CARRERA, RAFAEL. - President of the Republic of Guatemala, b. in Guatemala on 24 Oct. 1814, d. there on 14 Apr. 1865. The son of an Indian and a black woman, he received no education and was at first a cattle keeper. In 1838, having placed himself at the head of the insurgents, he besieged and conquered Guatemala. In 1847 he had himself elected president of the Republic, which he declared independent, an act that definitively put an end to the United States of Central America. C. succeeded in winning the sympathies of England, and acted as mediator in the conflict that arose between the president of Honduras, Guardiola, and the ecclesiastical authority. In 1854 he was elected president for life. He readmitted the Jesuits to Guatemala, whence they had been banished almost a century earlier, and on 7 Oct. 1852 concluded with the Holy See a highly favourable concordat by which Catholicism was declared the religion of the State.
CARRERA, RAFAEL
BIBL.: Anon., s. V. in Enc. Eur. Am., X, pp. 1325-26; H. Bancroft, History of Central America, III, S. Francisco 1886, passim; J. Schmidlin, Papstgeschichte der neuesten Zeit, II, Monaco 1934, p. 154. The text of the concordat is in Raccolta di concordati su materie ecclesiastiche tra la S. Sede e le autorità civili, edited by A. Mercati, Roma 1919, p. 810 ff. Silvio Furlani
Cite this article
“CARRERA, RAFAEL.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III (1949), p. 550. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/carrera-rafael.