Francisco García de la Rosa Figueroa

Who is Francisco García de la Rosa Figueroa?

Francisco García de la Rosa Figueroa was a Franciscan who supervised the compilation of a significant catalogue of historical documents relating to the Spanish colonial period of Latin America.

He was lector emeritus of his order, prefect of studies of the college of Tlatelolco, superior of general convents, definitor, custodian, twice provincial of the province of Santo Evangelio, and visitor to the other provinces of New Spain. On 21 February 1790, a royal order was received directing that all documents shedding light on the history of New Spain should be copied and sent to Spain, the order designating in some instances special documents which were wanted. The Count of Revillagigedo, viceroy from 1789 to 1794, entrusted to Father Figueroa the work of selecting, arranging, and copying these manuscripts.

Figueroa managed in under three years to turn over to the Government thirty-two folio volumes relating to the political and ecclesiastical history of the provinces. One copy, which was sent to Spain and examined by the chronicler Muñoz, is preserved in the Academia de Historia; the other was kept in Mexico in the Secretaría del Virreinado, and from there was transferred to the general archives of the Palacio Nacional. The first volume of this was missing, but about 1872 a copy of it was made from that preserved in Madrid. To the original thirty-two volumes another was added, compiled years afterwards by some Franciscans, which contains a minute index of the contents of the work. Two other copies of the thirty-two volumes were found; one remained in Mexico, and the other was taken to the United States to the H.H. Bancroft collection.