Manuel Xavier Rodríguez Erdoíza (; February 27, 1785 – May 26, 1818) was a Chilean lawyer and guerrilla leader, considered one of the founders of independent Chile. Rodríguez was of Basque descent. Early life He was born on 27 February 1785 and was the son of Carlos Rodríguez de Herrera y Zeballos (1760-1822), a customs officer from Spain, and María Loreto de Erdoiza y Aguirre (1755-1822), who was a young lady aristocrat from Peru. Rodríguez entered the esteemed Carolino College where he was a classmate of José Miguel Carrera. He went on to study law at the Royal University of San Felipe, and subsequently became a lawyer in 1807. The "Patria Vieja" (Old Fatherland) (1810–1814) On 18 September 1810, in the absence of the Spanish monarch, a national government (Primera Junta Nacional de Gobierno) was formed from which the struggle for Chilean Independence sprang. In May 1811, he was appointed attorney for Santiago de Chile. His attitude towards the independence cause remained moderate until his old friend José Miguel Carrera, a passionate revolutionary, arrived from Spain. Later in 1811, Rodríguez was elected parliamentary representative for Talca on 4 September, appointed Secretary of War on 15 November and conscripted into the army on 2 December with the rank of captain. In 1813, the friendship between Rodríguez and Carrera (who by this time had seized control of the Chilean government) had begun to cool. Rodríguez and his brothers were detained and charged with conspiracy against Carrera. They were sentenced to one year's exile on Juan Fernández island; however, Rodríguez was able to procure a document that impeded the completion of this sentence. Carrera and Rodríguez renewed their friendship in 1814. The government junta presided over by Carrera was replaced by a new one led by Colonel Francisco de la Lastra, criticized profusely by Rodríguez in the Monitor Araucano newspaper. When the Carrera brothers were removed from command, José Miguel was concealed by Rodríguez. After recovering control of the government, Carrera formed a new junta in which Rodríguez was appointed Secretary. However, Spanish forces led by General Mariano Osorio advanced from the south towards Santiago. After the Disaster of Rancagua, the Spanish took back control of Chile and Rodríguez, along with many other patriots, fled to Mendoza, Argentina. The Reconquest (1814–1817) José de San Martín, Governor of Cuyo, welcomed the Chilean exiles with open arms and organized a "Liberation Army" with Chileans and