Cartagena de Indias City Council, a gang under the dominance of Vicente de Peñalosa, 1675-1680

Abstract

This is a case study in the city council of Cartagena de Indias: the conflict between the councilor Vicente de Peñalosa and the legal councelor (teniente general) Domingo de la Rocha, the first one without a University title and the second one with a Law title by Salamanca. The former one accumulated ancestors with many military services and merits in conquests. Peñalosa started out where his ancestors had stared in their feats, in Mompox, where he did not feel completely realized and tried to jump to Cartagena as notary. His neighbours, however, put down very negatives opinions about him: restless, unruly, litigious and seditious. Nontheless, Peñalosa had two royal letters that backed him, but the City Council appealed to the Council of the Indies in Madrid and Peñalosa did not get the post. But by means of friends he got to be elected councilor of the city of Cartagena, in which he dominated the rest of the gang, having always in front the governor’s legal counsellor, who introduced some reforms in the city market. He paid 550 pesos for the seat in the City Council without time limit, which was never confirmed, although in the confrontation with de la Rocha, already promoted to the post of judge in Santa Fe, he got a positive sentence in a judicial case with Peñalosa, which obliged the counterpart to pay the legal costs. Of no use were the insuperable informs about de la Rocha against the courtly influences of Peñalosa.