View source for Gabriel Cano de Aponte

{{for|the Mexican cyclist|Gabriel Cano (cyclist)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[Don (honorific)|Don]]
| name                = Gabriel Cano de Aponte
| honorific-suffix    = [[Order of Alcantara|Caballero de Alcantara]]
| image               = GabrielCano.jpeg
| order               = [[Royal Governor of Chile]]
| term_start          = 17 December 1717
| term_end            = 11 November 1733
| monarch             = [[Philip V of Spain|Philip V]]
| primeminister       =
| predecessor         = [[José de Santiago Concha]]
| successor           = [[Francisco de Sánchez de la Barreda|Francisco Sánchez]]
| birth_date          = {{birth-date|1665}}
| birth_place         = [[Mora, Spain|Mora]], Spain
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1733|11|11|1665|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Santiago]], [[Chile]]
| spouse              = María Camps<br>María Francisca Velaz de Medrano
| children            =
| profession          = [[Lieutenant General]]
}}
'''Gabriel Cano de Aponte''' (or '''Gabriel Cano y Aponte''') was a Spanish soldier who served as [[Royal Governor of Chile]] from 1717 to 1733. His administration was the longest of all Colonial Governors and the second longest in the history of Chile after the administration of General [[Augusto Pinochet]], who surpassed him by some eight months.
==Life==
Gabriel Cano was born in the town of [[Mora, Spain|Mora]], near [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], the son of Juan Cano Ruiz and of Josefa de Aponte Carvajal.  Cano joined the Spanish army and fought in [[Flanders]] for 33 years, rising through the ranks from [[Alférez (rank)|Alférez]] to [[Brigadier]] and finally [[Marshal]]. He married María Campos, but she died in 1713 without descendants.
Due to his outstanding valor and performance during the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] he was promoted to [[Lieutenant General]] on 28 October 1715, three days later being appointed [[Royal Governor of Chile]].<ref name=Medina>{{cite book |title=Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile |last=Medina |first=José Toribio |author-link=José Toribio Medina |language=es |url=http://www.memoriachilena.cl/archivos2/pdfs/MC0008968.pdf}}</ref>
=== Mariá Francisca Vélaz de Medrano ===
On 5 January 1716 he married again, this time with María Francisca Velaz de Medrano Navarra y Puelles, in the city of Pamplona.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Gabriel Cano de Aponte {{!}} Real Academia de la Historia |url=https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/23563/gabriel-cano-de-aponte |access-date=2024-01-16 |website=dbe.rah.es}}</ref> María Francisca Vélaz de Medrano was 24 years old, while he was already in his fifties. She was the daughter of María de Larrea and [[José Joaquín Vélaz de Medrano y Gante, 1st Marquess of Fontellas#Viscountcy of Azpa|José Vélaz de Medrano y Navarra]], 4th [[Viscounts of Azpa]], lord of Mendillori and the town of [[Autol]].<ref name=":0" /> The marital agreements were formalized on January 5, 1716, with the bride's father contributing a dowry of [[Ducat|3,000 ducats]], charged as an encumbrance on his entail, plus [[Peso|4,000 pesos]] in jewelry.<ref name=":0" /> They had two sons: José Antonio de Aponte y Medrano and Juan Gabriel de Aponte y Medrano.<ref name=":0" /> They travelled together to [[Chile]] to assume his position, arriving to [[Santiago]] on 17 December 1717.<ref name="Medina" />
His wife Mariá Francisca Vélaz de Medrano was reported to be a skillful keyboard performer.<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-companion-to-the-harpsichord/harpsichord-in-colonial-spanish-and-portuguese-america/E850F23076968D6EF02814FD70348B16 | doi=10.1017/9781316659359.015 | chapter=The Harpsichord in Colonial Spanish and Portuguese America | title=The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord | date=2019 | last1=Persone | first1=Pedro | pages=236–262 | isbn=978-1-316-65935-9 }}</ref>
===As governor of Chile===
In a flare up of the [[Arauco War]] he fought the [[Mapuche]] [[toqui]] [[Vilumilla]] in the [[Mapuche Uprising of 1723]].  It was ended with the [[Peace of Negrete]] in 1726.
In 1725, Governor Cano attempted to repress contraband, without complete success, due to the wit and skills of the French and Dutch merchants and the complicity of some of the Kingdom's influential citizens.
===Death===
As a soldier, Cano was an innovative horseman, and historians have documented Cano's "inclination for unbridled fun and equestrian exercises". On 26 July 1733, while he was participating in a game on horseback, Cano suffered an equestrian accident when he fell with his horse and was crushed by it.<ref name=Carvallo>{{cite book |title=Descripción Histórica y Geografía del Reino de Chile... |last=Carvallo |first=Vicente |author-link=Vicente Carvallo y Goyeneche |language=es |url=http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documento_detalle.asp?id=MC0008929}}</ref> The sequence of events that caused his death three months later are unclear, but what is clear is that Cano was badly injured and never recovered, dying on 11 November the same year.
