The Rise and Secularization of Viticulturein Mendoza: The Godoy Family Contribution, 1700-

1831
Author(s): Pablo Lacoste
Source: The Americas, Vol. 63, No. 3 (Jan., 2007), pp. 385-407
Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History
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The Americas
63:3
January 2007,
385-407
Copyright by
the
Academy
of American
Franciscan
History
THE RISE AND SECULARIZATION OF
VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA:
THE GODOY FAMILY
CONTRIBUTION, 1700-1831
*
he Mendoza wine
industry, currently
the
largest
in Latin America and
fifth
largest
in the
world,
is the inheritor of an almost 500
year-long
process
of evolution in the cultivation of
grape
vines and the devel-
opment
of wine
making.
The most studied
period
of its
history corresponds
to the construction of British railroads and the tremendous wave of
Italian,
Spanish
and French
immigration
that
began
in the 1880s.' Prior to the
modern
period,
however,
there was a traditional
period
in the
Argentine
wine
industry,
characterized
by
artisan
production
and ecclesiastical control.
In the mid-nineteenth
century,
members of the
clergy
and
religious groups
controlled
nearly
80
percent
of the wine
industry
in Mendoza. This article
examines the
origins
of viticulture in
Mendoza,
with
particular
reference to
the influence of the
clergy,
and the
subsequent
secularization of the wine
industry.
At the same
time,
it discusses the role that the
Godoy family played
in the rise and consolidation of the wine
making
and its
separation
from
ecclesiastical control.
Tomis
Godoy
Cruz and his
cousin,
Juan Alberto
Godoy,
cultivated
grapes
and
played important
roles in
sociopolitical struggles
of their times. Juan
Alberto
Godoy
founded
newspapers,
wrote satiric
poems
and
fought
several
ideological
battles as a
proponent
of the new
republican
ideas that
emerged
in the context of the 1810 Revolution.
Tomias
Godoy
Cruz was an
important
political
leader who worked on behalf of the
campaigns
of Jose de San
Martin and Bernardo
O'Higgins.
He also led the
pro-independence
faction
in the
Congress
of
Tucuman,
which culminated in the declaration of Inde-
*
This article was written as
part
of a FONDECYT
project
(Chile)
no.
1051109,
titled "La vitivini-
cultura en
Cuyo y
el
Valle
Central de
Chile,
1700-1850." The author is a
professor
at the Universidad de
Talca
(Chile).
He would like to
express
his
gratitude
for the contributions of the
genealogical
researcher
Luis Cesar Caballero. The
English
translation is
by
Maria de la Luz Matos-Mendoza.
I
Pablo
Lacoste,
El vino del
inmigrante (1880-1980) (Mendoza:
Universidad de
Congreso/Consejo
Empresarial Mendocino, 2003).
385
386 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
pendence
in 1816. Both men
supported
the
Army
of the Andes that liberated
Chile and Perti and
they participated
in the creation of the new
government
that aimed to overcome the traditionalism of the colonial
period by
incul-
cating
liberal and
republican conceptions
of life and the State. Like these
two emblematic
figures,
other members of the
Godoy family played
a
pre-
dominant role in the
region
from the end of the seventeenth until the
begin-
ning
of the nineteenth
century.
For five
generations,
the
Godoys
had
advanced
by concentrating
on economic activities based on intensive
agri-
culture, investment,
and innovation.
In
researching
this
article,
both
published
and
unpublished
sources were
consulted.
Among
the latter were the
documentary
sources available at the
Archivo
Hist6rico
de
Mendoza
and the Archivo Nacional de
Chile,
particu-
larly litigation involving participants
in the wine
industry
and their wills. Of
the edited documents
consulted,
several had been
published
without the aid
of information that would make it
possible
to understand their historical
context. For
example,
several
biographies concerning
the
public
life of
Tomais
Godoy
Cruz that
emphasize
his
participation
in
government
have
been
published along
with documents that list his
possessions (1831).2
His
great grandfather's
will has also been
published (1704).3 However,
these
documents have not been discussed
together,
nor have
they
been
compared
to the wills of the other members of the
Godoy family,
and those of don
Clemente
Godoy's (1744)
and Juan
Godoy
del Castillo's
(1747)
in
particu-
lar. This
paper
therefore makes
significant
reference to these
sources,
as well
as
unpublished
documents.
MENDOZA AND THE WINE INDUSTRY
Mendoza became an
early
center of industrial wine
production.
The first
vine-stocks arrived in the second half of the sixteenth
century
and
shortly
thereafter,
the first wineries were built. In the seventeenth
century,
100,000
vines were under cultivation and five wineries were in
operation.
With a
population
of
only
8,000
inhabitants in the
years
1750-1775,
Mendoza
boasted of
650,000
vines and more than 40 wineries that
produced
more
than
1,000,000
liters of wine and
aguardiente per year.4
2 Ricardo
Videla,
Tomas
Godoy
Cruz's life
(Mendoza: Pauser, 1936);
Antonio
Pag6s
Larraya,
El
constructor de
esperanzas; esbozo
histdrico acerca de
la
vida de don Tomds
Godoy
Cruz (Buenos
Aires:
La
Facultad, 1938).
3
Juan de
Godoy
del Castillo's
will,
October
8,
1701. Archivo Hist6rico de Mendoza
(hereafter
AHM),
Public
notary's registry
no.
25,
pp. 64-71;
Elvira Martin de
Codoni,
"Un testamento al comenzar
al
siglo XVIII,"
Revista de Historia
Argentina y
Americana 38
(Mendoza, 1998), pp.
319-323.
4 Pablo
Lacoste,
"Vitivinicultura en Chile Trasandino:
Mendoza, 1561-1776,"
Colonial Latin Amer-
ican Historical Review 12:2
(Spring 2003), pp.
113-151.
PABLO LACOSTE 387
The vine-stocks in colonial Mendoza were not of
especially good quality.
The fruit of these
vines,
which
originated
in the
Mediterranean,
was called
"uva
criolla" in
Cuyo,
"uva
pais"
in Chile and "Mission" in
California;
the
first French
stocks, Malbec, Cabernet,
and
Merlot,
didn't arrive in Mendoza
until after 1850.
Despite
their inferior stock and the
rudimentary technology
used,
Cuyo
wines were well received in
regional
markets.
Naturally, they
were not sold in
Chile, which,
as the
primary producer
of wine in America
could
easily supply
its internal market for wine and
aguardiente.
Wines from
Cuyo
were sold in Buenos Aires and on the
pampas
after
they captured
the
market from the
Paraguayan
wine
industry
that had
supplied
this
region
at
the
beginning
of the seventeenth
century.
In
1600,
Paraguay
had
2,000,000
vines,
twenty
times more than Mendoza. After a
period
of intense
rivalry
between
producers,
consumers of the Rio de la Plata
region
came to
prefer
the wines from
Cuyo
and the
Paraguayan
viticulture declined
rapidly
until it
virtually disappeared.
Mendocinos and
Sanjuaninos
seized the
regional
market.
By
the end of the
eighteenth century
700
carts,
most of them loaded
with 20 wine
jugs
of two arrobas each
(76 liters)
were
supplied
to the 400
small
grocery
stores in Buenos Aires. Both
lay
and ecclesiastical
managers
were involved in its
production
and
commercialization.5
THE LAITY AND THEIR WINERIES
Through empirical
research based on the records of the Protocolos de
Escribanos,
it is
possible
to reconstruct a
map
of the Mendoza wine indus-
try
in the
mid-eighteenth century. Forty
wineries,
both
large
and
small,
oper-
ated in
Mendoza,
fifteen of which were
ecclesiastical,
while the
remaining
twenty-five
were in the hands of the
laity.
The
large lay
wineries had a
pro-
duction
capacity
between 400 and 845
arrobas,
while the
output
of small
producers
did not exceed 60 arrobas. Don Clemente
Godoy's winery
stands
out because its
production capacity
reached 841
arrobas,
the second
largest
in Mendoza's wine
industry.
