AUGUST 10TH, 1809
 Already
in December, 1808, Count Ruiz de Castilla, President of the Audiencia
of Quito, was informed of the existence of a conspiracy which hoped to
liberate the Audiencia from Spanish rule. The conspirators struck in
August, 1809. On the evening of August 9th, they met in the house of
Manuela Cañizares, next to the cathedral, and after declaring themselves
to form a properly constituted assembly, proceeded to organize a
government known as the Sovereign Junta. The troops
quartered in the city, not without reason, declared their support for
the movement. The President of the Audiencia was informed that his
period of office was over, as that of all the men that he had appointed.
On August 16th, in open council, the inhabitants of Quito ratified what
the conspirators had done, amid cheers and celebrations. The August
declaration, which has gained for Quito the title "Light of America",
was not a casual, purely emotional affair: it had a long history behind
it, the teachings of Espejo, the ideas of men such as Juan de Dios
Morales, passionate democrat, brought up on the ideas of Rousseau and
the Encyclopaedists. And therefore, although attempts were made to
belittle both the intentions and the results of the declaration, they
were both of radical importance. As early as December ll
th, 1811 the First Congress of Free Peoples of the Presidency of Quito
declared absolute sovereignty, and promulgated a constitution on
February 15th. Quito raised an army of three thousand men to defend the
government, but these troops, inexperienced and poorly equipped, were
defeated in the north and forced to surrender.
Count Ruiz de Castilla, back in power, promised to
preserve the Junta, and not to take reprisals. But when the Royal
Battalion came up to Quito from Lima - five hundred thugs under the
command of Arredondo - as well as troops from Guayaquil and Cuenca, he
dissolved the Junta and imprisoned the leaders of the uprising, to
the number of sixty. Charges were brought against them, and forty-six of
them faced leath penalty. They were to be tried by the Viceroy of Santa
Fe. Ominous rumurs began to spread,and Quito feared for the lives of the
prisoners. A brave group, made up mostly of young men, decided to
attack the quarters of the Lima Royal Battalion and set the
prisoners free. |
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On August 2nd, 1810, to the sound
of the bells of the cathedral that suddenly began to chime, they
attacked. But as they were striking off the chains of the prisonners,
soldiers from Popayan. burst in through a hole in the wall and a bloody
massacre took place Juan de Dios Morales, Juan Salinas, Javier Ascazubi,
the presbyter Riofrio, Nicolas Aguilera, Antonio Peña, José Vinueza,
Juan Larrea, Manuel Cajias, Mariano Villalobos, Anastasio Oiea, Vicente
Melo, Manuel Quiroga and others were murdered in the most cowardly
fashion, Quiroga being slain in the arms of his daughters who were
visiting him at that moment. Then
the soldiers rushed out into the streets and fell upon the people that
they found there.
THE BATTLE
FOR LIBERTY
There follows a
long history of attempts at gaining independence, of struggles and
heroic resistance on the part of the city that never accepted defeat. In
the middle of the wars of independence, the story comes to an end on the
slopes of Mount Pichincha.
General Antonio José de Sucre, while trying to join forces with Bolívar
in Pasto, to the north of Quito, was seen by the Spaniards as he led his
troops over the slopes of the mountain. They attacked him, and he
offered battle. On the steep slopes the patriotic forces repelled the
attacks of the royalists time and again, until finally, after three
hours of bloody and uncertain combat, the royalists abandoned the
battlefield. The inhabitants of the heroic city were watching the
development of the battle, and celebrated the victory that set the seal
on so long a history of rebellion and martyrdom. |
