José de Bustamante y Guerra

José de Bustamante y Guerra (1 April 1759 – 10 March 1825) was a Spanish Navy officer, explorer and politician. He governed Guatemala as the captain general and president of the audiencia of Guatemala from 1811 to 1818. He governed Guatemala as a dictator and opposed the Cadiz Constitution of 1812.

Bustamante and Malaspina called it "Scientific and Political Travel around the World" although it was popularly known as "Expedition to the World", later it was officially renamed "Ultramarine Expedition started on July 30, 1789" because it could not be Complete the round the world by having to return to Spain at the beginning of the War of Roussillon against the First Republic of France. Today, however, it is known as Malaspina Expedition or also Malaspina-Bustamante Expedition. The Expedition had a select team composed of the best officers of the moment, who were joined by botanists, painters, doctors and other enlightened humanists.

From 1789 to 1794 Bustamante and Malaspina sailed Atlantic Ocean and throughout the Pacific Ocean, stopping at nearly all the Spanish colonies and exploring little known areas such as the Spanish America (Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Patagonia, Islas Malvinas/Falkland Islands, Chiloé island, Talcahuano, Valparaiso, Santiago de Chile, El Callao, Guayaquil, Nueva Granada, Acapulco, California) to Pacific Northwest northwest step or connection between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans (Alaska), and Spanish Asia (Filipinas, Marshall and Marianas Islands), Macao on the coast of china, New Guinea, Celebes, Molucas and Tonga Islands, New Zealand, and Australia. The two ships sometimes separated to pursue different tasks. For example, when sailing from Talcahuano to Valparaíso (in present-day Chile), Bustamante kept to the coast, surveying and mapping, while Malaspina sailed to the Juan Fernández Islands. Between Valparaíso and Callao, Peru, Malaspina again investigated offshore islands while Bustamante continued charting the coast. The same happened in the Atlantic, when Bustamante reached 57º south latitude (near the South Pole), one of the reason why Uruguay, Argentina and Spain have rights over Antarctica.

Bustamante was rewarded with the rank of captain (1791) and was promoted to navy brigadier shortly after his 1794 return to Spain.

Bustamante kept a diary during the Malaspina expedition, which was published in 1868 in the official journal of the Directorate of Hydrography. At a time of great independence activity; he develops a reformist policy of enlightened style, but before the revolution of Hidalgo and Morelos in Mexico he prepared troops in Guatemala and created the "Fernando VII volunteer corps" and from his position he confronted the insurgents by repressing them. Bustamante died in 1825 at the age of 66. In his will he donates a large amount of money to support the children's schools in Ontaneda, founded by Francisco, his brother.

Commemoration The Spanish Navy destroyer was named for Bustamante. She was in commission from 1914 to 1931.