It has been stated that a spinal lesion caused by the accident kept him bedridden for a period of three months, clear in reason and with intense pain, before his death. However, there is no evidence that conveys any typical sign associated to spinal injury following the accident. Therefore, it is possible that Cano suffered a complex pelvic ring fracture. The fact that he was prostrated, lucid, but suffered intense pain best sustains the hypothesis of a pelvic fracture. After the initial period, one of the most common causes of death resulting from a pelvic fracture is deep venous [[thrombosis]] with secondary pulmonary thrombo-embolism. This must have been the sequence of events that most probably caused Cano de Aponte's death.<ref name=LILACS>{{cite book |title=A propósito de la muerte de Cano de Aponte... |year=2008 |language=es |pages=1213–1218 |url=http://bases.bireme.br/cgi-bin/wxislind.exe/iah/online/?IsisScript=iah/iah.xis&src=google&base=LILACS&lang=p&nextAction=lnk&exprSearch=497040&indexSearch=ID}}</ref>
==Additional information==
===See also===
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
*[[Vilumilla]]
*[[Arauco War]]
*[[Mapuche|Mapuche people]]
*[[List of unusual deaths in the early modern period]]
{{div col end}}
===Notes===
{{Reflist}}
===Sources===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
*{{Cite web |url=http://bases.bireme.br/cgi-bin/wxislind.exe/iah/online/?IsisScript=iah/iah.xis&src=google&base=LILACS&lang=p&nextAction=lnk&exprSearch=497040&indexSearch=ID |title=A propósito de la muerte de Cano de Aponte y los accidentes ecuestres |access-date=20 January 2009 |author=Bravo G, Sebastián |author2=Moles P, Paula |author3=Quiroga M, Daniela |author4=Pancorvo P, Renzo |author5=Espinoza G, Ricardo |date=September 2008 |work=[[Revista Médica de Chile]] |publisher=LILACS |location=Santiago, Chile |pages=1213–1218 |language=es}}
*{{cite book |last=Carvallo y Goyeneche |first=Vicente |author-link=Vicente Carvallo y Goyeneche |editor=Miguel Luis Amunategui |title=Descripción Histórica y Geografía del Reino de Chile Vol. II (1626 - 1787) |url=http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/documento_detalle.asp?id=MC0008929 |edition=Instituto Chileno de Cultura Hispánica, Academia Chilena de la Historia |series=Coleccion de historiadores de Chile y documentos relativos a la historia nacional |volume=IX |year=1875 |publisher=Imprenta de La Estrella de Chile |location=Santiago, Chile |language=es |pages=483}}
*{{cite book |last=Castedo |first=Leopoldo |author-link=Leopoldo Castedo |title=Resumen de la Historia de Chile de Francisco Antonio Encina |volume=2 |year=1954 |publisher=Empresa Editora Zig-Zag |location=Santiago, Chile |language=es }}
*{{cite book |last=Encina |first=Francisco Antonio |author-link=Francisco Antonio Encina |title=Historia de Chile: desde la prehistoria hasta 1891 |volume=I-XX |year=1940–1952 |publisher=Editorial Nascimento |location=Santiago, Chile |language=es }}
*{{cite book |last=Medina |first=José Toribio |author-link=José Toribio Medina |title=Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile |url=http://www.memoriachilena.cl/archivos2/pdfs/MC0008968.pdf |year=1906 |publisher=Imprenta Elzeviriana |location=Santiago, Chile |language=es |pages=165–166}}
*{{Cite web|url=http://www.icarito.cl/medio/articulo/0,0,38035857_172985945_182726550_1,00.html |title=Gabriel Cano y Aponte |access-date=15 October 2008 |publisher=Diario La Tercera |location=Santiago, Chile |language=es |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080404225330/http://www.icarito.cl/medio/articulo/0,0,38035857_172985945_182726550_1,00.html |archive-date=April 4, 2008 }}
{{Refend}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-gov}}
{{succession box
| title=[[Royal Governor of Chile]]
| before=[[José de Santiago Concha]]
| after=[[Francisco de Sánchez de la Barreda|Francisco Sánchez]]
| years=1717–1733}}
{{s-end}}
{{Royal Governors of Chile}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cano, Gabriel}}
[[Category:1665 births]]
[[Category:1733 deaths]]
[[Category:Royal governors of Chile]]
[[Category:Knights of the Order of Alcántara]]
[[Category:Spanish generals]]
[[Category:18th-century Spanish military personnel]]