Diego de Porres was born in Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala on 19 November 1677, the natural son of Teresa Ventura and of the architect Joseph de Porres, a mestizo of the same city; he learned the trade on his father's sites. In 1703 he took his father's post as maestro mayor de arquitectura of Santiago and held it until his death in 1741, adding the office of chief water engineer in 1713. After the earthquake of 1717 he surveyed and repaired the damaged city, cathedral included. The historian Javier Aguilera Rojas credits him with defining the local baroque through sober, Renaissance-descended interiors, a Serlian mannerist streak and genuine innovation in construction. La Recolección, Santa Clara, the Capuchin convent and the royal mint are his.