Lay
businessmen from Mendoza built six
large
wineries in the middle of
the
eighteenth century: 1)
Don
Miguel
de Arizmendi's
winery
contained 29
earthenware
jars
and
jugs, giving
him a
production capacity
of
approxi-
mately
400 arrobas in
1745; 2) Dofia
Melchora Lemos had "a
winery
with a
wine
press
and a set of
weights
and measures" with a
production capacity
of
640 arrobas; 3)
Don Juan Martin Puebla had "200 old serviceable
jugs"
in
1757; 4)
Don Juan de Puebla
Bfiez
built a
big winery
with a
production
5
Pablo
Lacoste,
"La vida
y el
vino en America del Sur: el
desplazamiento
de los
polos
vitivinicolas
(siglos
XVI al XX)," Universum
20:2
(Talca, 2004), pp.
62-92.
388 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
capacity
of
approximately
20,000
liters in
1757; 5)
the wineries of Don
Clemente
Godoy
in 1744 and
(6)
don
Santiago
Puebla in 1766 were the
largest lay
establishments of their
time,
with a
production capacity
of
30,000
liters each. In addition to the six
large
wineries,
Mendoza
producers
also
built nineteen small
wineries,
of which it has been
possible
to calculate the
approximate
size of
four,
all of which were
exceedingly
small in size. On the
basis of the wills
consulted,
it has been
possible,
in Table
1,
to estimate
that,
taken
together,
the ten
lay
wineries had a
capacity
of more than
4,000
arrobas
(136,000 liters).
THE CLERGY AND THE WINE INDUSTRY
The ecclesiastical sector exercised
significant
control over the wine indus-
try
in Mendoza. This
power
was built
upon
the innovations that
clergymen
had introduced to the
industry,
as well as the
processes through
which wealth
was
constantly
transferred from
lay
to the
religious groups
in this
period.
As
was the case in
many
other sectors of the
economy
in Latin
America,
clergy-
men from Mendoza received in
goods (in
this
case,
wineries and
vineyards)
the wealth that was transferred from the
lay
sector to the
clergy.
In the con-
text of
deep religiosity
and the
pervasive
fear of
suffering
for
eternity
in Pur-
gatory,
members of Mendoza's wine
industry
established
chaplaincies, paid
for
censuses,
and made donations to the Church. When
receiving vineyards
and
wineries,
clergymen
used
part
of the rents received to finance
apostolic
and cultural
activities,
and educational institutions.
However,
in the case of
the wine
industry,
the
clergy
also assumed a
productive
role,
tending
to invest
part
of their income in the
improvement
of
buildings,
the
incorporation
of
new
technology,
and the increase in
production.
The
clergy
made an
important
contribution to the
development
of the
wine
industry
because
they
were able to take
advantage
of their
privileges
to
overcome the
heavy
tax burdens that the
Spanish imposed.
As Ana Rivera
has
suggested,
the
legislation
of the Indies
subjected
the members of
Cuyo's
wine
industry
to
heavy
taxes
that,
in
effect,
endangered
the
profitability
of
the
industry.
Wine and
aguardiente
from Mendoza and San Juan were sub-
ject
to retail wine
duties,
excise
taxes,
right
of
passage
fees, duties,
liquor
excises,
customs
taxes,
municipal
taxes, and,
beginning
in
1777,
the new tax
in addition to the
special
taxes
they paid
in
Cordoba, Tucumain,
Buenos
Aires, and Santa Fe. As a result, the
price per jug
increased between 21 and
46
percent.6 Evidently, Spain
was not interested in the
development
of
6 Ana Marfa
Rivera,
Entre la cordillera
y
la
Pampa:
la Vitivinicultura en
Cuyo, Argentina (s. XVIII).
(San Juan,
Editorial Fundaci6n de la Universidad de San
Juan, 2006).
PABLO LACOSTE 389
TABLE 1
MENDOZA LAY WINERIES DURING THE MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Size Businessman Year Arrobas Liters
Large Santiago
Puebla 1766 845 29.997
Clemente
Godoy
1744 841 29.855
Melchora Lemos 1774 640 22.720
Juan de Puebla Biez 1757 530 18.815
Miguel
de Arizmendi 1741 400 14.200
Juan Martin de Puebla 1757 400 14.200
Small Marcos Sosa 1760 53 1.881
Lorenzo Funes 1745 46 1.633
Pedro Coria 1728 38 1.349
Juana Carrizo Gallardo 1764 30 1.065
Gregorio
Morales 1756 9 319
Total 4.232 136.056
Source: Archivo Hist6rico de Mendoza,
Protocolos de
Escribanos,
Testamentos de los viticultores
industry
in its American
colonies,
especially
one that
competed
with one of
the few successful industries of the Iberian Peninsula. Given this
situation,
taxes were one of the
principal
obstacles that
Cuyo's
wine-makers had to
overcome in order to advance. To these
ends,
the
laity
of Mendoza took sev-
eral measures to
try
to
mitigate
the
impact
of these taxes.
They
wrote letters
to the
king
of
Spain
and
petitioned
the
Viceroys
in Lima and Buenos Aires.
The ecclesiastical
group
met with much better results than
lay producers,
but
the entire
industry
benefited from their success.
The
clergy enjoyed exemption
from the taxes associated with the wine
industry. According
to the Cidulas Reales of 1716 and
1732,
possessions
of the
clergy
that were
transported
from one
province
to another were not
subject
to customs duties or other taxes. The
clergymen
of
Cuyo
took
advantage
of this
privilege
to continue
making, transporting,
and
selling
wine in the markets
along
the Rio de la Plata
River,
stimulating
the devel-
opment
of the
dynamic regional
viticulture
industry.'
An alliance between
the
lay
and
religious
viticulturists
developed
that used the
privileges
of the
clergy
to free the wine
industry
from the Procrustean bed of
Spanish legis-
lation. To that
end,
families that owned wineries
sought
to have one of their
sons
join
either a
religious
order or the secular
clergy
so that he
might help
7
Edberto Oscar
Acevedo,
"El comercio colonial de los eclesiasticos"
Investigaciones y Ensayos 49,
(Buenos Aires, 1999), pp.
47-81.
390 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
them evade these taxes. The
presence
of several influential convents in
Mendoza facilitated this
process
and the viticulturists succeeded in
having
their relatives
promoted
to the most
important regional
ecclesiastical
posi-
tions. Dofia Mechora Lemos's
family
connections serve as an excellent
example.
She was one of the three most successful
managers
in Mendoza's
wine
industry
and her brother and
heir,
Fray
Jose de
Lemos,
was the
supe-
rior of the Convento de Santo
Domingo.8
Her
nephew, Fray
Luis de
Lemos,
was the
beneficiary
of a
chaplaincy
that she had established to
promote
his
career in the
clergy
and he later succeeded
Fray
Jos6 de Lemos at the Con-
vento de Santo
Domingo.
In
turn,
belonging
to a
wine-producing family
could
clearly impel
an ecclesiastical career forward and
provide privileged
access to the Church
hierarchy.
Important
commercial endeavors initiated
among
the
highest
ranks of
regional
ecclesiastical
power attempted
to
promote
the distribution of wines
from
Cuyo
in the Rio de la Plata
markets,
evading
taxes
through
the use of
clerical
privileges
and
fueros.
For
example,
in
1746,
Fray Gaspar
de la
Fuente,
the solicitor of the Convento de Santo
Domingo,
asked
permission
to
transport
20 carts of
wine,
the
equivalent
of more than
1,000
arrobas
(35,000 liters)
of wine to Buenos Aires without
paying
taxes.9 The amount
of the
shipment
was
completely
inconsistent with the amount of wine the
Dominican order could in fact
produce. Thirty years
later,
their
winery
could
hardly produce
320 arrobas a
year,
less than a third of the amount of wine
they
had sold tax-free. In
addition,
according
to the
vineyard
census of
1786,
the
predicant
order had
only
had three cuadras of
vineyards.'1
The Domini-
cans' commercial transactions
surpassed
the volume of their own wine
by
three, four,
or five
times;
the rest
belonged
to other Mendoza businessmen
who,
through
some sort of
reciprocal exchange,
either material or immate-
rial,
benefited from the tax
exemptions enjoyed by
the
clergy.
