| Francisco Pizarro Martínez | |
| Birth Name: | Francisco Xavier de la Paz Pizarro Martínez |
| Birth Date: | 24 January 1787 |
| Birth Place: | Mexico City, New Spain |
| Death Place: | Washington, D.C., United States |
| Resting Place: | Mount Olivet Cemetery, section 61, lot 62. |
| Office1: | Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Mexico to the United States |
| Term Start1: | 17 October 1837 |
| Term End1: | 9 February 1840 |
| Predecessor1: | Joaquín María del Castillo (interim) |
| Successor1: | Joaquín Velázquez de León (interim) |
| Children: | Victoria (1815), Juan Bautista Francisco (1816-1819), Mauricio Carlos Francisco Antonio (1819), Antoinette Victoria Luisa (1823-1853), Francisco Xavier Luis (1824-1889), Sebastian (1827-1878), Teresa (1829), Eugenio Juan Bautista Evaristo (1830), Teresa Helena (1833-1895).[1] |
| Parents: | Timoteo Antonio Pizarro and Antonia San Martin |
Francisco Xavier de la Paz Pizarro Martínez (24 January 1787 – 9 February 1840) was a Mexican diplomat who served as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Mexico to the United States from 17 October 1837 until his death on 9 February 1840.[2] Previously, Pizarro served as Mexican consul to New Orleans.
Francisco Pizarro was born in Mexico City on 24 January 1787 to Timoteo Antonio Pizarro López and Antonia San Martín Pérez, a Spanish couple from Alcántara, Extremadura, and Cádiz, respectively.[3] At 27, he married Marie Thérèse Visoso, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, and daughter of a Galician immigrant, on 27 April 1814.
In 1833, as Mexican consul of New Orleans, Pizarro refused entry to blacks and other "people of color" to the then-Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas, claiming that they were slaves in disguise and inherently lazy and immoral.[4] After the Texas Revolution, he negotiated a prisoner exchange with Stephen F. Austin in the winter of 1836.[5]
In May 1837, he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Mexico to the United States by President Anastasio Bustamante.[6] As envoy, he negotiated the Convention for the adjustment of claims of citizens of the United States of America upon the Government of the Mexican Republic with John Forsyth in 1838.[7]
Shortly thereafter, Pizarro died while on duty on 9 February 1840, at the age of 53, in Washington, D.C. The President of the United States, his cabinet, and members of the diplomatic corps were present at his Catholic funeral.[8] He was originally interred behind the Chapel of St. Francis Xavier on College Ground (a burial ground of the Holy Trinity Church) in the historical neighborhood of Georgetown.[9] In 1953, when Georgetown University cleared the cemetery for the construction of new buildings, his remains were transferred to Mount Olivet Cemetery.[10]