José Eusebio Colombres (16 December 1778 – 11 February 1859) was an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

statesman and bishop. He was a representative to the Congress of Tucumán of 9 July 1816 which declared the Independence of Argentina, and is credited with the foundation of the important sugar cane industry in Tucumán Province. Colombres was born in San Miguel de Tucumán into an influential family and became a cleric in August 1803 in Catamarca and a Doctor in Canon Law at the University of San Carlos in Córdoba. Colombres was elected by

Catamarca Province Catamarca () is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. The province had a population of 334,568 as per the , and covers an area of 102,602 km2. Its literacy rate is 95.5%. Neighbouring provinces are (clockwise, fr ...

to the Tucumán Congress in 1816, having served as a parish priest in

Piedra Blanca Piedra Blanca (literally, "White Stone") is a city in Monseñor Nouel province, Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipe ...

in that province. After independence, he participated in the League of the North and consequently had to live in exile in Livi-Livi close to Tupiza,

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

, until the fall of

Juan Manuel de Rosas Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rosas (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confederation. Althoug ...

. He returned to Tucumán and became a priest in the cathedral. He was a senior cleric in the Salta diocese, for a period leading the diocese which had no bishop appointed since 1830. As governor of the diocese he commissioned the new Salta Cathedral. In 1858 Colombres was appointed Bishop of Salta on the suggestion of Justo José de Urquiza but died less than two months later before being consecrated. Although sugar cane had been brought to northern Argentina by the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

s, Colombres started growing it on his land in 1821 and introduced the techniques to make its cultivation an industry and income generator, with the first mill. Sugar production is still, as of 2006, one of Tucumán's principal industries. His house in Tucumán, around which the city's extensive Ninth of July Park was developed in 1910, is now the Museum of the Sugar Industry and a

National Historic Monument National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

. His birthplace close to the city's central square is now the Folklore Museum.

References

Profile
by the House of Tucumán, accessed 2006-08-01 {{DEFAULTSORT:Colombres, Jose 1778 births 1859 deaths Members of the Congress of Tucumán People from San Miguel de Tucumán 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Argentina People of the Argentine War of Independence Roman Catholic bishops of Salta