The alliance between the wine
industry
and the
clergy
was detected
by
tax
collectors who worked in the service of the
Crown,
especially royal
officials
from Buenos
Aires,
who had no
particular
ties to
Cuyo society. They
noticed
that the social and economic forces of Mendoza and San Juan were effi-
ciently
and
silently executing
a
long-term plan.
Based on her research in the
Archivo General de
Indias,
Ana Rivera has described this
phenomenon:
8
Pablo
Lacoste,
"Vida
y
muerte de dofia Melchora Lemos, empresaria
vitivinicola
y
terciaria de la
Orden de Predicadores:
Mendoza,
Reino de
Chile,
1691-1741" Revista de Indias 237:66
(Mayo-Setiem-
bre
2006), pp.
425-452.
9
Rivera,
Entre la cordillera
y
la
Pampa.
10
Census of
Clergy Wineries
on
July 13, 1786,
in "El
primer
censo vitivinicola de
Mendoza,"
Boletin del Centro Vitivinicola
Nacional, 290, (Buenos Aires,
Octubre
1929), p.
642.
PABLO LACOSTE 391
The
royal
officials of Buenos Aires stated that the
laity
of San Juan and Men-
doza
encouraged
their sons to continue their
religious
studies so
that,
once
ordained,
they
would entrust to them
chaplaincies,
and the title to their
prop-
erty,
with the
goal
that
by providing
their children with the
opportunity
to
transport
their
wine,
they
could also
transport
that of their
parents
and rela-
tives,
thus
evading
the taxes."
After
discovering
the alliance between
lay
and ecclesiastical viticultur-
ists,
the
royal
officials
pressured
the local authorities to establish
greater
controls that allowed them to
expose
the trick. It was
proposed
that the
degree
of
consistency
between the wine made in Mendoza and the wine
traded outside Mendoza be evaluated. The result was the census of the eccle-
siastical wineries that took
place
in the 1780s. The state undertook an
unprecedented study
of wine
production
and trade in order to
clarify
the
issue. In
addition,
when
comparing
the
figures,
it revealed the
rapid growth
of the
bourgeoisie
of
Cuyo's
wine
industry. Steps
were taken to hide the
alliance while the state
performed
the census.12
The
clergy
were an
important
force in the wine
industry
not
only
because
of their
ability
to evade taxes but also because of the
continuity
and innova-
tion
they
showed in the
management
of
many
of the
principal properties
of
the
industry.
The
Society
of Jesus
provides
an excellent
example.
The Jesuits'
wine cellars and
vineyards occupied
a
leading position
in the
region's
wine
industry.
The Hacienda de Nuestra Sefiora del Buen
Viaje,
which the Jesuits
owned and
managed,
had a
capacity
of
100,000
liters as well as advanced
equipment
made of lime and
brick,
a cask
factory,
and more.
The case of the
Society
of Jesus was not
unique.
After
Miguel
de Ariz-
mendi's
death,
his
bookkeeper
and
executor,
Father Francisco Correla de
Sali,
who was
vicar,
ecclesiastical
judge,
and the commissioner of the
Inqui-
sition in
Mendoza,
inherited his estate.
During thirty years
he
managed
the
winery
he introduced several
improvements
that
included,
"two
parts
of
vineyards
that I
bought
from the
Luceros,
more than half of the
winery,
a
new wine
press, twenty
more earthenware
jars
and nine
pipes
with iron
arches that I have installed in a
big
room built in the
yard bordering
the street
on the
north,
a
kitchen,
and another room
adjacent
to the
kitchen."'3
As a
"
Rivera,
Entre la cordillera
y la pampa, p.
261.
12
Edberto Oscar Acevedo, "El
comercio
colonial de los eclesidsticos"
Investigaciones y Ensayos
49
(Buenos Aires, 1999), pp.
47-81.
13 Priest Francisco Correa de Sad's will.
Mendoza, August 9,
1775. It was
completely reproduced:
Mariano
Marc6, Quien
era
quien
en Mendoza. Indice de los testamentos en actuaciones notariales (Men-
doza:
edici6n
de
autor, 1998),
vol.
1, p.
315.
392 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
result,
the
productive capability
of the
winery
doubled,
reaching
800
arrobas. Father Francisco had built one of the
biggest
wineries in Mendoza.
The census of 1780 mentioned above demonstrates the
magnitude
of the
system
of ecclesiastical wineries. There were 15 locations of different sizes.
Eight
of them were
among
the
biggest
wineries,
meaning
that
they
had a
productive capacity
of at least 400 arrobas. The
remaining
seven wineries
were medium size with
production capacities
between 189 and 350 arrobas.
As seen in Table
2,
the fifteen ecclesiastical wineries had a
capacity
of
5,257
arrobas
(186,000 liters).
If the ecclesiastical wineries are
compared
to those of the
laity,
some
interesting
differences arise.
Lay
wineries
surpassed
those of the
clergy
in
numbers
(25 compared
to
15). However,
the latter had more
productive
capability
than the
lay
wineries
(210,000
versus
136,000 liters).
The eccle-
siastical wine makers did not have small
cellars;
they only
owned medium
and
large
wineries. In
contrast,
the
laity
was more
polarized; they
owned
small or
large,
but no medium-sized wineries. These two
groups,
as well as
the Jesuit
winery (100,000 liters),
formed the Mendoza viticulture
system,
41 cellars with a
capacity
of
13,500
arrobas
(450,000 liters).
It is
important
to consider the role that the
priests
of the
Society
of Jesus
had achieved in the wine
industry.
When the Jesuits were
expelled
from
America,
the Hacienda de Nuestra Sefiora del Buen
Viaje
had a
production
capacity
of
3,000 arrobas,
equivalent
to 21.7
percent
of the total wine
pro-
duction of Mendoza. That meant
they
wielded a remarkable amount of
power
and control over the
regional
wine
market,
which affected their com-
petitors,
both
lay
and ecclesiastical.
The
clergy's
influence in the
regional
viticulture
industry
reached its
apogee by
the mid
eighteenth century.
The
211,000
liter
capacity
of the
ecclesiastical
wineries,
and the
100,000
liters of the
Jesuits,
was
enlarged
by
the addition of the two
largest lay
wineries.
Miguel
de Arizmendi
gave
his
enterprise
to Father Francisco Correas de
Sail,
who
enlarged
it and man-
aged
it for more than 30
years.
Dofia Melchora Lemos transferred her inter-
ests to her
brother,
the Dominican friar Jos6 de Lemos. Both wineries
pro-
duced
50,000 liters,
and as a
result,
the ecclesiastical wineries achieved a
capacity
of 361,000 liters while the
lay
wineries'
production
was reduced
to 100,000 liters.
By
the mid
eighteenth century,
the
clergy
controlled 78.3
percent
of the 461,000 liters total wine
production
in Mendoza, while the
laity
controlled on 21.7
percent.
The
hegemony
of the
clergy
in the indus-
try
was undeniable.
PABLO LACOSTE 393
TABLE 2
MENDOZA CLERGY WINE CELLARS
(1780)
Arrobas Arrobas
of of Total Total
Size Owner
Liquor
Wine Arrobas Liters
Large
Sim6n
Fredes de Luca 781 781 27.725
Fray
Jos6 de los Dolores 48 587 635 22.542
Can6nigo
Martin
Sotomayor
500 500 17.750
Cl6rigo
Domingo
Guevara 25 500 525 18.637
Convento Betlehemita 14 419 433 15.371
Jos6
Rosas 402 402 14.271
Santo
Domingo
Mission 400 400 14.200
Pbro.
Jos6
Florencio
Moyano
9 400 409 14.519
Medium
Clerigo
Calixto Suarez 20 330 350 12.425
Vicario Francisco Javier Gamboa 25 300 325 11.537
Francisco Gatica Gamboa 300 300 10.650
Marcelo
Rodriguez
280 280 9.940
Ambrosio
Josd Ntifiez
216 216 7.668
Pbro.
