Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/Joseph A. Lopez/archive1
Joseph A. Lopez was a Mexican Catholic priest who became a prominent ally of Emperor Augustín de Iturbide. As a priest in Peribán, he unsuccessfully tried to arrest the first leader of the Mexican War of Independence, Miguel Hidalgo. He fled and became acquainted with Ana María Huarte, the wife of the future Emperor of Mexico, Augustín de Iturbide. As a result, he was sent to Madrid to act as Iturbide's attorney and political informant. He eventually returned to Mexico as chaplain and educator of the imperial family. He fled with the exiled family to Europe in 1823, and then returned to Mexico. Following Iturbide's execution in 1824, Lopez fled with the family to Washington, D.C., where he was made chaplain to the Georgetown Visitation Monastery, and became a Jesuit. In 1840, Lopez was named the acting president of Georgetown University, becoming the first Latin American president of a university in the United States. He soon fell ill and was sent to St. Inigoes, Maryland, where he died. (Full article...)