Eulogio Gillow y Zavalza

Who was Eulogio Gillow y Zavalza?

Eulogio Gregorio Clemente Gillow y Zavala was the first archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Antequera, Oaxaca located in Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Born in 1841, he was the son of Thomas Gillow, who immigrated to Mexico in 1819 and Mara Zavala y Gutierrez, who inherited the title of the Marchioness of Selva Nevada. Eventually, he became a priest and inherited the Chautla Hacienda located in Puebla. At this hacienda, he built the first hydroelectric plant in Latin America, and built an English-style residence for a planned agricultural school. He was named archbishop in 1887 during the regime of Porfirio Díaz, in part due to his political and ecclesiastic connections. As such he worked to get a railway connection between Mexico City and Oaxaca and worked to open schools and preserve a number of the city’s colonial churches. He was archbishop until his death in 1922.