José Matías Delgado y de León (24 February 1767 – 12 November 1832) was a Salvadoran priest and doctor known as El Padre de la Patria Salvadoreña (The Father of the Salvadoran Fatherland). He was a prominent leader in the independence movement of El Salvador from the Spanish Empire. From 28 November 1821 to 9 February 1823, he served as the Political Chief of San Salvador and later served as the President of the Constituent Assembly of the United Provinces of Central America from 24 June 1823 to 1 July 1823. Early years José Matías Delgado y de León was born on 24 February 1767 in San Salvador, which was at the time a part of the Spanish Empire administered by the Greater Mayorship of San Salvador (es). His father was Pedro Delgado y Matamoros, a Panamanian who later served as "Ordinary Mayor of First Vote and Alderman and Royal Ensign" of San Salvador in 1797, his mother was Mariana de León Mexía, a Guatemalan, and he had six siblings: Manuel, Miguel, Josefa, Juan, and Francisco, and Mercedes. Through his mother, Delgado was a direct descendant of Sancho de Barahona, a Spanish conquistador who was a companion of Pedro de Alvarado, the conquistador who conquered El Salvador in the 16th century. Delgado studied jurisprudence and canon law at the University of San Carlos of Guatemala and the Tridentine College and Seminary of Our Lady of the Assumption (es) on a scholarship granted by Cayetano Francos y Monroy (es), the Archbishop of Santiago de Guatemala from 1779 to 1792. He attained the grade of Doctor and was ordained as a priest when he graduated in 1794. In 1808 he began the reconstruction of the old Parochial Church of San Salvador (today El Rosario Church), which was finished a decade later. Independence movement In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain and deposed King Ferdinand VII, replacing him with Joseph I, Napoleon's brother, beginning the Peninsular War. The Spanish colonies in the Americans did not recognize Joseph I as their King and pro-independence sentiments began arise. Since 28 June 1805, the Colonial Intendant of San Salvador was Antonio Gutiérrez y Ulloa. He was described as "infatuated" and "difficult" and was unpopular with those residing in San Salvador. In San Salvador he became a leader of the movement for independence. Together with his nephew Manuel José Arce he was among those who issued the first