Eulogio Gillow y Zavalza
Eulogio Gregorio Clemente Gillow y Zavala was the first archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Antequera, Oaxaca located in Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca, Mexico. He was the key cleric in President Porfirio Díaz's policy of conciliation with the Roman Catholic Church, which kept the anticlerical articles of the liberal Constitution of 1857 in place but suspended their implementation. Life Born at Puebla, Mexico in 1841, he was the member of a wealthy and socially prominent family, the son of an English Catholic from Lancashire, Thomas Gillow, who immigrated to Mexico in 1819, and María Zavala y Gutiérrez, who inherited the title of the Marchioness of Selva Nevada. Originally Thomas Gillow was a jeweler, but he became a successful agricultural businessman, managing his wife's estates, and keenly interested in improving farming methods in Mexico. In 1851, Gillow father and son attended The Great Exhibition in London; and young Eulogio remained in England for education, attending the Jesuit college of Stonyhurst. After Stonyhurst, Gillow continued his studies at the College of Aalst and the Université de Namur, both in Belgium. This was followed by studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University and Sapienza University of Rome. He went to Rome in 1862, and gained an audience with Pope Pius IX, who encouraged him to study for the priesthood. Gillow was in Rome for the celebrations for Maximilian of Habsburg as he prepared to go to Mexico to become Emperor at the invitation of Mexican conservatives. Gillow returned to Mexico during Maximilian's Second Mexican Empire and was ordained at the cathedral in Puebla in 1869. He had impressed Pius XI and returned to Rome to serve as the pope's private chamberlain. During the First Vatican Council, Gillow was a theological adviser to the archbishop of Oaxaca. Before his return to Mexico, Gillow was appointed by the pope to an office that connected him directly with the Roman Curia rather than the episcopal hierarchy in Mexico. He inherited the Chautla Hacienda located in the rich valley of Puebla and on his return to Mexico devoted more of his attention to his family estate than to ecclesiastical matters. As the son of an agricultural entrepreneur who had a great interest in improving agriculture in Mexico, Gillow followed in his father's footsteps, involving himself in the Mexican Agricultural Society. At this hacienda, he built modern infrastructure, including the first hydroelectric plant in Latin America, as well as telegraph and telephone lines, imported the latest agricultural machinery, and gained railroad concessions. He built an English-style residence (locally known as “El Castillo” (The Castle)) for a planned agricultural school. As a promoter of modern agriculture, he participated in expositions, which is how he came to the attention of Porfirio Díaz, a liberal former general who as president promoted modernization in Mexico, including foreign investment. Gillow organized an exposition in Puebla, where his estate was located, and there was hope of attracting investors from the U.S. Díaz himself opened the exposition, with multilingual Gillow as his interpreter and intermediary