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General and Governor of the Mexican state Sinaloa, Don Plácido de la Vega Daza y Colon de Portugal (1830–1878) was a 12th generation descendant of Viceroy and 1st Admiral of the Ocean Sea Cristopher Columbus (via Columbus' grand daughter Isabel Colon de Toledo, who Married the 1st Count of Gelves, Jorge Alberto de Portugal y Melo).
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He descended directly from Christopher Columbus' great-great grandson, the Admiral and 3rd Duke of Veragua and Marquis of Jamaica, D. Nuno Alvares Pereira Colon de Portugal y Fernandez de Cordoba, and his second wife, Luisa de Aragon y Zapata. From the 17th century to the 18th century his family was heir to the famous Majorat or " El Mayorazgo de la Colonas" established in Pontevedra, Spain by his ancestors D. Miguel Henriquez Flores and Da. Jeronima de Vargas Machuca. In the mid 18th century, his family settled in the northern Mexican city of Culiacan, Sinaloa which was then New Spain, and became the major political and commercial influence of Northern Mexico. His family owned vast lands, valleys, and gold mines, but he did not sympathize with his family's ideology of repression of the poor. Although members of his family had previously held his position as Sinaloa governors, he prevented his relatives from having access to politics (with major consequences) when he became Governor at the age of 29.
Plácido de la Vega was a native of El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico. Born to Don Francisco Xavier de la Vega y Esquer and María Dolores Daza, great grandson of [Don Baltasar Ignacio de la Vega Enriquez y Colón de Portugal (member of the family of the Dukes of Veragua) and Ana Irene de la Puente y Villegas). He was an idealist with strong temperament, and found in the military a career that best suited his intellectual and idealistic pursuits. His present day descendants reside in Northern Mexico and the United States.
Political career
When President Benito Juárez led Mexico's resistance against the French Intervention, financial and military support from outside of Mexico was desperately sought after. In 1864, General Plácido de la Vega, by then a 3rd division central army General, was sent by Juárez on a secret mission to California, to meet with leading Mexican-American families of Contra Costa to seek support for the constitutional government of Mexico and the movement for independence. Seeking additional political influence, General Vega also became a vice-president of the Union Club of San Francisco. As an officer of the Union Club, he contributed both time and money working on Abraham Lincoln's 1864 re-election.