El círculo de los Gálvez

For readers in eighteenth-century Spanish America, the Gálvez family requires little introduction. The patriarch of the clan, José, has been well known at least since Herbert Ingram Priestley's landmark study early in the twentieth century. José's nephew Bernardo won sufficient glory with his stunning victory at Pensacola to have gained posthumous recognition as an honorary citizen of the United States. Bernardo's father, Matías, became viceroy of New Spain. And José's two other brothers, Miguel and Antonio, were also men of substance. The Gálvezes derived from the obscure Andalusian village of Macharaviaya, near Málaga. Their story is a spectacular example of a dynamic individual's rise, along with his family, from the intermediate ranks of society to the Bourbon administrative elite. In the present volume, Manuel Hernández González unravels the story behind the Gálvezes' rise to prominence and provides excellent insights into the interplay between familial power and the enlightened administrative apparatus under Charles III.A distinguished historian from the University of La Laguna, Hernández González has written extensively on the Canary Islands, especially isleño emigration to America. As three of the Gálvezes spent important periods in the islands, the family has a natural interest for him. For the present undertaking, he consulted an exhaustive number of Spanish and Mexican archives and commands the relevant bibliography.The volume contains a chapter for each of the prominent men and several related topics. It starts with José, the family patriarch. Especially informative are the sections on his educational formation from when the local bishop first spotted his talent through its culmination in studying law at Salamanca, his skillful cultivation of important people before and after he relocated to Madrid, and his ability to secure influence at court. Hernández González balances José's impressive achievements as visitor-general of New Spain, minister of the Indies (1776–87), and governor of the Council of the Indies with insights into his harsh, ruthless side and his insatiable lust for power and wealth as manifested in bureaucratic excess and suffocating cronyism (clientelismo).Hernández González's central thesis is that once established, this family patriarch, using predatory power, placed its members strategically to hasten and fortify its ascent from modest, provincial beginnings to a place among the Spanish elite. After intermediate successes of their own, José's three brothers all saw their fortunes leap once he established himself in Madrid. Matías, the eldest, advanced from director of the isleño tobacco monopoly and a local militia officer to captain general of Guatemala within three years. His military successes during the American Revolutionary War, while Bernardo simultaneously won family glory in Florida, then enabled José to name him viceroy of New Spain in 1783. Miguel, who also studied law at Salamanca, followed his brother to court, where he accumulated multiple lucrative offices. He later became a plenipotentiary minister to Prussia and then Russia and finally counselor of state, dying in 1792 on his way back to Spain.The treatment of Antonio, the youngest brother, whom José positioned as commandant general of the Cádiz resguardo to oversee the port's commercial traffic, is especially illuminating. Hernández González accumulated compelling evidence to document Antonio's ability, under his brother's protection, to skim a fortune from the levies on the American trade and fraudulent exports. José, of course, expected his cut. Critics appeared, but Gálvez, holding both the secretariat of the Indies and governorship of the Council of the Indies and having valuable allies, controlled the information reaching the king. This would not change, Hernández González asserts, until late in the game, when Pedro López de Lerena succeeded José's protector, Miguel de Múzquiz, at the Ministry of Hacienda in 1785.One-third of the text is dedicated to the much-heralded Bernardo, Matías's son, including his formation as an army officer, his rapid ascent under José, and, after his victory at Pensacola, his mythification as one of Spain's greatest heroes. Hernández González, however, takes an intriguing revisionist approach. Whereas historians normally have applauded Bernardo's daring and decisive leadership, Hernández González emphasizes blind luck, the timely arrival of reinforcements from Havana, and the Gálvez ability to control information afterward. The ruthless suppression of those whose personal achievements might have distracted from the carefully nurtured myth is shocking. The topical chapters highlight the strategies of nepotism and the family power network, especially as it functioned in Mexico and Venezuela; its close ties to family confidant Francisco de Saavedra; and José's most persistent critic, Juan Manuel Fernández de Palazuelos.Just as rapidly as the Gálvezes ascended in Madrid, they disappeared from the scene, owing to the absence of male descendants. José placed his hopes on Bernardo, who succeeded Matías as viceroy, but he died soon after. Hernández González traces the demise of the clan on through the surviving women, some of whom lingered into the nineteenth century. This is a superb book, an absolute gold mine of information about the Gálvez family that provides fresh insights into royal governance under them

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