Mariano Moreno - Birth and Studies

Birth and Studies

Mariano Moreno was the son of poor parents, Manuel Moreno y Argumosa and Ana Maria Valle, he had fourteen siblings. He studied at Colegio Grande de San Carlos, but without living in it, as his family could not afford the price. He graduated with an honor diploma. He met influential people within the literary field, who helped him to continue his studies at the University of Chuquisaca, even when his father could not afford the cost. This was the only big university in South America at the time. He studied the books of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and other European philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment. He studied English and French languages as well, to understand authors from Britain and France. This allowed him to work as a translator, and he spent several years working with Rousseau's The Social Contract. Moreno was convinced that society could be changed by the power of intelligence and reason.

He also studied philosophical texts of the Spanish Enlightenment under the tutelage of the priest Terrazas, and aspired to implement the new ideas in his country. He wrote a thesis with strong criticism of the native slavery at the mines of Potosí, influenced by the Spanish jurist Juan de Solorzano Pereira, the foremost publisher of Indian Law, and Victoria Villalva, fiscal of the Audiencia of Charcas and defender of the indigenous cause.

He started his professional career between 1803 and 1804, in the office of Augustine Gascón, officiating as labour counselor for Indians. As a result, he confronted powerful people like the mayors of Cochabamba and Chayanta. He left the city after being threatened, and returned to Buenos Aires in 1805 with his wife Maria Guadalupe Cuenca and their newborn son. Once in the city, he became a reporter of the hearings of the Royal Audiencia, a local appeal court. The Buenos Aires Cabildo, the local council, hired him as an advisor as well. He defended Melchor Fernández, aggrieved by Bishop Benito Lue y Riega, in one of his first cases. In another of his early disputes he backed the Cabildo in denying the appointment as an ensign of the young Bernardino Rivadavia.

A British army invaded Buenos Aires in 1806, starting the British invasions of the Río de la Plata. Although Moreno was not actively involved with the military counter-offensive which drove them out, he opposed the British presence in Buenos Aires. He wrote a diary that noted all the events, so that, in the future, his countrymen would know the circumstances that allowed such an invasion. The British made a new attack in 1807, this time invading Montevideo. They published a bilingual English–Spanish newspaper known as "The Southern Star" or "La estrella del sur" (the newspaper used both names in conjunction). It advocated free trade, a British goal, and promoted American independence under British protection. The Royal Audiencia of Buenos Aires banned the newspaper and requested Moreno to write articles refuting those of the British publication. Moreno refused because, although he did not accept British rule, he agreed with some of their criticisms of the Spanish government. Fearing a new attack to Buenos Aires, Moreno left the city with his whole family and relocated in the countryside. His house in Buenos Aires, left unoccupied, was used to keep prisoner William Carr Beresford, the British commander of the first invasion. Several friends of Moreno helped Beresford to escape and move to Montevideo, but it is unknown if Moreno was aware of the plan.