Alejandro Ordóñez (c. 1766 – c. 1836) was Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 3 January 1816 to 31 December 1818.Eduardo Neuman Gandia. Verdadera y Autentica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. San Juan: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. 1913. pp. 49, 275.Municipalities: Ponce: Mayors. Puerto Rico Encyclopedia. Fundación Puertorriqueña para las Humanidades. 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017. He was a teniente justicia mayor (justice major lieutenant).Eduardo Neumann Gandia. Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. San Juan, PR: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. 1913. p. 49.
Background Ordóñez was a Spanish subject who had arrived to Puerto Rico from Venezuela with his family, plenty of cash, and merchandise and slaves. He was educated, knowledgeable on matters of business and agriculture, and with plans to grow a prosperous business.Ivette Perez Vega. Las Sociedades Mercantiles de Ponce (1816-1830). Academia Puertorriqueña de la Historia. San Juan, PR: Ediciones Puerto. 2015. pp. 271-272. He arrived in Puerto Rico on 1815 as a Comandante Militar y Político (Military Commander and Politician) and was immediately named Subdelegado Real de Hacienda and Teniente de Justicia Mayor in Coamo. Two years later, in 1817, he became Alcalde Ordinario in Ponce.Ivette Perez Vega. Las Sociedades Mercantiles de Ponce (1816-1830). Academia Puertorriqueña de la Historia. San Juan, PR: Ediciones Puerto. 2015. p. 287. As of 1 January 1816, heads of civil government in Ponce that up to that time were titled "teniente a guerra", began to be titled "justicia mayor". However, on 6 June of that same year, they stop titling heads of local government as "Justicia Mayor" and they start naming ordinary mayors.Eduardo Neumann Gandia. Verdadera y Autentica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. p. 260.
Mayoral term Ordóñez is best remembered for creating the first known map of Ponce in 1818.Eduardo Neumann Gandia. Verdadera y Autentica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. 1913. p. 69.Neysa Rodriguez Deynes, Rafael J. Torres Torres, and Carlos Aneiro Perez. Brevario Sobre la Historia de Ponce y sus Principales Lugares de Interés. Published by Secretaría de Cultura y Turismo of the Government of the Autonomous Municipality of Ponce. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 1st edition. 1991. p. 105.The Nancy Velez Blog. Blogspot. Accessed 12 February 2019. While Ordóñez was mayor of Ponce, the municipality also ceased to depend on Coamo for governmental matters and becomes head of its own district. This meant it no longer needed to channel government matters to be heard by the Governor via administrative personnel in Coamo, but began to enjoy the benefits of a direct channel of communication with the capital.Socorro Girón. Ponce, el teatro La Perla y La Campana de La Almudaina: Historia de Ponce desde sus comienzos hasta la segunda década del siglo XX. Ponce Municipal Government. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 1986. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Editora Corripio, C. por A. 3rd edition (1992). page 9. LOC: 85-90989. Registration Number: TX-1-977-212
Post mayoral life Ordóñez is also known to have been commissioned, sometime around 1825, for the planning and opening of several downtown streets, including Calle León, Calle Aurora, Calle Amor and Calle Salud.Eduardo Questell Rodriguez. Historia de la Comunidad Bélgica de Ponce, a partir de la Hacienda Muñiz y otros datos. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Mariana Editores. 2018. Page 9.
Legacy There is a street in Urbanización Las Delicias of Barrio Magueyes in Ponce named after Ordóñez.
See also
List of Puerto Ricans List of mayors of Ponce, Puerto Rico
Notes
References
Further reading Ramon Marin. Las Fiestas Populares de Ponce. Editorial Universidad de Puerto Rico. 1994.
External links Guardia Civil española (c. 1898) (Includes military ranks in 1880s Spanish Empire.)