Manuel Del Socorro Rodríguez De La Victoria

"Father of Colombian Journalism". The first press to come to light was the periodical paper of the city of Santa Fe, on February 9, 1791, directed by the man from Bayamo until its disappearance.

He founded an institute to provide free classes. For his talent, intelligence, and culture, he is considered the most outstanding figure of the 18th century and the most notable self-taught person of his homeland.

His birthplace was the then Villa del Santísimo Salvador de Bayamo. His biographers differ on some facts about him, as is the case with his birth date: Calcagnon points out in his Diccionario Biográfico Cubano, April 5, 1758, which is the same date that Señor Antonio Bachiller y Morales has in his work; from where the Argentine writer José Torre Revelo takes it in his study on this notable man from Bayamo. Gabriel Giraldo Jaramillo indicates the year 1754, surely taken from the petition made to the King of Spain by Rodríguez himself in 1874 when he says he is thirty years old. The historian Gustavo Otero Muñoz, in the Colombian nation, points out the date April 15, 1756, which is the date adopted by Don Pedro A. Herrán, from autobiographical memoirs written by Rodríguez; therefore this is the most accurate date. Although said memoirs have disappeared so it has not been possible to corroborate.

He was also labeled on several occasions as a mulatto, which is uncertain. Of white parents and humble condition, but excessively honorable, of four children the only male, whom they named Manuel del Socorro and who from a very young age showed signs of great intelligence and interest in studies, receiving the first educational notions from his own father, who maintained a school to subsist with all decorum and humility in that household.

He, like his parents, belonged to the parish of San Juan Evangelista, where he was brought from eight days after birth and registered in the register of Spaniards, since his parents were all of Spanish origin: Rodríguez, Phelipe, Herrera, Matos, Cardonas and the native, the surname Núñez according to what he expressed in his autobiography. In said parish he was appointed altar boy, a position he held for six years, after which came the illness and death of his father.

From that point on he dedicated himself to attending his father's academy for four years, then he left it to dedicate himself fully to carving, sculpture, painting, and drawing, in which he was indeed a perfect master.

For his dedication and exemplary behavior he enjoyed the appreciation of the entire population. Books were his only teachers. The principal elements of the town held Manuel in great admiration, putting him as an example of correctness, nobility, selflessness, industriousness, culture. Nevertheless, this illustrious man from Bayamo is not very well known by his native town. Socorro is among the men from Bayamo scattered throughout American lands who knew how to sow foundations of love and service in foreign countries.

Socorro had an existence of intellectual restlessness, sacrifices, deprivations, and misery. In 1874, Rodríguez himself, seeing the impossibility he found himself in to continue his apprenticeship alone, exhausted the means of study in his native city, through his minister Don José de Calvez, writes to the King a petition to continue and perfect his studies in Spain and complete his works. At the same time he requested that a pension be given to his family and to him to dedicate himself to his apprenticeship in the metropolis. After several efforts, he was sent to Havana by the governor Don José de Ezpelata, who arranged for him to take an exam at the Real Colegio de San Carlos de la Habana.

On August 21, 1785, the king ordered that 600 pesos be provided for his travel and the maintenance of his mother and siblings, to submit to the exam. The news arrived in Bayamo on December 19 of that year. Two years passed from the petition until he received the full 600 pesos.

The exam passed by Rodríguez caused great impression on Governor Ezpelata, who, upon being appointed Field Marshal and viceroy of New Granada, decides to take him with him. At first he refused but economic hardships made him change his mind and accept abandoning his homeland. Thus on October 18, 1790, he arrives in Bogotá. The viceroy offers him several positions, among which he accepted that of Director of the Royal Library.

Colombia was his adopted country, his bibliography there is abundant. Five years before the Cuban arrived in Bogotá, several attempts at journalism had occurred, but it was not until the viceroy, acceding to Manuel's desires, stimulated a permanent diffusion. Socorro devoted himself body and soul to journalism, raising at the same time the cultural level of the nation that welcomed him, earning the honorable title of "Father of Colombian Journalism". The first press to come to light was the periodical paper of the city of Santa Fe, on February 9, 1791, directed by the man from Bayamo until its disappearance on January 6, 1797, when issue number 265 circulated.

Although he devoted himself fully to journalism, he did not abandon his calling as a teacher and alongside his work in the library and in gatherings, he founded an institute to provide free classes. His friend the viceroy is replaced and he could not continue editing the newspaper. He was ten years removed from journalism until at the request of a new viceroy Don Antonio Amar y Borbón he brings to light the Redactor Americano, publishing the first issue on December 16, 1806. It extended for three years, publishing seventy-one issues. And as a supplement to this began to appear from January 27, 1807, the Alternativo de Redactor Americano, with the same style and cut of the Redactor. He also directed the newspaper la Constitución Feliz, with the city of Bogotá at that moment in the hands of the patriots for the cry of independence, to whom the brilliant man from Bayamo joined. Years later he was called by Don Antonio Nariño to be Subdirector of the newspaper Cundinamarca. He was there until 1813 when he completely withdrew from journalism. He dedicated his last years completely to writing, drawing, and he formed the catalog of the books of the Library, the first of its kind in America.

Of his last moments the historian Otero Muñoz says: "Don Manuel del Socorro did not live to see the August sun that would illuminate the dawn of freedom in the new Kingdom".

He lived until June 2, 1819, was found in the room he had inhabited in the library for thirty years, dressed in the humble habit of the sons of San Francisco and holding in his hands a rustic symbol of Redemption.

For his talent, intelligence, and culture, he is considered the most outstanding figure of the 18th century and the most notable self-taught person of his homeland.