NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Antonio Ricaurte

Antonio Ricaurte
June 10, 1786 – March 25, 1814

Nickname	El Chispero (the spark lighter)
Place of birth	Villa de Leyva, Boyacá Colombia
Place of death	San Mateo, Aragua Venezuela
Allegiance	Army of the Patriots of New Granada
Years of service	1810-1814
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	Alto de la Virgen (December 2, 1812) San Victorino (January 9, 1813) La Grita (April 13, 1813) Carache (June 19, 1813) Niquitao (July 2, 1813) Taguanes (July 31, 1813) San Mateo (March 25, 1814)

Antonio Ricaurte (born June 10, 1786 in Villa de Leyva, Colombia - died March 25, 1814 in San Mateo, Venezuela) was a patriot of the Independence of Colombia and Venezuela and captain of Bolívar's army. He is remembered as the martyr of the Battle of San Mateo, where in a heroic action he blasted an enemy stronghold by immolating himself.^[1] June 10 is the 161st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (162nd in leap years), with 204 days remaining. ... 1786 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... Year 1814 (MDCCCXIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Villa de Leyva Villa de Leyva (sometimes spelt Villa de Leiva) is a colonial town 40 km west of Tunja, in the BoyacÃ¡ department. ... Motto: Capital Tunja Governor Jorge Eduardo LondoÃ±o Area 23,189 kmÂ² Population - Total (2003) - Density 1,411,239 61 people/kmÂ² Adjective Boyaca (Spanish: BoyacÃ¡) is a department of Colombia, one of the original nine states of the United States of Colombia. BoyacÃ¡ is centrally located within Colombia, almost... Image File history File links Flag_of_Colombia. ... San Mateo is a city in Aragua State, Venezuela. ... Estado Aragua is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Venezuela. ... June 10 is the 161st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (162nd in leap years), with 204 days remaining. ... 1786 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Villa de Leyva Villa de Leyva (sometimes spelt Villa de Leiva) is a colonial town 40 km west of Tunja, in the BoyacÃ¡ department. ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... Year 1814 (MDCCCXIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... San Mateo is a city in Aragua State, Venezuela. ... BolÃvars War refers to a series of independence wars in South America from 1811 to 1825 led by the famous South American nationalist and general SimÃ³n BolÃvar. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Combatants Patriots Royalists Commanders Francisco de Miranda Juan Domingo Monteverde Strength n/a infantry n/a cavalry n/a infantry n/a cavalry Casualties n/a dead or wounded n/a dead or wounded The Battle of San Mateo occurred on the 25 July 1812 in San Mateo, Venezuela and... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

1 Early life
2 Early military career
3 War of Independence
- 3.1 Battle of San Mateo
4 Legacy
5 References
6 Further reading

Early life

Antonio Ricaurte was born in a family with a military tradition. He was the son of Esteban Ricaurte and María Clemencia Lozano, who was the daughter of Jorge Lozano de Peralta, Marquis of San Jorge, renowned collaborator of the Revolt of the Comuneros of 1781 against the rule of the Spanish Crown. Marquis has many different meanings: The French spelling of the title known in English as Marquess and Margrave. ... The Revolt of the Comuneros is series of uprisings by local inhabitants in New Granada, now Colombia, against the Spanish authorities between 1740 and 1779. ... The actual Spanish royal crown, known as crown of Alphonso of Spain, is the symbol of Spanish monarchy and was used in proclamation ceremonies since 18th century. ...

He studied at the San Bartolomé School in Bogotá between 1799 and 1804, and later married Juana Martínez Camacho, niece of patriot Joaquín Camacho, who mentored him into the colonial bureacracy and through whose influence Ricaurte was appointed chamber scribe and secretary of the Accounts Tribunal of the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada.^[2] Nickname: Athens of Latin America Motto: BogotÃ¡, 2600 metros mÃ¡s cerca de las estrellas BogotÃ¡, 2600 meters closer to the stars Municipalities of BogotÃ¡ Country Colombia Department BogotÃ¡, D.C.* Foundation August 6, 1538 - Mayor LuÃs Eduardo GarzÃ³n, PDA Area - City 1,587 kmÂ² (Expression error: Unrecognised... Bureaucracy is a concept in sociology and political science referring to the way that the administrative execution and enforcement of legal rules is socially organized. ... This is about scribe, the profession. ... The Viceroyalty of New Granada was the name given to a group of colonial provinces in northern South America, corresponding mainly to modern Colombia. ...

Early military career

He participated in the revolutionary acts of July 20th, 1810 in Bogotá, as a rebel against the colonial regime; for his bold performance, his comrades gave him the nickname El Chispero ("the spark lighter"). The commanders of the revolution entrusted him with the mission of keeping watch over the Viceroy Antonio Amat y Borbón at the Accounts Tribunal. When the patriot militias were organized, Ricaurte was incorporated to the infantry batallion of the National Guard, with the rank of lieutenant. Nickname: Athens of Latin America Motto: BogotÃ¡, 2600 metros mÃ¡s cerca de las estrellas BogotÃ¡, 2600 meters closer to the stars Municipalities of BogotÃ¡ Country Colombia Department BogotÃ¡, D.C.* Foundation August 6, 1538 - Mayor LuÃs Eduardo GarzÃ³n, PDA Area - City 1,587 kmÂ² (Expression error: Unrecognised... A viceroy is a royal official who governs a country or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. ... Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Infantry are soldiers who fight primarily on foot with small arms in organized military units, though they may be transported to the battlefield by horses, ships, automobiles, skis, or other means. ... Symbol of the Austrian 14th Armoured Battalion in NATO military graphic symbols In military terminology, a battalion consists of two to six companies typically commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel. ... Lieutenant is a military, naval, paramilitary, fire service or police officer rank. ...

