Principal

HISTORY OF AIGUA

The present city of Aiguá was born within the geographical area of the Indian pago de la Iguá or 

Aleiguá as it used to be called then, expressions that have an indigenous flavor. The payment of Aiguá is 

conquest and eastern projection: daughter therefore of Maldonado - head city - and of San Carlos -

colonizing village - both gave him, in the course of his living, the laborious and useful element, his military 

and political protection, together with the precise spiritual food.

The neighbors who populated the pago de Aiguá, primitively, were: Mateo Lázaro Cortés, José 

Cayetano de Olivera, Ramón del Puerto, Manuel de la Quadra, Francisco Antonio Bustamante, Jerónimo 

Muniz, José Llorens, Aparicio, Moreno, Calabuig. These and many others, in the lands irrigated by the 

picturesque streams of the region, slowly but decisively organized their ranches.

By virreinal resolution of the year 1799, the payments of Aiguá are under the jurisdiction of the Villa de 

San Carlos. The initiation of the history of Aiguá is to be found in the disposition of the King of Spain in 

1774, by which the lands of that area belonged to Jerónimo Muniz or Munis, who would become the 

grandfather of Margarita Muniz - founder of a town in the valley that would bear the name of San Antonio 

del Aiguá - a donation that dates back to 1892.

Mrs. Margarita Muniz donated the land for the "installation and foundation of a town" on November 21, 1892. And in 1906 Aiguá was officially recognized as a town, and in 1956, in what was considered the 50th 

anniversary of its foundation, it was given the category of city.therefore head city - and of San Carlos -

colonizing village - both gave him, in the course of his living, the laborious and useful element, his military 

and political protection, together with the precise spiritual food.

The neighbors who populated the pago de Aiguá, primitively, were: Mateo Lázaro Cortés, José 

Cayetano de Olivera, Ramón del Puerto, Manuel de la Quadra, Francisco Antonio Bustamante, Jerónimo 

Muniz, José Llorens, Aparicio, Moreno, Calabuig. These and many others, in the lands irrigated by the 

picturesque streams of the region, slowly but decisively organized their ranches.

By virreinal resolution of the year 1799, the payments of Aiguá are under the jurisdiction of the Villa de 

San Carlos. The initiation of the history of Aiguá is to be found in the disposition of the King of Spain in 

1774, by which the lands of that area belonged to Jerónimo Muniz or Munis, who would become the 

grandfather of Margarita Muniz - founder of a town in the valley that would bear the name of San Antonio 

del Aiguá - a donation that dates back to 1892.

Mrs. Margarita Muniz donated the land for the "installation and foundation of a town" on November 21, 1892. And in 1906 Aiguá was officially recognized as a town, and in 1956, in what was considered the 50th 

anniversary of its foundation, it was given the category of city.

HISTORY OF MARGARITA MUNIZ

Margarita Muniz - Visionary benefactor of Aiguá - Granddaughter of Don Gerónimo Muníz and Doña 

Margarita Rocha, subjects of His Most Fidel Majesty of Portugal, first settled in San Carlos, they moved to 

the Aiguá Valley (Aiguá or Iguá) around 1730. His grandparents occupied an extension of 30,000 cuadras 

granted by mercy of the superior Spanish government, Don Geronimo went to Brazil leaving his wife and 

five children named: Teodoro, Eugenio, Santiago, Ramon and Antonio, Don Antonio married Maria Ines 

Gonzalez and from their marriage Margarita was born. Margarita inherited from her parents in 1810 the 

fields where today the city of Aiguá is located, she married in first marriage with Pedro Cortés, who died in 

1874, and then in second marriage with Temístocles Etcheverria, having no descendants in any of their 

marriages, but a young man named Modesto Correa was adopted. 

In 1892, Margarita made a will before José A. Sánchez, instituting young Modesto and her husband as 

heirs, in which she also left a legacy of one hundred cows to Pedro Martínez, a servant in the service of her 

house.She was a rather short and thick person, with a dark complexion and a face of thin lines that did not 

harmonize with her physique, she was an extremely kind person, with a generous fondness for sharing her 

free time with young people, for which she was called "Mama Margarita" in her time. Having been born in 

her -perhaps, it is said, with the advice of General Melchor Maurente- the idea of forming a town next to the Aiguá Stream.

On November 21, 1892, she donated two blocks of land to the Municipality before the Esc. Ismael 

Esquibel, for the installation of the Square and the Cemetery, one block to the Ecclesiastical Curia for the 

Church and another one to the State for public offices. At that time there were only three houses and some 

ranches, the exceptional position and its excellent urbanization, projected and carried out by the Surveyor 

Manuel Sainz Álvarez, made the population progress rapidly, and after 14 years, on May 7, 1906, it was 

declared a Town Center with the name of "Pueblo Aiguá", and not with the one projected by its founder: 

"San Antonio del Aiguá". Doña Margarita survived this declaration for a short time, passing away on May 

11, 1907. Today, the figure of this great woman, who with her visionary and altruistic soul, allowed the 

constitution of the city of Aiguá, is remembered with infinite respect and gratitude.