|
home |
LA CIENEGA'S HISTORICAL DATA
|
The estate where the country house is built was bought in 1695 by a land-owner, Don Matheo de la Escalera y Velasco, as per a public deed executed in the city of Tacunga before the Notary Don Luis de Cabrera. Matheo de la Escalera, who was born in Lascuarre (Huesca), married on January 20, 1680 Doña Gabriela Muñoz, who was born in Quito and baptized at its Cathedral on March 27, 1662. An only child was born to this couple - Doña María Rosa de la Escalera y Muñoz - who married Captain Gregorio Matheu y Villamayor at Quito's Cathedral on February 4, 1702. Their son, Gregorio, Knight of the Order of Calatrava and Marquis of Maenza, was at age 20 "encomendero" (Spanish colonist who was granted Indian laborers by royal decree) in Archidona and Colonel of the Armies of Tacunga and Ambato. It was said that he fell in love in Lima with a thirteen-year-old girl named Doña María Ana de Aranda y Guzmán; he abducted her and brought her to the Province of Quito escorted by one hundred of his servants. Once they got married, La Ciénega was their habitual residence.
 |
In the Royal District of Quito the eighteenth century was one of very important events. Amongst them, it is worth highlighting, because of their direct relation with La Ciénega, such events as the arrival of the French Mission, the intense geological activity of the Andes Mountain Range, and the worsening of the antagonism between Spaniards and Creoles which a few years later would give rise to the Quito Revolution - the debut of the American emancipation.
The expedition of the French Mission to the Royal District of Quito was aimed at measuring several meridian degrees from the equator in order to determine the actual shape of the earth and its magnitude. To this end, and once the permit was obtained from the Royal Council of the Indies, three academicians left la Rochelle on May 16, 1735: Luis Godin, Pierre Bouguer and Charles Marie de la Condamine. Two lieutenants designated by the King of Spain to accompany the mission joined them in Cartagena - Jorge Juan de Santacilia and Antonio de Ulloa. The mission arrived in Quito a year later, on May 29, 1736.
It is not worth mentioning all the activities carried out by the academicians during the nine years they spent in the District of Quito. We will just mention the coincidence that motivated La Condamine's trip to La Ciénega and his sojourn there and his friendship with the Marquis of Maenza. Indeed, on June 15, 1742 Bouguer and La Condamine climbed the Pichincha to examine its crater. From this place, they observed the eruption of the Cotopaxi that took place on the same date after more than two hundred years of inactivity, as the preceding eruption had taken place in 1534 - an unusual phenomenon for an European traveller who was besides a scientist. This prompted him to travel to the area of the volcano and thus he sojourned in la Ciénega. No information is available concerning any further visits of La Condamine to La Ciénega, but we can assume that he went there several times because up to the date when he went back to France, the Cotopaxi erupted four more times - on December 9, 1742; from September 27 to October 4, 1743; from November 30 to 31, 1744; and on December 2, 1744 - which must have certainly been of much interest for a scientist.
 |
During the eighteenth century the geological activity of the Andes was very intense throughout the Royal District of Quito, specially in the central area. In regard to Latacunga, from November 22, 1687 this city underwent frequent and devastating earthquakes: on June 20, 1698 with 3.500 victims; in 1703; and on December 5, 1736 in which the villages of Pujulí, Toacaso, Tanicuchí, and Saquisilí were destroyed. On April 26, 1755 took place the most severe earthquake the city of Quito has undergone up to then, causing also serious damages in areas near Latacunga. Finally, on February 22, 1757 there was a "terrible earthquake that ruined the city of Latacunga. All the churches and almost all the houses came down." (History of Ecuador by Federico González Suarez and Teodoro Wolf, Ecuador). In addition to these earthquakes, the Cotopaxi was permanently activity - there were seven eruptions, the worst of which took place on April 4, 1768. In December 1740 the Quilotoa also made its last eruption that was observed by the Marquis of Maenza, who personally informed La Condamine about it in Paris in 1751.
It is worth stressing the fact that, notwithstanding this tremendous geological activity of frequent earthquakes and eruptions, the house of La Ciénega remained undamaged. This might be due both to its solid construction with stone walls two meters thick and to the fact that it is built on swampy land which cushions and attenuates the violet quakes. Family tradition attributes to the Virgin of the Rosary, Patroness of La Ciénega, the fact that it has been preserved without any damage. The main bell contains an inscription concerning this tradition.
The discord between Creoles and Spaniards worsened in the eighteenth century. This was due to several reasons, but we will mention only those having relation with la Ciénega. Don Dionisio de Alsedo y Herrera had been appointed President of the Royal District of Quito a Madrilenian who arrived in Quito in December 1728.
 |
President Alsedo had been appointed in view of his own merits and not, as it was usual then, through a payment made to the Crown. He was a good President but he took sides with the Spaniards against the Creoles, and since he was a close friend of the Marquis of Maenza, the latter got involved in this resentment, specially upon the arrival of the new President of the Royal District of Quito, Dr. José de Araujo y Río - born in Lima and thus Creole. There was a dispute between the new President and the Spanish officers Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa and the President ordered that Ulloa be imprisioned. These events moved the Marquis of Maenza to get involved in the lawsuit filed against the President in which the Marquis was fined with one thousand pesos and sentenced to one-year exile which he spent in La Ciénega.
Gregorio Matheu y de la Escalera and María Ana de Aranda y Gusmán had a son, Manuel, who was baptized in Quito on June 18, 1743; he was an attorney of the Royal District and the Vicerector of Saint Thomas University; he married in Quito Doña María Josefa de Herrera y Berrio on April 8, 1777. His daughter, Doña María Rosa, married José Antonio de Ascásubi y Olabegoitia and they had only two children: Francisco Javier de Ascásubi y Matheu and José Javier de Ascásubi y Matheu.