During the first years of the First Republic of New Granada, when the division of centralists and federalists occurred, Ricaurte supported Antonio Nariño and the centralists and participated in the First Civil War of New Granada. He fought the battle of Alto de la Virgen in Ventaquemada, where his troops were defeated on December 2, 1812. Subsequently, on January 9, 1813, he participated in the battle of San Victorino in Santafé, which gave the triumph to the centralists.
Motto Libertad y Orden (Spanish: Liberty and Order) Location of the Republic of the New Granada shown in green Capital Santa Fe de BogotÃ¡ Religion Roman Catholic Government Republic History - Established October 20, 1831 - Bill of rightsÂ¹ 1853 - Constitutional Change April 11, 1858 Currency Peso Â¹ Abolition of slavery, and suffrage... ... The term federalist refers to several sets of political beliefs around the world. ... Antonio NariÃ±o was a precursor and one of the early political and military leaders of the independence movement in Colombia, then known as New Granada. ... A civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight against each other for the control of political power. ...

War of Independence

Statue of Antonio Ricaurte by sculptor Lorenzo González in San Mateo, Venezuela. This statue depicts Captain Ricaurte at the moment in which he immolates himself by lighting a barrel of gunpowder. It was erected at the site of the battle during the centenary celebration of the independence of Venezuela.

In 1813 he was recruited in the army of New Granada under the then brigadier Simón Bolívar, to fight for the liberty of Venezuela, in what is known as the Campaña Admirable (Admirable Campaign). In this first Ejercito Libertador (Liberating Army), he fought at the battles of La Grita (April 13), Carache (June 19), Niquitao (July 2), and Taguanes (July 31) among others. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Brigadier(BRIG-uh-DEER) is a military rank, the meaning of which has a considerable variation. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The Admirable Campaign (in Spanish: CampaÃ±a Admirable) was a military action led by SimÃ³n BolÃvar from CÃºcuta with the Battle of CÃºcuta May 14, 1813. ...

Battle of San Mateo

In 1814 a series of battles between patriots and royalists took place in a region called Valles de Aragua (Valleys of Aragua), in what is now Venezuela. The main house of the San Mateo estate, property of Simón Bolívar, was placed under the custody of Ricaurte and a small troop of fifty soldiers. During the royalists' attack, the army under the royalists' Second Commander Francisco Tomás Morales took hold of most of the estate, including the main house, which was used as the principal ammunition's deposit. Look up patriot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Royalist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Estado Aragua is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. ... San Mateo is a city in Aragua State, Venezuela. ...

Realizing how the battle of San Mateo would be lost if the main house remained in the hands of the royalists, Captain Ricaurte ordered his men to leave and lit a barrel of gunpowder inside one of the ammunition storage facilities of the main house, thus killing himself and a large number of the royalist troops who were readily occupying the precincts. During the momentary disorder which followed the explosion, Bolívar seized the opportunity and launched an attack to regain control of the main house and later the whole of the estate.^[3]

The Battle of San Mateo ended with the resounding triumph of the patriots' army. It was later estimated the royalists lost more than ten times as many soldiers as the patriots during the battle. ^[4]

Legacy

Antonio Ricaurte was a fervent freemason and to date the Lodge of Zulia, Venezuela, is named in his honor.^[5] The Masonic Square and Compasses. ... In most areas of the world Masons gather together in Masonic Lodges to work the three degrees of Freemasonry: 1Â° = Entered Apprentice 2Â° = Fellow Craft 3Â° = Master Mason Blue Lodge is used to specify the basic Masonic Lodge granting the first three degrees and to differentiate it from other Masonic... Estado Zulia is one of the 23 states (estados) into which Venezuela is divided. ...

Captain Ricaurte's heroic action is also remembered in the last verse of ¡Oh Gloria Inmarcesible!, Colombia's National Anthem: Verse is a writing that uses meter as its primary organisational mode, as opposed to prose, which uses grammatical and discoursal units like sentences and paragraphs. ... In 1887, a Bogota comedian named JosÃ© Domingo Torres, combined his two passions of theatrical music and his love for his country to push for the creation of a national anthem for Colombia. ...

Spanish:
Ricaurte en San Mateo,
en átomos volando,
"Deber antes que vida,"
con llamas escribió.

English:
Ricaurte in San Mateo,
in atoms flying,
"Duty before life,"
with flames he wrote.

References

^ http://www.efemeridesvenezolanas.com/html/san_mateo.htm
^ http://www.venezuelatuya.com/biografias/ricaurte.htm
^ http://www.glrbv.org.ve/Proceres%20Masones/Antonio%20Ricaurte.htm
^ http://www.simon-bolivar.org/bolivar/bat_sn_mateo.html
^ http://www.glrbv.org.ve/Proceres%20Masones/Antonio%20Ricaurte.htm

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