Campuzano-Polanco family

Campuzano Polanco was an elite family from the colony of Santo Domingo (today Dominican Republic) with origins in Santiago de los Caballeros. Unlike any other family from the colonial era of the Hispaniola, their members and descendants went on to occupy the highest political, military and ecclesiastical positions, not only locally and outside the Island, but also in the metropolis of Spain. Their list of merits extends for over 300 years since the beginning and until the end of the colony.
Origins
Pedro Perez Polanco (c.1640-1710) was a captain of the military bands of the "cincuentenas" (bands of 50 cavalry lancers ) from the northern part of the island of the Hispaniola who lead successful military campaigns against the English invasion of Penn and Venables in 1655 and against the French in the Battle of the Limonade in 1691. Along with other captains such as Luis Lopez Tirado, Antonio Pichardo Vinuesa, Antonio Miniel, Jose Morel de Santa Cruz, Francisco del Monte and others, Polanco constituted the military and political elite of Santiago de los Caballeros and the North coast.
Perez Polanco was also Mayor of Santiago de los Caballeros and well off hatero (herder), rancher and sugar mill owner. His father, Garcia Perez Polanco (c.1620- 1656), had also been a captain of the northern military bands defending the northern coast and towns against the buccaneers and the filibusters. His mother was Ines Martinez Mejia.
His grandfather, Pedro Polanco de Henao (c.1590-1680), was Mayor of the town of Concepcion de La Vega in 1623 and was married to Ana Minaya Alconchel. His greatgrandparents Garcia Perez Polanco (c.1550) and Apolinaria de Henao y Almeida Casasola descended from nobles and the earliest settlers of Santiago de los Caballeros, La Vega and Cotui, three of the oldest European settlements in the American continent. Garcia Perez Polanco was also Mayor of La Vega around 1575.
His great great grandfather, Garcia de Polanco (c.1480), was one of the first miners who landed in the New World. He arrived with Christopher Columbus on his 4th voyage in 1502 in the Gallega ship and was among the first settlers of la Villa Buenaventura, today's Pueblo Viejo in Cotui, home of the first gold mine exploited by the Spaniards in the New World.
His relatives Luis Polanco was mayor of Cotui in 1638 and Garcia Polanco was Vicar General in 1660 under Archbishop Francisco Pio Guadalupe Tellez.
Pedro Perez Polanco married Bernarda Martinez de Rojas. His daughter, Maria Josefa Perez Polanco (c.1660-1744) married Gregorio Semillan Campuzano. Campuzano (b. 1648) was an hidalgo from Guadalajara, Spain and arrived in the island in 1680 as an assessor of the Governor Francisco de Segura Sandoval y Castilla (1678-1684). He was also Mayor of Santiago de los Caballeros and wrote a chronicle titled "Memorial" where the living conditions and economy of the north of the island at the time were described. They had four sons and two daughters, who used the compound surname Campuzano-Polanco as a sign of distinction, a tradition that all the descendants adopted as well.
1st Generation
Francisco Gregorio Campuzano Polanco (1682-1750)
Dedicated to the clergy and became Prior Provincial of the Dominican Order (Order of the Preachers) in 1720 for the area of Santa Cruz de las Indias with a wide jurisdiction over the convents of Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Cuba and Jamaica.
Pedro Campuzano Polanco (b.1685-1754)
Lieutenant Colonel of the city of La Vega, Villa del Cotuí and its parties in 1719, in charge of evicting the enemies who were approaching the coasts, in particular the French. He played a major role in the pacification of the uprising in the city of Santiago, known as the "Revolt of the Captains". and in charge of the incorporation to the island of the families and victims of the . Later he was mayor of Santo Domingo from 1752 to 1754. His son, Antonio Bruno Campuzano-Polanco, was a priest at the Cathedral Primate of the Americas.
Jose Campuzano Polanco (b.1689-1760)
Arguably the most successful privateer corsair from Santo Domingo during the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean in the first half of the XVIII century operating under a " (letter of marque). One of the most daring and active corsairs of the Caribbean region in the fight against illicit trade with countries other than Spain, capturing more than 50 foreign ships with his ships El Firme (his first vessel), N.S. Popa, and Maria.
Known for his audacity and deep knowledge of the seas, he was awarded patente de corso to operate expeditions in Cartagena, Santa Marta, Maracaibo, Florida, Puerto Rico and the island of Santa Cruz, among other areas. In theory privateering aimed to stop contraband but in reality it was a very important activity for the island of Santo Domingo, since it provided products of basic consumption to the population and also slave workers.