Gregorio Moyano
12
200 212 7.526
Jos6
Coria 189 189 6.709
Total 153 5.804 5.957 211.473
Source: Based on the
Clergy
Census of Mendoza
(1780).
Published in Lucio
Funes, Mendoza colonial
(Mendoza:
Artes
Graificas
Mendoza, 1931), pp.
50-51.
The transfer of ecclesiastical
properties
to the
private
sector was a slow
and traumatic
process
that lasted almost a
century.
The first
step
in that
direction occurred because of the
expulsion
of the Jesuits and the
public
sale
of their
possessions, including
the Hacienda de Nuestra
Sefiora
del Buen
Viaje,
which was
purchased by
don Jos6
Rodriguez
de
Figaredo.
The second
major step
was associated with the decline of
religious
life and the rise of
liberal ideas at the
beginning
of the nineteenth
century,
which accelerated
because of the
revolutionary
crisis of 1810. Members of the
Godoy family
played
an
important
role in this
process,
but before
addressing
this,
it is
important
to summarize the
family's
evolution.
THE GODOY FAMILY
AND THEIR
SOCIAL, ECONOMIC,
AND CULTURAL TRAJECTORY
For more than 200
years
the
Godoy family
worked in
Mendoza,
starting
productive enterprises, saving capital, incorporating technology,
and send-
394 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
ing
their children to
study
in the best schools and universities of the south-
ern cone. Don Juan de
Godoy y
Alvarado,
a native of
Serena,
Chile arrived
in the
city
of Mendoza in 1612 to administer land
grants.
He
began
the
Godoy family's long process
of
contributing
to
commerce,
transportation,
cattle-raising, agriculture,
and the wine
industry.
His
daughter,
dofia Petron-
ila
Godoy
excelled as a viticulturist. She was the mother of Juan de
Godoy
Castillo,
who consolidated the
family
members' trades such as
rancher,
land-
holder,
stock
farmer,
cowboy,
muleteer,
and
especially
viticulturist. As
shown
below,
the
family's leadership
in economic affairs
strengthened
in the
eighteenth century,
but before that it is
important
to address the
family's
strategy
of
educating
new
generations
abroad with the
purpose
of
giving
them the best education so that
they
could continue the
family's
social
ascent. It is also
interesting
to note the close
relationship
that the
Godoys
ini-
tially
had with the
clergy.
The
knowledge gained
from this association was
later used to lead the secularization
process.
The behavior of the
Godoy family
demonstrates the attitudes of an
incip-
ient
bourgeoisie; they
moved from
primary
resource
production
to com-
merce and from
transportation
to
industry.
In this last
endeavor,
they
never
hesitated to
adopt
new and
increasingly complex productive
means;
they
owned
everything
associated with viticulture-wineries to make
wine,
fac-
tories to bottle
it,
produce
it and
transport
it as well as flour mills. There was
a will to innovate and reinvest the
earnings
to
improve
the
productivity
of
their
possessions.
In
addition,
the
Godoys
exhibited another behavior char-
acteristic of
bourgeois
culture:
they
invested
heavily
in the education of their
future
generations.
When the
family
had been
living
in Mendoza for 140
years
and the
pros-
perity
of their business allowed them to save a considerable amount of
cap-
ital,
they
started a
systematic process
of
sending
their children to
study
in
Santiago
de Chile and
C6rdoba
to receive the best education available at the
time. Between
1751
and
1814,
the
presence
of the
young
members of the
family
in schools and universities was
practically
constant.
In the
1750s
the
Godoys
had their first
experiences
in the schools of San-
tiago
de Chile. In
1751,
Judas Tadeo Patricio de
Godoy y Lima,
S.J.
(1728-
1789)
and his
nephew
Juan Jos6
Godoy
del
Pozo,
also a Jesuit
(1728-1787?)
began
their studies at the
Colegio
M"iximo de San
Miguel.
In 1756, Juan
Anselmo de
Godoy y Lima, (1735-1779)
the brother of Judas Tadeo Patri-
cio, studied at the Real Convictorio San Francisco Javier. He
completed
his
studies at the Real Universidad de San
Felipe (1756-1757).
The accumulated
experience
of these three relatives
provided
them with the means of success
PABLO LACOSTE 395
and motivated the rest of the
family
to continue this tradition. The influence
they
must have exerted on their
children, brothers, nieces,
nephews,
and
other relatives in this
regard
would have been considerable.
In the
following
decades,
the
Godoy family
continued this
practice. Igna-
cio
Godoy
del Pozo
(1732-1795)
studied in the Jesuit schools of Mendoza and
C6rdoba del Tucumain.
He later obtained a master's
degree
in
philosophy
and
taught
in Mendoza for
many years.
In
1770,
Fray
Jos6
Godoy
of the Predicant
Order received his doctorate from the Real Universidad de San
Felipe (n.
1745).
He was the
nephew
of the Jesuits Juan and Tadeo
Godoy y
Lima,
both
of whom had also
graduated
in Chile. Father Jose
Godoy
had a successful aca-
demic career at the Real Universidad de San
Felipe,
where he obtained tenure
in
philosophy
in 1780. In
1792,
he moved to
Spain
to fulfill the
position
of
attorney general
in the
province
of San Lorenzo. At the same
time,
he received
commissions from the
municipal
council of Mendoza to
municipal
council to
present
to the authorities of the
Metropole.14
Don Nicolds de
Godoy y
Pozo
did not attend the Universidad de San
Felipe,
but his brother Jos6 and his
uncles Tadeo and Juan
Godoy
did. It seems that he received such
positive
reports
from his relatives that he decided to create an ambitious
plan
to edu-
cate his three
children, Clemente,
Ignacio,
and Jos6.
They
first studied in Cor-
doba at the Real
Colegio
Monserrat and then at the Real Universidad de
C6r-
doba.
Later,
in the
1780s,
they
went to
Santiago
de Chile where
they
studied
at the Real Convictorio Carolino and the Real Universidad de San
Felipe.
The
three brothers
graduated
and obtained their Bachelors
Degrees
in Law.
Clemente continued the tradition of
sending
a
son,
Tomdis
Godoy
Cruz,
on the
same academic
path:
first to Cordoba then to
Santiago
to
graduate
with a
Bachelors
Degree
in Law. When the
young
Tomis finished his bachelor's
degree
at the
Royal University
of San
Felipe
in
1813,
he was the fifth
gener-
ation of the
Godoy family
to attend the
university.
The
Godoy family provides
a
good example
of the Mendoza
bourgeois
managerial
class's
tendency
to
promote
education in the
family
as well as in
society
in
general.
In their social
trajectory,
it is
important
to draw attention
to the
pioneering
role
played by
Father Marcos del Castillo
y Godoy,
who
was the rector of the Jesuit
college
of Mendoza
(1685-1688).1"
His
nephew,
Father
Ignacio Domingo Godoy
del Castillo was also a Jesuit who
taught
and worked as rector of the
college
of the
city
of San Juan.16 Father
Ignacio
14 Anibal
Verdaguer,
Historia Eclesiadstica de
Cuyo, (Mildn:
Premiata
Imprenta
Salesiana, 1932),
vol. 1, pp.
433-434.
'~
Verdaguer,
Historia
Eclesidstica, vol. 1, p.
248.
'6
Verdaguer, Historia
Eclesidstica, vol. 1, p.
261.
