1791, in which he proposed a massive rebellion in the Spanish-American colonies.

The following year, Viscardo wrote another work entitled The Historical Essay on the Disturbances of South America in 1780. That same year, he wrote another work related to emancipatory ideas, called Political Sketch on the current situation in Spanish America and on the means of strategy to facilitate its independence.

In this last text, he highlights the cultural characteristics of the indigenous and the Creoles, praising their virtues. Finally, in 1797, he wrote the work entitled The peace and happiness of the new century, an exhortation addressed to all free peoples or those who want to be free by a Spanish American.

References

1. Juan Pablo Viscardo and his "Letter to the Spanish Americans", Antonio Gutiérrez Escudero, (2007). Taken from digital.csic.es
2. Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán, Portal The 450 years in Peru, (nd). Taken from file.jesuitas.pe
3. Juan Pablo Mariano Viscardo de Guzmán Sea, Portal Geneamet, (nd). Taken from gw.geneanet.org
4. Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán, author of "Letter to Spanish Americans", Portal Notimérica, (2017). Taken from notimerica.com
5. Latin American Literature: Historiographies, Encyclopedia Britannica Editors, (nd). Taken from britannica.com
6. Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán, Wikipedia in Spanish, (nd). Taken from wikipedia.org