Jose Campuzano-Polanco was also one of the naval Captains who, along with Lorenzo Alderete and Carlos Desnaux, defended Cartagena in the Spanish victory in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741 commanded by Admiral Blas de Lezo (known as "Half Man"), the most crucial battle of the (La Guerra del Asiento) and considered one of the greatest defeats in naval history. He wrote a dairy about the battle which along with the dairy of lieutenant Enrique Forbes, are the two main sources for the telling William historical encounter in the Caribbean.
Francisco Campuzano Polanco (1689-1741)
A maestre de campo who moved to Coro, Venezuela and there he married Francisca Morillo de Ayala and founded cacao farms. He became mayor of Coro in 1715 and his children were assigned military positions and engaged in agricultural activities. One of his sons Francisco Campuzano-Polanco Morillo was mayor of Coro as well and Jose moved back and resided in Santo Domingo.
2nd Generation
Jose Campuzano- Polanco Morillo (1723-c.1800)
Returned to Santo Domingo to manage the sugar mill of Barbarroja which belonged to the family and became the first Provincial Mayor of the Santa Hermandad when the title was first created in the island in 1758. He was named mayor of Santo Domingo in 1752 by Governor Francisco Rubio y Peñaranda (1751-1759)
He married Rosa Fernandez de Lara and had one son, Adrian and three daughters, Maria Magdalena who married Nicolas Heredia Serrano Pimentel, Josefa who married Jose Maria Mieses Guridi, a wealthy rancher and Maria Magdalena Catalina who married Ignacio Perez Caro, great grandson of former Governor Ignacio Perez Caro.
3rd Generation
Adrian Campuzano-Polanco Fernandez (1754-1819)
Adrian Campuzano-Polanco was the first criollo from Santo Domingo to be elected as a deputy to the Cortes de Cadiz in 1811 as a Member for America and the Philippines, positions to which he resigned or did not accept. He married Rosa Perez-Caro, granddaughter of the Governor Ignacio Perez Caro. He was the last mayor of Santo Domingo in 1797-1798 before the Era of France of Santo Domingo. He was also rector of the University of Santo Tomas de Aquino in 1795, asesor of the Army in Cuba and lawyer for the Royal Audencia in Camaguey, Cuba.
4th Generation
Francisco Javier Caro (Santo Domingo, 1773- Madrid, 1848)
Francisco Javier Caro was the son of Maria Magdalena Catalina Campuzano-Polanco Fernandez and Ignacio Perez Caro y Oviedo, great grandson of former Governor Ignacio Perez Caro. He became rector of the University of Salamanca from 1798 to 1800 after studying there years before, being one of the few American criollos ever to do so.
He was member of the Supreme Central and Governing Junta and Captain General of Castilla la Vieja (1808-1810) and was the royal commisary for the King of Spain in the island of Santo Domingo in charge of the institutional reorganization of the country at the start of the 2nd Spanish Colony after La Reconquista of Juan Sanchez Ramirez in 1808. He was diputy for America in the Cortes de Cadiz from 1813-1814 and in 1821, minister of the Consejo de Indias and a member of the court of Isabel II from 1833 to 1836. Caro was named Procer del Reino by Isabel II in 1834. He was also testamentary of King Fernando VII.
5th Generation
Jose Maria Heredia (1803-1839)
Maria Mercedes Heredia Campuzano Polanco, daughter of Nicolas Heredia Serrano and Maria Magdalena Campuzano-Polanco Fernandez, married Jose Francisco Heredia Mieses. They were the parents of poet Jose Maria Heredia (1803-1839), known as "El Cantor del Niagara" and named National Poet of Cuba. Jose Maria Heredia's mentor and professor was his own cousin, Francisco Javier Caro.
Private burial chapel of the Campuzano-Polanco
In the early XVIII century Francisco Gregorio Campuzano-Polanco reconstructed the Chapel of Virgin del Rosario in the Church of the Convent of the Dominican Order. The family became the owners of the chapel and most its members are buried there.
The vault of the chapel is decorated with the twelve zodiacal sign around the sun, and because of this the chapel is also called the Chapel of the Zodiac. In addition in the vault there are other personages like the Olympic Gods that represent the four seasons. This interesting and unique chapel is the only one of its kind in America and one of the four vaults with astrological representations that exist today in the world, along with the Celestial Vault or in the Univerisity of Salamanca, Chapel of the Benaventes in Rioseco and the Chapel of Osiris in the Hathor Temple of Dandera

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