396 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
Godoy
del Pozo
(1732-1795), professor
of
philosophy,
founded the Monas-
terio de la
Compafiia
de
Maria,
the first convent and school for women in
Mendoza in 1780.17
The dual
process
of
accumulating
wealth and
investing
in human
capital,
allowed the
Godoy family
to contribute to the
incipient political
class of Men-
doza. The
outstanding
career of don Tomais
Godoy
Cruz
who was a
legislator,
minister and
governor
between 1815 and 1830 shows this.'" A
political
leader
of this dimension was the result of a
long
academic
preparation
in the best
schools of the Southern Cone. In his
correspondence
with his father Clemente
Godoy
he wrote that he considered his most valuable
experience
to have been
his studies in
Santiago
de Chile
during
the
exciting
and
stormy years
between
1810
and
1814.19
His academic
progress
was made
possible by
his
family's
important
academic tradition. The fact that
uncles,
great
uncles,
grandparents
and other relatives held several academic
degrees
was an
important
stimulus,
as was the
family's
constant
practice
of
sending
their children
away
from
Mendoza. With these
antecedents,
and after
many years
and five
generations
at the
university,
Tomais
de
Godoy
Cruz
emerged
as the most
important politi-
cian from Mendoza
during
the
Independence
era and thereafter.
It is not
necessary
to describe these events in
detail,
but before
focusing
on the case of
Godoy
Cruz,
we must return to a
description
of the
economy
and the evolution of the
Godoy family
from the
perspective
of the
family
enterprise.
In order to do
so,
it is
necessary
to refer back to the
dynasty's
founders,
who lived between the end of the seventeenth and the
beginning
of the
eighteenth
centuries. The
profile
of Juan de
Godoy's
business activi-
ties is revealed in his will and the
inventory
of his estate
(1704).
The
equip-
ment for his
transportation
business included
eight
carts with 100 oxen and
30 mules. He also owned several fruit farms and a
plantation.
He had vine-
yards
and "a
winery
with its wine
press
and
lamp-burner,
and 24
large
earth-
enware
jars
to fill with wine and a tall room on the roof of the
winery."
He
traded his wine in the local markets of Buenos Aires and Santa
Fe, where,
according
to the
inventory,
he had sent 21
jugs.20
His
winery
was distin-
guished by
the fact that 100
percent
of the wine vessels were marl contain-
ers,
meaning
earthenware
jugs
and
jars.
17
Verdaguer, Historia
Eclesidstica,
vol.
1, p.
410.
18
TomBis Godoy
Cruz's
political
action can be seen in
Videla,
Vida de Tomds
Godoy Cruz,
and in
Antonio
Pages Larraya,
El constructor.
'9
Cristian Garcia
Godoy, "Correspondencia
de contornos
hist6ricos: la
de Tomas
Godoy
Cruz con
su
padre" Investigaciones y Ensayos,
45
(1995), pp.
521-539.
20 Juan de
Godoy
del Castillo's
will,
October
8,
1701.
AHM,
Protocolo de Escribanos no.
25,
fols.
64-71. Elvira Martin de
Codoni,
"Un testamento al comenzar al
siglo XVIII,"
Revista de Historia
Argentina y
Americana 38
(Mendoza, 1998), pp.
319-323.
PABLO LACOSTE 397
TABLE 3
MAIN MEMBERS OF GODOY FAMILY IN MENDOZA AND PLACES WHERE
THEY STUDIED OUTSIDE CUYO
(XVII-XIX CENTURIES)
Francisco
Godoy
Peninsular
Spaniard residing
in Chile
Francisco
Godoy y Aguirre
Born in Chile
Juan
de
Godoy y
Alvarado
Born in La Serena
Residing
in Mendoza in 1612
Petronila
Godoy y
Videla
c.c. Francisco
Felipe
del Castillo and
Rodriguez Figueroa
Viticulturist in the middle of the 17th
century
Juan de
Godoy
del
Castillo Marcos del Castillo
y Godoy,
S.J.
Viticulturist in the middle of President of S.J. Mendoza
College
17th
century
Wrote his will in 1704
Juan de
Godoy
del
Castillo
Ignacio Domingo Godoy
Viticulturist and owner of a
winery
in the
beginning
of the 18th
century
Domingo
Juan
Fray
Clemente
Godoy y Villegas
Godoy Godoy
Tadeo Owner of the
largest winery
in
y
Lima
y
Lima
Godoy
Mendoza,
first half of the 18th
century
Student
y
Lima
U.S.
Felipe
student
1756-57 C.M.S.M.
1751
Fray
Jos6 Pbro.
Ignacio
Nicolas Fray
Juan
Godoy Godoy Godoy
Jos6
Godoy
y
Videla del Pozo del Pozo del Pozo
Student 1732-1795 Student
U.S.
Felipe
C.M.S.M
1769-83
1751
Nicolis
Godoy
del Pozo
Jose
Godoy Ignacio Godoy
Clemente
Nicolis
Godoy y
Videla
y
Videla
y
Videla Student
Student Student U.S.
Felipe (1781-84)
U.S.
Felipe
U.S.
Felipe
(1783-89) (1781-84)
Tomas
Godoy
Cruz
Student
U.S.
Felipe (1810-13)
References: C.M.S.M.:
Colegio Mayor
San
Miguel; U.S.Felipe:
Real Universidad de San
Felipe
Sources: Based on Luis Lira
Montt,
Anibal
Verdaguer,
Luis Coria,
and wills at the Archivo Hist6rico
de
Mendoza.
398 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
His
sons,
Juan de
Godoy
and
Ignacio Domingo Godoy,
continued the
family
tradition. Juan de
Godoy (son)
wrote his will in
1747;
this document
shows the evolution of the
family
estate
during
the first half of the
eighteen
century.
On his
wedding day,
he had
$1,211
and two reales. He later received
$6,820
and 4 reales from his father don Juan
Godoy
del Castillo. Later
on,
as a result of his sister Chabarina
Godoy's
demise,
he received and addi-
tional
$6,370
and 4 reales. Like his
father,
don Juan de
Godoy (son)
had his
own
transportation
business. He
possessed
"eleven carts and a truck with its
oxen,
mules and tools."
Although
he also
participated
in the milliners' indus-
try
and owned four
mills,
his
primary
investments were in viticulture.
Don Juan de
Godoy (son)
had "a
winery
with wine
press
and
large
earth-
enware
jars."
He also had another
winery
"with two wine
presses
and its
large
earthenware
jars
a set of
tools,
a fruit
orchard,
the wine that is in the wine
cellar,
the orchard
fence,
a vine
abounding
in
shoots,
and the
winery patio
with earthen
jugs
and
manufacturing
ovens." To take care of the estate and to
serve the
family,
don Juan de
Godoy (son)
also had 59 slaves
(27
males and
32
females).21 Shortly
before
writing
his
will,
the census of 1739 had
assessed don Juan de
Godoy's
estate at
$24,000.
Compared
with his
father,
this
winery
documents an
important
increase wealth.
However,
100
percent
of the
younger
don Juan de
Godoy's
wine vessels were made of marl.
In addition to
standing
out as a winemaker
(as
one of the
principal lay
empresarios
in the
industry),
don Juan
Godoy
was a
precursor
in the
process
of
questioning
the ecclesiastical
guidance
that
weighed
on the lives of the
people
of
Cuya.
In
effect,
despite
the
customary practices
common to the
time,
don Juan
Godoy
refused for several
years
to receive the sacraments.
The situation was so scandalous
that,
in
1738,
the ecclesiastical authorities
demanded that
every Sunday
he attend mass celebrated
by
the
adjunct priest
of the
city
of Mendoza
(who
was later the ecclesiastical
judge
and Commis-
sioner of the
Holy Inquisition),
father Francisco Correas de
Sadi;
what is
more,
he was forbidden to leave the
city
without authorization from the
prelate.22
With this attitude of
personal autonomy
and defiance of ecclesias-
2'
Don Juan de Godoy's will (son), Mendoza,
November
16,
1746.
AHM,
Protocolo de Escribanos
no.
52,
fols. 138-144.
22
The ecclesiastical document indicates that Juan de
Godoy
"ha abandonado los
preceptos
de Nues-
tra Santa Madre
Iglesia
no confesaindose en muchos
afios
ni
comulgado y que tampoco oye misa,
mando...
que luego comparezca para que
le sefiale
persona
con
quien
se confiese
y
despu6s
de confesado
comparezca
con la c6dula de
confesi6n
de dicho confesor
para que
dicho sefior Vicario de la
comuni6n
personalmente y
asimismo manda
que
dicho
sefior Godoy
todos los
domingos y
dias de fiesta
oiga la
misa de
S.M.,
dicho
sefior vicario,
donde sea visto
que
la
oye y para
evitar
engafiosas
excusas... se le
manda
que
no
salga
de la ciudad a
parte alguna
sin licencia de Su Merced." Cited in Alba
Acevedo,
"Las
PABLO LACOSTE 399
tical
power,
don Juan de
Godoy opened
the
way
that
ninety years
later his
descendents Juan Gualberto
Godoy
and Tomais
Godoy
Cruz would follow.
