Francisco Cabello y Mesa

Who was Francisco Cabello y Mesa?

Francisco Antonio de Cabello y Mesa was a Spanish soldier and writer. He edited the first newspapers of the current nations of Peru, Argentina and Uruguay and founded El telégrafo Mercantil in Buenos Aires in 1801. He wrote under the pseudonym Jaime Bausate y Meza.

Born in Extremadura, he joined the army without having completed law studies he had begun in Salamanca. He was sent to the Viceroyalty of Peru, where he was commissioned to defend the border of the province of Jauja, in the Amazon jungle, with the rank of colonel in 1790.

Returning from that duty, he edited the first newspaper published in South America, called The Curious Journal, Scholar and Trade, in Lima. He was one of the founders of the Patriotic Society of Friends of the Country, a typical group in the Age of Enlightenment. He was also an attorney from the Audiencia of Lima.

In 1798 he went off to Spain, but his travels came to an end in Buenos Aires, for health reasons, and because he had difficulty finding passage. In the capital of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, he contacted local representatives of the Enlightenment, including Secretary of Consulate in Buenos Aires, Manuel Belgrano.