| José Mariano Mociño | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1757 Temascaltepec, New Spain |
| Died | 1820 Barcelona, Spain |
| Nationality | New Spain |
| Other names | José Mariano Mociño Suárez Lozano |
| Occupation | Botanist |
José Mariano Mociño Suárez Lozano (1757 – 1820), or simply José Mariano Mociño, was a naturalist from New Spain.
After having studied philosophy and medicine, he conducted early research on the ecology (especially botany), geology, and anthropology of his country and other parts of North America.
He was born in Temascaltepec (modern-day Mexico State) in 1757. Being poor, he worked in many different jobs to study in the Seminario Tridentino de México. In 1778 he graduated in philosophy and in 1787 he was called to take part in the scientific expedition of Martín de Sessé, with whom he travelled across New Spain, reaching the most inhospitable places of the Empire, being especially notables his trips to the Pacific Northwest (modern-day U.S. states of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, and the Canadian province of British Columbia), among others. He could hardly be paid for his job, instead he had created one of the most important collections of his times.
In 1803 he went to Spain with Sessé, where he worked two times as secretary and four times as president of the Royal Medicine Academy of Madrid. Mociño sympathised with Joseph Bonaparte, and when the French withdrew after the Peninsular War, he was taken prisoner, accused of afrancesado. Finally, he managed to flee to France. In Montpellier he met the naturalist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, to whom he showed the collections he could save. Candolle brought him to Geneva, where he became professor in the University of Geneva. In 1818 he returned to Spain, where he died, poor and blind, in 1820. He was the most famous American naturalist of the colonial period.
Pablo de la Llave named the Resplendent Quetzal Pharomachrus mocinno to honour his mentor Mociño, who was the first to classify the bird.