The province of Popayán was an administrative and territorial entity of New Granada and participated in the Governing Board who drew the outlines of the Republic in 1810
By Soledad Victoria Olano Correa
Thursday, July 20, is a historic date for Colombia, on the 212th anniversary of the cry for Independence, as a consequence of the revolt of the people of Santa Fe, on market day, in the main square of today’s Bogotá, after more than three centuries. of conquest and colony of the Spanish empire.
A document recorded the political events of that day, whose trigger, planned by Granada, was the famous loan of the vase, to the Spanish merchant Jose Gonzalez Llorenteto decorate the lunch table in homage offered by the authorities of the viceroyalty and the council to the royal commissioner, Antonio Villavicencio, upon his arrival in Santafé de Bogotá.
The refusal to loan the decorative object immediately had the intervention of Francisco José de Caldas and Antonio Morales, who alerted the people of the affront of the “escutcheon” to the American people.
The Independence Act was originally for the territory of the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, since it was drafted in the events that occurred on July 20, 1810 and signed by the notables of New Granada. However, the original of that text was lost in the fire of the Galerías Arrubla building on May 20, 1900 and, later, it had to be replaced by a copy, in a document-monument that is exhibited in museums and archives.
The independence process was the product of the ideas of freedom and equality promoted by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, responsible for the desire for emancipation that was later channeled by figures such as Simón Bolívar, Antonio Nariño, José María Carbonell, Camilo Torres and Policarpa Salavarrieta.
Museum of July 20, in one of the corners of the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, where the episode of the loan of the Llorente vase took place.
According to historians, although it was not the only revolution or the most accurate, It is considered the official date of Independence, since it opened the path of intense libertarian struggles against the Spanish crown.
Precisely, to commemorate this transcendental historical event that was demarcated between the second half of the 18th century and the first three decades of the 19th century to achieve the freedom of the Viceroyalty with the royalist cause and whose emancipatory process generated changes in the political, socioeconomic, cultural structure. and ideological of the Nation, the military parade of July 20, organized by the Mayor’s Office, the National Army, the Metropolitan Police and the Government of Cauca, will return to Popayán in 2023, with a tour that will begin at the Campanario shopping center and end at the Popayán Metropolitan Police Command.
Citizens will be able to enjoy this patriotic celebration, starting at 9:00 in the morning with a program that includes the delivery of recognitions and decorations to equine and canine units, especially to ‘Wilson’, the canine that participated in the search for children in the jungle of Guaviare.
It should be noted that Popayán had no direct impact on the events of July 20, 1810, because they took place in Bogotá, then called Santafé, capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, except for the leading role of Francisco José de Caldas, previously in charge of agitating the uprising of the people of Granada that market day. These events marked the end of the domination of the Spanish empire in New Granada, today Colombia, under the command of Simón Bolívar, after the liberation campaign that began in Venezuela and ended in the Battle of the Boyacá Bridge on August 7, 1819.
“The significance of July 20 deposed the viceroy Antonio José Amar y Borbón, as the royalist authority and in his place a supreme government junta was established that invited the provinces of Quito, Guayaquil and Popayán to participate in a congress.
That invitation arrived in Popayán on August 10, 1810, twelve days after what happened in Santafé. That board drew the first outlines of the Republic and created its first institutions, such as the Executive, Legislative and Judicial powers, as well as the Armed Forces, historian David Prado Valencia stated for this portal.
Likewise, the professor from the University of Cauca indicated that Popayán had already had a more important event a year before July 20, in 1809, when the president of the Royal Court was deposed in Quito. Politically, Popayán depended on the capital of New Granada, the historian David Prado Valencia finally said.