José María Gutiérrez de Estrada


José María Gutiérrez de Estrada, was a Mexican diplomat and politician born in San Francisco de Campeche when this city was still a part of the Captaincy General of Yucatán and died in Paris, France. He was one of the first foreign representatives sent to Europe by President Guadalupe Victoria to establish relations. He served as Minister of Interior and Exterior Relations during the presidency of Antonio López de Santa Anna in 1835. He was also a Senator of the Republic for Yucatán.
In 1863, he headed the delegation that offered the Mexican throne to Maximilian of Habsburg at Miramare Castle. His brother, Joaquín Gutiérrez de Estrada, also a conservative politician, was Governor of Yucatán.

Early Life

José María Gutiérrez was born into a wealthy Yucatec family which allowed him to receive a formal education in Mexico City. He was only 28 years old in 1828 when president Guadalupe Victoria sent him to Europe as part of a diplomatic mission to the Dutch Republic.
It was at this time that he was married to the sister of the :es:José Justo Gómez de la Cortina|Count of La Cortina, uniting him to another very wealthy Mexican family.
In 1831, he was elected to the national Senate as a deputy from Yucatan, representing the Centralist Party, which won him the great enmity of the Federalists in Congress, especially :es:Manuel Crescencio García Rejón|Manuel Crescencio García Rejón. In 1833, he was exiled by the liberal government of Valentín Gómez Farías.
Estrada was becoming renowned as a conservative and as a talented writer, in part due to his aristocratic connections with the Count of Cortina who played an important role in the cultural life of Mexico in the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1835, under the presidency of Santa Anna, he was appointed to be the minister of interior and foreign relations.