history

One of the first Spaniards to arrive in America was Captain Hernando de la Parra, in the year 1533; and according to historians, he was one of the bravest and most intrepid conquerors of the Kingdom of Quito, as well as one of the most powerful and richest men that existed at the time.

It was Captain de la Parra who on January 10, 1535 captured Rumiñahui, Inca General, in the "Topalibi" mountain, when he saw an Indian adorned with necklaces and bracelets that shone with the rays of the sun, throwing himself into the void, but he remained entangled and hung in one of the thick bushes of Chilca. Taken down by some soldiers, he said his name was Rumiñahui and was taken to where Benalcázar was with the objective of obtaining information of the place where the treasures of Huayna Capac, father of Rumiñahui, were hidden; when not getting a single word, the life of the brave Inca general Rumiñahui ended. It was precisely Captain Hernando de la Parra who a few years after the Spanish conquest, on December 29, 1551 the town council of the city of Quito, in the distribution of land was granted the provision of Hacienda Chuquipogio.

During the colonial era that lasted almost three centuries, Chuquipogio changed owners constantly, between representatives of the Spanish crown, chiefs or patriots with a clear royalist ideology and with great economic power at the time. The importance of these lands was based on the water source coming from the Chimborazo, which created a certain control over the inhabitants due to the need for this vital liquid and also because of its strategic location and extension. It was undoubtedly one of the most important haciendas of the time. Some time later these lands of Chuquipogio were inherited by Mateo Rodríguez de La Parra, third son of the Spanish conqueror, who in turn left them to his son-in-law Francisco de Guevara, who years later sold them to Captain José Villavicencio. Later the property was auctioned by the realist Juan Rodríguez del Campo. Who in turn transferred it to Captain Juan Vega, in October 1647. Chuquipoguio changed owners constantly and, thus, Juan de la Vega sold it to Antonio López de Galarza, owner of the obraje of San Andrés, for six thousand patacones. From this, it became the property of Captain Juan Sanchez de Navadejos, in the second decade of the XVIII century. Juan Sanchez de Navadejos died, with many debts due to lawsuits with the caciques of San Andres for the possession of the chapel of Nuestra Señora de la Natividad de Chuquipogio, leaving the hacienda loaded with debts. On April 9, 1717, the Chuquipogio hacienda was seized and purchased by Captain José de la Rea, also a Spanish royalist. There is not enough information about the owners of Chuquipogio in the following years; however, by 1812 the owner of the property was the cacique Anselma Lobato de San Andrés. This is where Captain Martín Chiriboga y León became part of the history of this important hacienda. A Riobambeño, persecutor of Riobambeños patriots and loyal to the King of Spain, he obtained the property of Chuquipogio, when he made Mrs. Anselma Lobato, a noble indigenous cacique, godmother of one of his daughters, who gave her goddaughter the Chuquipogio hcda. as a christening gift. Chiriboga, although a criollo, due to his royalist ideology and loyalty to the Spanish crown, obtained the title of corregidor of Riobamba from 1812 to 1820. Sucre and Bolivar through an exchange of letters, always tried to win Chiriboga and Leon to their patriotic cause, without knowing that Chiriboga exchanged letters with the Spanish royalty and President Almerich informing about the revolutionary plans and frustrating on several occasions the desired independence. This lack of patriotism of the Spanish realist, had as an objective the pretension of being named Marquis of Chimborazo by the Spanish crown. For all his loyalty to the Spanish crown, on June 7, 1815, the King granted him the Corregimiento of Riobamba and awarded him the first class Cross of the American Order of Isabella the Catholic.