José Eusebio Colombres (16 December 1778 – 11 February 1859) was anArgentine statesman and bishop. He was a representative to theCongress of Tucumán of 9 July 1816 whichdeclared the Independence of Argentina, and is credited with the foundation of the importantsugar cane industry inTucumán Province.
Colombres was born inSan Miguel de Tucumán into an influential family and became a cleric in August 1803 inCatamarca and a Doctor in Canon Law at the University of San Carlos inCórdoba.
Colombres was elected byCatamarca Province to the Tucumán Congress in 1816, having served as a parish priest inPiedra Blanca in that province. After independence, he participated in theLeague of the North and consequently had to live in exile inLivi-Livi close toTupiza,Bolivia, until the fall ofJuan Manuel de Rosas. He returned to Tucumán and became a priest in the cathedral.He was a senior cleric in theSalta diocese, for a period leading the diocese which had no bishop appointed since 1830. As governor of the diocese he commissioned the newSalta Cathedral. In 1858 Colombres was appointed Bishop of Salta on the suggestion ofJusto José de Urquiza but died less than two months later before being consecrated.
Although sugar cane had been brought to northern Argentina by theJesuits, Colombres started growing it on his land in 1821 and introduced the techniques to make its cultivation an industry and income generator, with the first mill. Sugar production is still, as of 2006, one of Tucumán's principal industries. His house in Tucumán, around which the city's extensiveNinth of July Park was developed in 1910, is now the Museum of the Sugar Industry and aNational Historic Monument. His birthplace close to the city's central square is now the Folklore Museum.
