Zavala, Lorenzo de, 1788-1836

Liberal Mexican national, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and ad interim vice-president of the Republic of Texas, March 17-October 17, 1836.

Zavala held various important posts in liberal Mexican governments including governor of the state of Mexico, minister of the treasury, and minister to France but was imprisoned and forced into exile on occasion by the opposing party. When his one-time friend Antonio López de Santa Anna became dictator, he threw in his lot with the Texans and took an active part in the revolution becoming ad interim vice president of the Republic of Texas.

Lorenzo de Zavala (1788-1836), statesman, soldier, Texas land empresario, writer, editor and physician, was born in Yucatan of an established Creole family. In Merida he received a liberal primary and secondary education, but pursuit of a higher degree was made impossible by his financial situation and he joined in local commercial activity. He married Josefa Correa y Correa by whom he had three children. His early interest in public education and politics led to a post with the municipal government in 1812. In 1813 he began his long association with the press by publishing his first newspaper. Arrested during the purge of liberals following the restoration of Ferdinand VII, he used his three year imprisonment to learn English and study medicine, to the practice of which he devoted himself after his release in 1817. By 1820 he was again involved in politics and was elected a deputy to the Spanish Cortes. While in Spain he received news of Mexico's break with the mother country and returned in time to take part in the Constituent Congress of 1822. Zavala remained in the national legislature until 1827 when he was elected governor of the state of Mexico. The election of his political ally, Vicente Guerrero in 1829, brought Zavala the opportunity to serve in the executive. He held the post of minister of finance from April until October, 1829, when he was forced to retire due to political pressures. The Centralist revolution which gripped the country at the end of the year resulted in Zavala's self-imposed exile to the United States and Europe between 1830 and 1832. During this sojourn he wrote his two-volume Ensayo historico de las revoluciones de Mexico and married his second wife, Emilia West. With the political and military tide turned once again in favor of the liberals, Zavala returned to Mexico in late 1832, and again took up the post of governor of the state of Mexico. Yucatan elected him deputy to the new Congress in 1833, but after only two months in Congress he received an appointment as ambassador to France. Santa Anna's declaration against Federalism and in support of the clerical-military alliance resulted in Zavala's resignation and decision to withdraw from national politics in favor of settling on his land grant in Texas. On his arrival in Texas, he became involved first in its revolt against the Mexican government, and later in its independence movement. He served for a brief time as vice-president of the new Republic of Texas before poor health brought on his retirement. He died shortly thereafter.

Lorenzo de Zavala was one of Mexico's leading liberals. His concerns ran from reform of public finances and government administration to the establishment of a public education system and library for the state of Mexico. He began a land reform program in that state which included improvements such as irrigation and redistribution of large estates. He was an exponent of colonization by people of merit, regardless of origin, and an opponent of arbitrary government actions such as the expulsion of Spaniards from Mexico. Perhaps his most cherished belief was one in a federalist system in which local government could counterbalance the pull of Mexico City. It was his aversion to centralized government that finally determined his break with the nation he helped establish and his espousal of the cause of Texas.

Lorenzo de Zavala, the first vice president of the Republic of Texas, was born in 1788 near Mérida, Yucatán. His political career began early with his founding and editing of several newspapers where he wrote of his democratic ideas, which eventually led to his imprisonment in 1814. After being released, Zavala served as secretary for the provincial assembly of Yucatán in 1820 and then went to Madrid in 1821 as a deputy to the Spanish Cortes. Zavala spent a couple of years in France and England before he served as governor of the State of Mexico from 1832 to 1833. In 1834, he was appointed by President Antonio López de Santa Anna to serve as the first minister plenipotentiary of the Mexican legation in Paris. However, Zavala returned to Mexico City, then to New York and then to Texas upon learning of the dictatorial powers Santa Anna had assumed. From that day forward he was an active supporter of Texas' independence from Mexico. Zavala served as the representative of Harrisburg in the Consultation and the Convention of 1836 and was elected ad interim vice president of the new republic; however, shortly after Zavala became ill and resigned from his position in October 1836.

Lorenzo de Zavala married Teresa Corea in 1807. Together they had three children, the eldest also named Lorenzo. After the death of his first wife, Zavala married Emily West in 1831 and had three children: Augustine, Richard, and Emily (Emilia). Lorenzo de Zavala, Sr., died November 15, 1836.

After his death, Emily West de Zavala married Baron Von Fock (Folk) sometime after 1837 and had two sons: Edward and Louis. Widowed a second time, she married E. D. Hand in 1851. No children were born of this union. Emily West de Zavala Hand died in 1882 in Houston, Texas. Emilia de Zavala married Thomas Jenkins and had one daughter, Katherine. Katherine Jenkins married William Edwin Hutchinson in 1875 and had a daughter, Bertha Corea, in 1881 in Houston, Texas. Bertha Corea Hutchinson married a Mr. Drake and had a daughter, Dorothy, who as Mrs. C. S. Murch donated the collection.