The
relationship
between the
Godoy family
and viticulture also stretched
to include
Sergeant Major
don
Ignacio Godoy
de
Figueroa (the
brother of
don Juan de
Godoy [son])
who stands out as the owner of an
important
wine
estate in Mendoza at the
beginning
of the
eighteenth century.
When
writing
his
will,
he named his son don Clemente
Godoy y Villegas
executor and he
administered and increased the
family
business,
adding
several
properties
which increased their wealth. He
incorporated
a
vineyard
with
3,969
vines
and increased the
winery's capacity
to
8,000
liters. Don Clemente was a
diversified
entrepreneur:
he took care of his
vineyards,
a
store,
and a
large
network of
businesses,
especially
in Buenos Aires.
He,
like his
grandfather,
had his own
transportation
carts and a farm in the Uco
Valley.
Don Clemente
Godoy's winery
was 23 varas in
length
and had "its wine
press,
a small wine
press,
and a set of
weights
and measures with two
doors,
one with a lock and
key,
the other with a latch and a corridor with seven
columns." The wine vessels included "seven
pipes
from
Spain,"
11
large
earthenware
jars,
and "300 earthenware
jugs."
He added these vessels to the
family
estate,
in addition to
"any
others that
my
father did not account for in
his will and others that are full of wine harvested this
year
1744."23
He had
a
large
set of tools that included fourteen
mattocks,
six
hatchets,
three
spades, twenty
sickles,
three
saws,
one small
bar,
a
shovel,
four
scallops
and
eight
bill-hooks. There were also nine
copper
caldrons from
Coquimbo.
From a
technological point
of
view,
it is
important
to
point
out that don
Clemente made a
significant
contribution
by introducing
the first wood con-
tainers,
the
"pipes"
that he had
imported
from
Spain.
The viticulture tradition was maintained
by
the
succeeding generations
until Juan Gualberto
Godoy
and Tomas
Godoy
Cruz diversified their inter-
ests. Juan Alberto
Godoy (1793-1864)
was a
viticulturist,
politician,
and a
writer.24 In the first
part
of his
life,
he dedicated his talent and
energy
to the
wine
industry.
After his father's
death,
in
1809,
he was in
charge
of his
family's
estate. He dedicated himself with
great intensity
to the cultivation
of
grapes. According
to
Weinberg,
"Juan Gualberto
Godoy
contributed new
methods to
propel
the wine
industry
forward;
the size and richness of the
manifestaciones
pdblicas
de
religiosidad
en la Mendoza
colonial,"
Revista de Historia Americana
y
Argentina, pp. 33-34, (Mendoza, 1993-1994), p.
96.
23 Clemente
Godoy's Will, Mendoza, July 15, 1744, AHM,
Protocolos de Escribanos no.
50,
fols.
37 v.
24 Juan Gualberto
Godoy
was
great-grandson
of Juan
Godoy
del Castillo.
400 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
Mendoza wine
industry
owes a lot to his
initiatives."25 Morales
Guifiazfi
adds that "Juan Gualberto
Godoy
tried to obtain the finest wines
through
simple,
natural
methods,
a fact that should cause his name to be remembered
with
respect."26
The winds of
history
led him to the
revolutionary struggle
and
impelled
him to fruitful intellectual
activity.
A
passionate partisan
of the
patriotic
and
revolutionary
cause,
he committed himself to the ideals of
Enlightenment
at the local level. To
promote elementary
instruction,
he
par-
ticipated
in the Lancasterian
Society
and he became
acquainted
with the
innovator Juan Crisostomo Lafinur in Buenos Aires and Mendoza. His writ-
ings
were
deeply
committed to the
process
of
constructing
the new
republi-
can and liberal state. This
placed
him in
opposition
to the authoritarian
caudillos and their chronic
uprisings against
the established authorities and
legal powers.
The center of his attacks was "autocratic and
arbitrary
caudil-
laje."27
Moved
by
the excitement of
ideological
battles,
he set the tone of the
regional journalism
with his
incendiary
articles written for the first
newspa-
pers published
in Mendoza: El Verdadero
Amigo
del
pal's (1822-1823),
El
Eco de los Andes
(1824),
El
Iris
Argentino (1826-1827),
El Huracdn
(1827)
and El Coracero
(1826-1831).
He often
accompanied
his cousin
Tomis
Godoy
Cruz when he
performed governmental
tasks. Juan Gualberto
Godoy
did not attain the same amount of
power
as his
cousin,
but he worked for the
legislature
as well as the executive
power
of the
province
of Mendoza. He
was twice a
representative
in the
house,
and
by
1830,
when don
TomBs
was
minister,
Juan Alberto worked in his office as the first official of the
gov-
ernment.
Oscillating
between
wine,
political struggle
and
literature,
Juan
Gualberto
Godoy opened
his own
grocery shop,
in which he was an out-
standing payador.
Tradition
says
that he faced and defeated Santos
Vega
in
the classic
criollos'
counterpoint.
His keen
capacity
for rhetoric was used to
defend the interests of the wine
industry against
the businessmen and the
landowners of Buenos Aires who were not sensitive to the
emergence
of an
industrial
bourgeoisie
in the interior of the
country.
In his
poem
"Estin
hoy
los
federales,"
Godoy
dealt with the
problem
as follows:
If the
provincials
don't want
To be full of
misery,
They
should come to be
shepherds
And
they
should
populate
our deserts
Not because
they
have
vineyards
The
portefios
have to drink
25
Weinberg,
Juan Gualberto
Godoy, pp.
13-14.
26 Fernando Morales
Guifiazii, Genealogia
de
Cuyo (Mendoza, 1941), p.
118.
27
Weinberg, Juan Gualberto
Godoy, p.
55.
PABLO LACOSTE 401
Their bad and
expensive
wines
When the
foreigner
can
bring
them
good
and
cheap
wines
What does Buenos Aires care about
ruining
them all?
Neither Rosas nor his ministers
Have
given anything
to our towns
They
have neither assisted our
industry
Either come to Buenos Aires
Or
go
to hell
With
your vineyards
and
your wheat,
This
port
is
only
ours.28
They
based their
political
and
ideological struggles
on their
responsibility
to create a
juridical-cultural
structure
compatible
with the wine
industry.
According
to
Weinberg,
"this was an irrevocable vocation and need for
Cuyo's incipient bourgeoisie."
In this
context,
Juan Alberto
Godoy "honestly
and in
good
faith
believed,
perhaps naively,
that a militant and combative
press,
like that for which he
wrote,
was a
weapon against
the chaos and
oppression
he
hoped
to
avoid."29
His
passionate militancy
was frustrated
by
the battle of Rodeo del Chac6n
(28
March
1831)
when Mendoza fell into the
hands of the
Rosistas,
and intellectuals and
politicians
who had
questioned
the caudillo's
authority,
were forced into exile. At this
time,
Juan Gualberto
Godoy sought refuge
in
Chile,
where he continued his intellectual
activity.31
Juan Gualberto
Godoy
is
recognized
as a viticulturist of the
regional
industrial
bourgeoisie,
a
sharp
critic of the customs of his
times,
the fore-
most writer from
Mendoza,
one of the
pioneers
of
Argentine
literature,
and
possibly,
the introducer of romanticism in Chile.
Juan Gualberto
Godoy's
most notable cousin was Tomais
Godoy y
Cruz
(1791-1852).
He
managed
a
vineyard
and was a
merchant,
as well as a writer
and a member of
government.
