Valentin de Foronda

Who was Valentin de Foronda?

Valentin de Foronda y González de Echávarri, was Spanish General Consul in Philadelphia from 1801 to 1807 and Spanish Plenipotentiary Minister in the U.S.A. from 1807 to 1809—tense times because of American ship's lack of discipline in trading with Cuba and the U.S.A.'s support for Francisco de Miranda who led an attempted revolution for Venezuelan independence from Spain.

He returned to Spain upon the arrival of Luis Onís, who replaced him, and who was nominated by the "Junta Patriótica" opposed to the invaion of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte.

He taught at the Basque Institutional School, known as Seminario de Vergara, was promoted to Knight of the Military Order of Santiago in 1793, a Knight of the Order of Carlos III in 1801 and was later a member of the American Philosophical Society.

His letter of November 1799 to the then Spanish Secretary of State Mariano Luis de Urquijo, concerning the financial crushing of the "Banco de San Carlos", a precursor to the actual Bank of Spain, where he had invested the proceeds of sale of his land and farms, probably resulted in his diplomatic nomination to the Spanish Consulate in Philadelphia.

His "Observaciones sobre algunos puntos de la Obra de Don Quijote", Philadelphia, has motivated his inclusion on the short list of people phobic against world famous Seventeenth Century Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes,.