Agustín Vicente Zamorano was a printer, soldier, and provisional Comandante General in the north of Alta California.
Background
Zamorano was born on May 5, 1798 in Spanish Florida to Spanish parents within the Spanish colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. He was the son of Gonzalo Zamorano y Gonzalez, a native of Muriel, Old Castile, Spain, and Francisca Sales del Corral, of Havana, Cuba. The father, who was treasurer, auditor, and quartermaster of the Spanish province of East Florida, was appointed in March 1811 treasurer of the province of Guanajuato, in Mexico.
Education
Zamorano received his schooling and grew to manhood in Mexico. During the final phases of the Mexican war for independence he became a cadet in the army (May 1, 1821) and took part in the campaign that ended in national freedom.
Career
Zamorano spent several years in the city of Mexico, receiving the training of a military engineer. When José M. Echeandia was made governor of California in February 1825, Zamorano was appointed executive secretary and reached San Diego in October. Shortly after Manuel Victoria assumed the governorship, in January 1831, Zamorano, still secretary, became also commandant of the presidio at the capital, Monterey, with the rank of captain. Victoria's rule proved unpopular and revolt broke out in December 1831 at San Diego. The governor was seriously wounded and was captured by the revolutionists. Zamorano, as the senior loyal officer, assumed the military command and maintained the established government in three of the four presidial districts until the arrival in January 1833 of a new governor from Mexico. Zamorano is remembered chiefly as the first printer in California. His first imprints were letterheads produced from woodblocks; these are known to have been in use during the years 1826-1829. In 1830, the official letterheads were printed from type and in the following year, 1831, habilitated stamped paper (papel sellado) was printed from the same type; all the existing imprints of this period give evidence of being pounded proofs. In June 1834, the ship Lagoda, out of Boston, delivered to Zamorano at Monterey a wooden-framed Ramage printing press, type, and other equipment. Soon afterward, Zamorano issued his Aviso al Publico (1834), a broadside announcing the establishment of a printing office and quoting prices. He is known to have produced twenty-one imprints, in addition to letterheads and stamped paper headings. Of these, eleven were broadsides or folders of an official character, six were of a miscellaneous nature, and four were books: Reglamento Provincial para el Gobierno Interior (1834); José Figueroa's Manifiesto a la Republica Mejicana (1835); Catecismo de Ortologia (1836) and Tablas para los Niños que Empiezan a Contar (1836). Zamorano served as territorial secretary and as commandant at Monterey until November 1836, when a revolution led by Juan Bautista Alvarado, deposed acting governor Nicols Gutiérrez. Zamorano then removed to San Diego, where he played a leading part in the fruitless resistance to Alvarado's government offered by the inhabitants of the southern part of the territory. In the spring of 1838, leaving his family in California, he returned to Mexico. From some time in 1839 until late in 1840, he was military commander of Lower California, with headquarters at La Paz, and was then called to Mexico for staff duty. On the appointment of Manuel Micheltorena as governor of California, early in 1842, Zamorano was named as adjutant inspector of the territory and sailed with the new governor from Mazatlan. He was desperately ill when the expedition reached San Diego, August 25, 1842, and a few weeks later he died.
Achievements
Connections
On February 15, 1827, Zamorano married María Luisa Argüello, by whom he had seven children.