Payo Enríquez de Rivera
Encyclopedia
Payo Enríquez de Rivera Manrique, OSA (sometimes Payo Enríquez Afán de Rivera Manrique) (1622 - 8 April 1684) was bishop of Guatemala (1657-67), archbishop of Mexico (1668-81) and viceroy of New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...

 (13 December 1673 to 30 November 1680).

Ecclesiastical career

Enríquez de Rivera was born in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, the natural son of Fernando Afán de Ribera, duke of Alcalá de los Gazules
Fernando Afán de Ribera, duke of Alcalá de los Gazules
Fernando Afán de Ribera y Téllez-Girón was a Spanish noble and diplomat.He was the 3rd Duke of Alcalá de los Gazules, 8th Count of los Molares and 5th Marquis of Tarifa...

. He entered the order of St. Augustine in Madrid. He graduated from the University of Osuna
University of Osuna
The University of Osuna , officially the Colegio-Universidad de la Purísima Concepción en Osuna was a university in Osuna, Kingdom of Seville, Spain from 1548 until 1824. Spain granted the university building the status of a monument in 2004...

 and then taught theology there and in Burgos, Valladolid and Alcalá. He came to know King Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...

, who held him in high esteem. Enríquez was superior of various Augustinian monasteries in Castile. In Guatemala he ordained the first Bethlehemites and began the construction of the Hospital de San Pedro.

In 1667 he was transferred to the Diocese of Michoacán, New Spain, but while he was on the road to take up his new position, news reached him that he was to become archbishop of Mexico. He governed there from 1668 to 1681.

As viceroy of New Spain

Upon the death of Viceroy Pedro Nuño Colón de Portugal on December 13, 1673, Archbishop Eníquez became viceroy, according to instructions Queen Regent Mariana of Austria
Mariana of Austria
Mariana of Austria was Queen consort of Spain as the second wife of King Philip IV, who was also her maternal uncle...

 had secretly sent to the Inquisition there. On that day, Inquisitor Juan de Ortega delivered the sealed instructions to the Audiencia, and the government was transferred to the archbishop.

Among his acts as viceroy were many public works projects, not only in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 but also in outlying areas. He improved the viceroy's palace and continued work on the drainage system of the Valley of Mexico. He built many bridges over the waterways of Mexico City. He began the reconstruction of the church of San Augustín (which later contained the National Library) after the church had been nearly destroyed by a fire. He introduced potable water into the Villa de Guadalupe
Villa Guadalupe
Villa Guadalupe is a former town near what is now Mexico City which in 1531 was the site of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the most renowned Marian apparition in the Americas. She can be venerated in the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine, located in the villa .Villa de Guadalupe is located in...

, and repaired the highway to Guadalupe.

On instructions from the Crown he sent a Jesuit mission to California. He welcomed the Bethlehemite Order of Guatemala into New Spain, and he reiterated the royal prohibition against Indian slavery. The Mexico City mint struck its first gold coins on June 6, 1675. In 1667 the viceroy founded the village of Paso del Norte (now Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...

), on the Río Bravo and the road to Albuquerque. Also that year oyster beds were discovered in the port of Zihuatanejo
Zihuatanejo
Zihuatanejo or Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, is the fourth-largest city in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Politically the city belongs to the municipality of Zihuatanejo de Azueta in the western part of Guerrero, but both are commonly referred to as Zihuatanejo...

.

He reformed (again) the Armada de Barlovento to defend the Gulf coast against pirates. (English pirates sacked Campeche September 22, 1678.) Through his efforts the English were expelled from the Río Coatzacoalcos and the Laguna de Términos.

Later career

Overwhelmed by his dual responsibilities, Enríquez de Rivera submitted his resignation from both. When this was accepted, he returned to Spain on June 30, 1681. The library that he had accumulated in Mexico he donated to the Oratorio of San Felipe Neri. In Spain he was given the see of Cuenca and made president of the Council of the Indies. He retired to the monastery of El Risco in Ávila, and there he died in 1684.

Sources

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