He started his career as
proctor
in the
city
of
Mendoza
(1814). Later,
he was elected a
representative
of Mendoza to the
General
Congress (1815-1819)
where he was
among
the most radical
pro-
ponents
of
Independence
and
republican government (against
the then-dom-
inant
monarchists).
He served as
governor
of Mendoza
(1820-1922),
repre-
28 Juan Gualberto
Godoy, "Estin hoy
los federales." En: El Coracero no.
13, Mendoza,
25 de febrero
de 1831
p. 2;
completely reproduced
in:
Weinberg,
Juan Gualberto Godoy, pp.
202-206.
29
Weinberg, Juan Gualberto
Godoy, pp.
55,
60.
30
Emma Cunietti, "Hacia una
historia
de
la
literatura
mendocina,"
in: Arturo
Roig y
otros
(compi-
ladores), Mendoza,
cultura
y
economfa
(Mendoza:
Caviar
Bleu, 2004), pp.
340-343.
402 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
sentative of his
province
in the central
government (1822-1829),
and a min-
ister in Mendoza
(1830-1831). Throughout
these
years Godoy pursued
the
political struggle
from a liberal
position,
which earned him the
enmity
of the
traditionalist and conservative
supporters
of the dictator Juan Manuel Rosas.
After the battle of Rodeo del
Chac6n,
Tomis
Godoy y
Cruz,
was exiled to
Chile with his cousin and his friends. The
emigration
of these
important fig-
ures
represented
a
significant
blow to the
economic,
political,
and intellec-
tual
development
of the
region.
The 1831
inventory
of Don
Tomais
Godoy
Cruz's
property
that resulted
from his exile and the confiscation of his estate is
revealing.
He owned
eight
cuadras of
vineyards
and two haciendas with their
respective
wineries. In con-
trast to the
winery
of his
great-grandfather
that
exclusively
contained earthen-
ware
jugs
and
jars,
that of don
Tomis
Godoy
Cruz was much more advanced
even
though
he
kept part
of his
family's
traditional
patrimony.
The wineries of
Tomais
Godoy
Cruz contained 23
clay
vessels: 19
large
wide-mouthed
jars,
two small earthenware
jars
and two
large
earthenware
jars.
Most of the con-
tainers were made out of wood: four
large
barrels,
nine medium
barrels,
and
five
butts,
271
pipes (152
of which had iron
arches),
four
barrels,
and six casks
with wooden arches. Don Tomis made white
wine,
red
wine, carl6n wine,
aged
wine,
concentrated
syrup,
and
vinegar
in those containers. He also had
two small
measuring glasses,
28
large
narrow-mouthed
pitchers,
a funnel
made of
copper
and
wood,
and
large copper pots
and
pans
for
making
ices.
The wine was distributed
through
a store that
Godoy
Cruz had in Men-
doza. Wine and
aguardiente
was sold in different sized containers.
Pipes
and
barrels were the most common containers found on the
premises,
but
glass
containers were also used. The
inventory
included "three damas
juanas
lined with
sugar
cane" and
"thirty-four empty
black bottles.31
The
Godoy family's
wine
properties
reveal the
development
of the wine
industry
over a
period
of 130
years.
In
1703,
the vessels for
storing
wine as
well as the containers for
transporting
and
vending
the wine were all made
of
clay (large
earthenware
jars
and
jugs).
The first wood containers were
introduced in the mid
eighteenth century
and
by
the
beginning
of the nine-
teenth
century
marl was almost
completely
driven out of use. Wine was fer-
mented and stored in casks and
transported
and distributed in wooden
pipes
and barrels, by
which time wine was also sold in
glass containers, both bot-
tles
and
damajuanas.
"3 Godoy
Cruz
Tomfis
y otros,
hacen autos de secuestro en
arreglo
de
cuentas, Mendoza,
1831. Doc-
umento
reproducido completo
en
Pag6s
Larraya,
El constructor de
esperanzas, pp.
193-203.
PABLO LACOSTE 403
The introduction of
glass
containers in the wine
industry
deserves
special
mention because it
suggests
a notable
pioneering
attitude.
Very
few man-
agers
dared to use this
type
of material. For more than a
century,
wooden
vessels for
transportation
and sale
reigned supreme.
In Latin
America,
the
incorporation
of
glass
in the wine
industry
was a
very
slow
process.
Accord-
ing
to
Sarmiento,
in
1879,
the U.S. was
very
advanced in the
production
of
glass;
he stated that "in
Pittsburgh,
200
leagues
from the coast of North
America,
there are ten
big glass
factories."32 In
contrast,
there were
only
two
factories in Mexico and none in South America. In this
context,
the
genius
of San Juan stressed the convenience of
installing
an
enterprise
dedicated to
this
activity
in
Cuyo
in order to
strengthen
the
development
of the wine
industry.
In
effect,
the
availability
of bottles
represented
an
important step
forward in
quality
for the
emerging industry
of
Cuyo.
However,
it was not
easy
to solve the
problem
because
high expenses
left little
profit
for the
importation
of bottles: "there is no
plausible
reason to introduce bottles if
they
leave from here
empty
without
anything
that makes it worthwhile to
transport
them 200
leagues.""33
Therefore the
only
alternative was to make
them in
Mendoza,
which
according
to Sarmiento would be
extremely prom-
ising:
"A
glass
bottle
factory
in Mendoza would be like
joining hunger
and
the desire to eat."34
In Sarmiento's
mind,
the
glass
and bottle
factory
would mean a
step
for-
ward in the
development
of
quality products
in the
Argentine
wine
industry.
Consequently,
it would
bring
an
important comparative advantage
for Men-
doza. "How
good
would it be to have
cheap
bottles to
fill,
purify, improve,
and
export
their
wines,"
he stressed. Later
on,
Sarmiento
proposed
that the
government
should take the initiative to
open
a bottle
factory
due to the lack
of an innovative culture in the
region
and the elites'
ideological
limitations
and conservative attitudes. Sarmiento stated that "The Nation must manu-
facture the bottles" in the
newspaper
El
Nacional.35 Nevertheless,
the
proj-
ect failed and it wasn't until the 1940s that the idea was executed. Tomais
Godoy
Cruz's decision to use
damajuanas
and
glass
bottles in the 1820s
therefore reveals the innovative
perspective
of an
entrepreneurial group
with
clear
bourgeois
tendencies. Tomais
Godoy
Cruz was a
century
ahead in the
general development
of the
industry.
32 Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, "Faibrica
de vidrio en
Cuyo."
El
Nacional,
19 de
julio
de
1879,
in
Obras
Completas (Buenos
Aires: Universidad de La
Matanza, 2001),
vol.
41, p.
15.
33
Sarmiento,
"Fabrica de vidrio en
Cuyo."
El
Nacional,
19 de
julio
de
1879,
in Obras
Completas,
vol.
41, p.
15.
31 Sarmiento,
"Fibrica
de vidrio en
Cuyo,"
Obras
Completas,
vol.
41, p.
15.
5
Sarmiento,
"Fibrica
de vidrio en
Cuyo,"
Obras
Completas,
vol.
41, p.
15.
404 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
THE GODOY FAMILY AND THE SECULARIZATION OF THE WINE INDUSTRY
The
cycle
of
transferring
ecclesiastical wineries to the
laity began
in the
last third of the
eighteenth century.
The first
important
antecedent of this
process
was caused
by
the
expulsion
of the Jesuits. The
temporalidades
were auctioned and the Hacienda de Nuestra Sefiora del buen
Viaje
was
pur-
chased
by
the
lay
administrator don Jos6
Rodriguez
de
Figueredo.
This
process deepened
after the 1810 Revolution and the
weakening
of
religious
activity
in the
region.
This was caused in
part by
the fact that
many
mem-
bers of the
clergy participated actively
in
government, causing
them to leave
monastic life. Another factor was cultural
change.
Secularization
progress
little
by
little in the
eighteenth century
as is reflected in the resistance of
Juan
Godoy
del Castillo to the
obligation
receive the sacrament
regularly,
an
attitude that served as a
warning
for the ecclesiastical authorities in 1738.
