José Matías Delgado

José Matías Delgado y León (February 24, 1767, San Salvador – November 12, 1832, San Salvador) was a Salvadoran priest and doctor known as El Padre de la Patria Salvadoreña (The Father of the Salvadoran Fatherland). He was a leader in the independence movement of El Salvador from the Spanish Empire, and from November 28, 1821 to February 9, 1823 when he was president of the Central American constituent congress which met in Guatemala City.

Delgado studied civil law, canon law, and theology in Guatemala at Tridentino Seminary, earning a doctorate from the University of San Carlos de Guatemala. He was ordained a priest, and returned to El Salvador, where from August 12, 1797 he was provincial vicar of San Salvador. He was intensely involved in pastoral work. In 1808 he began the reconstruction of the old Parochial Church of San Salvador (today El Rosario Church), which was finished a decade later.

In San Salvador he became a leader of the movement for independence. Together with his nephew Manuel José Arce he was among those who issued the first Cry for Independence in Central America, on November 5, 1811 in San Salvador. On this date he is said to have rung the bells of the Church of La Merced, as a public cry for liberty. The rebellion began with the confiscation of 3,000 guns and the funds in the royal treasury. The provincial intendant, Gutiérrez de Ulloa, was removed, as were most governmental employees.

The rebels held the government for nearly a month before royal authority was restored from Guatemala. Delgado's brothers Juan and Miguel were also members of the independence movement.

In 1813 Delgado was elected a provincial deputy to the council in Guatemala City. He also became director of the Tridentino Seminary there. He was not in El Salvador at the time of the second insurrection in 1814, and did not take part in it.

He was elected provincial deputy again in 1820, and on September 15, 1821, he was among those who signed the Act of Independence of Central America in Guatemala City. On November 28, 1821 he became political chief of the province of San Salvador.

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