José Ruiz de Luzuriaga
September 12, 2008
Originally uploaded by let².
Our ancestors:
Don Eusebio’s son José Ruiz de Luzuriaga eventually assumed control of Hacienda Lupit and was one of the first to utilize modern means of cultivation, among which was the introduction of the small steam engine and iron rollers in sugar production on his hacienda and the use of iron ploughshares. He tapped the Lupit river for irrigation and when the sugar industry expanded, he was one of the first to convert his Hacienda Lupit into a sugar plantation using new tools and equipment from England and Canada, by the latter part of the 1860s.
Don José Ruiz de Luzuriaga would later serve as President of the Constituent Assembly from July 22, 1899 to November 6, 1899 during the period of the Negros Republic, which was established after the successful Negros Revolution won independence from Spain.
José Ruiz de Luzuriaga, a rich sugar businessman, became part of Philippine history when he was appointed the President of the Constituent Assembly of the short-lived Negros Republic that existed in 1899 following the Negros Revolution against the Spanish colonial government. The lot of José‘s hacienda house is now where the Bacolod City Hall stands
The hacienda house of José Ruiz de Luzuriaga is the site of the signing of the Act of Capitulation on November 6, 1898, marking the end of Spanish rule on Negros. The house later became the seat of the Negros Republic, the provincial capitol, and finally Bacolod City Hall.
In 1920, Valencia, Negros Oriental was renamed “Luzuriaga” in honor of Don Carlos Ruiz de Luzuriaga, a delegate from Negros to the Philippine Legislature (it was later renamed back to Valencia after the Second World War).