This
example
was a
symbol
of the
process
of
change
that was
taking place.
At the
beginning
of the
following century,
freedom of the
press generated
the conditions
appropriate
for the circulation of new
ideas,
and the
clergy
lost their
ideological monopoly.
Liberal intellectuals
promoted
critical
thinking regarding
the excessive
influence that
religion
exerted on social and economic
life;
journalists
and writ-
ers such as Juan Gualberto
Godoy
excelled in this task. He
questioned
the
caudillos,
traditional and conservative leaders who
opposed
the liberal reforms.
In his
poem
"Con
que," Godoy questioned governor
of Buenos
Aires,
Manuel
Dorrego, precisely
because of his
agreements
with the ecclesiastical sectors:
Dorrego
has become
Beatified and a zealot!
Oh blessed
religion,
Such a convert has won!
There is no sermon
That he doesn't attend.
Although
he doesn't act
according
to the
sermon,
He listens
formally
to the mass.
Oh,
what a
temptation
to
laugh!36
From Juan Gualberto
Godoy's perspective
the caudillos and the ecclesi-
astical sectors were an obstacle to the
progress
of the nascent
nation,
and it
was
necessary
to
fight
them
through
the
press.
Juan Gualberto
Godoy
used
his
pen
to
question
the colonial
regime, especially
the
ideological manipu-
36 Juan Gualberto
Godoy,
"El con
que,"
La
Abeja
mendocina no.
16, Mendoza,
7 de
agosto
de 1828
p.
4.
Reproducido completo
en
Weinberg,
Juan Gualberto
Godoy, p.
181.
PABLO LACOSTE 405
lation that the
clergy
used to obtain economic benefits. This can be seen in
a
fragment
of his satiric
poem
"Mi
Programa":
I will win over dunces
Founding
forts and
chapels,
Making
sure that
people
believe
I
pay
for those
buildings"
At the same
time,
I do
My
business without
any impediment
And I am in
partnership
with
religion
I save
enough
to drink
And eat well in
my
idleness.37
Juan Gualberto
Godoy
wrote from a secular and
lay perspective.
He indi-
rectly questioned
the economic
power
that the
clergy
had held
during
the
colonial
period.
He also
suggested
the need to advance the secularization of
wealth and
production processes.
These
deep changes
would mean the mod-
ification of the circumstances that had
prevailed during
the
previous
cen-
turies. These
changes
could not be made from above
by
the
State,
they
necessitated a
change
in the
popular mentality.
To
promote
such a
change,
political
decisions had to be
preceded
and
accompanied by
measures that
contributed to the creation of a more
open
climate and world vision.
In the summer of
1822,
Tomais
Godoy
Cruz,
Juan Gualberto
Godoy
and
other
friends,
including
don Pedro
Molina,
who became
governor
after don
Tomais founded the Lancasterian
Society
in order to
promote
these
changes.
The Lancasterian
Society
was an educational
entity
that
encouraged
the new
liberal ideas. The initiative was
strongly questioned by
the traditional sec-
tors that still controlled the
Municipal
Council of Mendoza.
They
launched
a full frontal attack on the members of the Lancasterian
Society
because
they
considered them a threat to the Catholic faith. In one
document,
the
municipal
council exhorted the new
Society
to close because "the adminis-
trators breathe an air that will
promote immorality
and
egotism."
Thus,
"It
is the authorities'
duty
to root out the seeds of
impiety
that have unfortu-
nately
been
produced
in the
religious
town of Mendoza.""38 Juan Gualberto
Godoy
used the Lancasterian
Society printing press
to edit El Verdadero
Amigo
del
Pals
in the
pages
of which he
fought great ideological
battles.
37
Juan Gualberto
Godoy,
"Mi
Programa,"
en: El
Constitucional, Mendoza,
30 de enero de 1853.
Reproducido completo
en
Weinberg,
Juan Gualberto
Godoy, pp.
224-225.
38
Quoted by
Silvestre
Pefia y Lillo,
El
gobernador
don Pedro Molina
(Mendoza,
Best
Hermanos,
1937), p.
133.
406 VITICULTURE IN MENDOZA
Parallel to the
ideological struggle,
the
Godoy family jockeyed
for
power.
After
leaving
his friend Pedro Molina in
charge
of the Mendoza
govern-
ment,
don Tomas was elected to
represent
Mendoza in the
Congress
to be
assembled in Buenos Aires. Don
Tomris's
election to
Congress
shows the
Godoy hegemony
of
leadership
in Mendoza.
During Godoy
Cruz's
trip
to
Buenos
Aires,
he had the
opportunity
to establish a close
relationship
with
Bernardino Rivadavia and learn the details of his reformist
proposals
and
suggest
their
applicability
to Mendoza.39
Consequently,
the
Godoys ideological
and cultural
struggle
would be
complemented
with state
policies.
This was the
spirit
of the ecclesiastical
reforms that were executed from Buenos Aires to Mendoza. The laws of 15
June 1822 and 22 March 1822 were ratified in the
province, causing changes
in Mendoza that were similar to those instituted
by
Rivadavia in Buenos
Aires.
Consequently,
Mendoza led the
process
of secularization in the social
and economic life in the interior of the
country.
The cultural environment
changed slowly
but
surely.
The
clergy
lost the
ideological monopoly
and different
perspectives
and new
points
of view
began
to
appear.
Alternative ideas were
legitimized.
New world views took
hold
among people
from
Cuyo.
The ecclesiastical sector continued to
weaken and between
1824
and
1827
more than
thirty
members of the
clergy
from
Cuyo
secularized
(Sanjuaninos
and
Mendocinos).4a
In this
way,
the
transfer of viticultural
properties
from the
clergy
to the
laity began.
An
important step
in this
process
was the closure of the San
Agustin
convent
in which
"only
one
clergyman
from the
religious
order and a
layman
lived."4' Considering
this
situation,
"in March and
April,
1823,
the Men-
doza
government signed
decrees to close the
Augustine
Mission in the
province
and to name a
syndic
to administer the
Augustinian temporali-
dades.42
Attempts
at resistance did not meet with success. For
instance,
"The Dominicans
applied
to the
legislature
to
stop
the
process,
but their
petition
did not succeed and the
disposition
took
place
without
opposi-
tion."43 The
leading
role
played by
the
clergy
in the wine
industry
entered
its last
phase
and the
Godoys
had contributed to this
process
with their writ-
ings
and their
political
influence.
39 Videla, Vida de
Toma's Godoy Cruz,
pp.
101-107.
40 Anfbal
Verdaguer, Historia
Eclesidstica,
vol.
1, pp.
975-977.
41
Damitdn
Hudson,
Recuerdos histdricos sobre la Provincia de
Cuyo, 1810-1851 (Mendoza: 1966),
p.
346.
42
Verdaguer,
Historia Eclesidstica...: vol.
1, pp.
955-956.
43
Hudson,
Recuerdos
histdricos, p.
346.
PABLO LACOSTE 407
EPILOGUE FOR A FAMILY AND FOR AN INDUSTRY
The
parallel
rise of the
Godoy family
and the
Cuyo
wine
industry
was
frustrated
by
the
Argentine
civil wars. When Mendoza fell to the dictator
Juan Manuel
Rosas's allies,
Tomas
Godoy
Cruz and Juan Gualberto
Godoy
went into exile in Chile. At the same
time,
a
rapid
decline in the wine indus-
try
occurred in the
region.
In the middle of the next
century,
the economic
base of Mendoza would
experience
a
major
setback. Mendoza went from an
agro-industrial
basis to become "a livestock farm for the
confederation,"
ori-
ented to the
provision
of livestock to Chile.
Notwithstanding,
after the insti-
tutional normalization of the
country, people
from Mendoza reactivated the
industry
and,
with the
help
of
European immigrants
and British
railways,
they began
to
put
the wine
industry
that would come to
occupy
a
position
of
international
leadership
back into
operation.
The seed of
passion
that the
Godoy family
had cultivated is still alive.
University of
Talca
Talca,
Chile
PABLO LACOSTE