Draft:Manuel Jose Machado Brito

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Manuel José Machado Brito (June 1, 1783 – 1857) was a Criollo military officer for the Spanish Crown and later for the Dominican Republic. His career spanned for several decades, beginning around 1803 as a cadet, and ending around 1854 as a Full Colonel. His military career took him to numerous places such as Cumaná, Venezuela, Spain, and a number of places in Dominican Republic, which included Samana, Bani, La Vega, and Santo Domingo. He culminated his military career with the position of President of the War Council of the Santo Domingo Province.

Early Life

Manuel was born on June 1, 1783, and baptised on the 16th of that month. He was the son of Miguel Jose Machado Ricardo and Micaela Brito Perez-Caro. His father was from a wealthy family in Cumaná, Venezuela, who was of Canarian origins. His mother was from a wealthy criollo family in Santo Domingo, which descended from the Conquistadors Rodrigo de Bastidas and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés.

Military Career & Family

When he came of age, he was able to secure a position as a Cadet in a Veteran Infantry unit in Cumana, Venezuela, thanks to family connections with powerful criollos and peninsulars. After at least 5-6 years as a cadet, he was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant around the years 1810-1811 and was sent to Spain for his first duty assignment. He later request to be reassigned to Santo Domingo, closer to his family.

For his first assignment in Santo Domingo, he was a veteran sub-lieutenant in an infantry battalion of the Plaza of Santo Domingo. On 30 August, 1813, he would go on to marry María Jacoba Peralta Mañón, the daughter of a Spanish Lieutenant Colonel named Manuel de Peralta Jordan and María de la Concepción Mañón y de Mieses-Ponce de León, the latter of whom was a descendant of the conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon.

Over the next 15 years, Manuel Jose and Maria Jacoba would go on to have four children. All four later played important roles in the establishment and development of the Dominican Republic, and held positions of power and prestige. Their firstborn, Manuel Jose Silverio Machado Peralta (1814-1872), born on 19 June 1814, present in his baptism were both the paternal and maternal grandparents, along with numerous well-known military officers. Their second child would be Jose Joaquin Maria Machado Peralta (1819-1891), their third child would be Maria de la Concepcion Josefa Machado Peralta (1823-1902), and their last child would be Francisco Xavier Cornelio de las Mercedes Machado Peralta (1828-1885).

Manuel Jose held a variety of military positions during his military career. Prior to holding prestigious positions, he supported José Núñez de Cáceres during the short-lived independence movement from Spain, better known as the Ephemeral Independence. During this period, the Independent State of Spanish Haiti was established. One of the positions he held was that of Commander of the Plaza of Bani during 1825-1828. He also held the dual position of Commander of Arms and Communal Chief of Bani in 1816, 1823, 1826-1828 and 1830. Another assignment he held was that of Commander of Arms of the Department of La Vega in 1844. 1844 would be a bittersweet year for Manuel Jose, since he would witness the Independence of the Dominican people, but would also lose his wife María Jacoba Peralta Mañon later that year, after 31 years of marriage. He would never remarry. The final positon he would hold before he retired from the military was the President of the War Council of the Province of Santo Domingo.

Death

Colonel Manuel Jose Machado Brito passed away in 1857, surrounded by his four children and over 14 grandchildren.