Orocobix Magüana
| Orocobix Magüana | |
 | |
 Who's Who of Nouvelle Alexandrie | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Orocobix Magüana |
| Titles & Offices |
Speaker of the Federal Assembly 14th Cortes Federales (12.I.1760 AN-present) Member of the Federal Assembly for Boriquén (1744 AN-present) |
| Birth Date | 4.X.1698 AN (63 AN years) |
| Birth Place |
  Guánica, Boriquén |
| Education | Law |
| Alma Mater | University of Punta Santiago |
| Occupation |
|
| Political Affiliation |
Non-partisan (formerly WPP) |
| Known For | First Wakara Speaker of the Federal Assembly |
| Residence | Guánica, Boriquén |
| National Origin |
Nouvelle Alexandrie |
| Citizenship(s) |
Nouvelle Alexandrie |
Orocobix Magüana (born 4.X.1698 AN) is a New Alexandrian judge and politician who has served as Speaker of the Federal Assembly since 12.I.1760 AN. A deputy for Boriquén, he was elected to the chair at the opening of the 14th Cortes Federales and is the first Wakara to hold the office.
A bohique, or judge, of the Boriquén courts, Magüana entered federal politics at the 1744 AN general election and by 1760 AN was among the longest-serving members of the chamber. He sat for the Wakara People's Party, which in the 14th Cortes formed part of the governing Alliance, and was known less for legislation of his own than for a close command of the chamber's procedure. He gave up his party affiliation on taking the chair, as the office requires, and his first division was the confidence vote of 15.I.1760 AN that invested the Federal Accord government of Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves.[1][2]
Early life and education
Magüana was born in 1698 AN in Guánica, the city in the cacicazgo of Cemi that is the holiest city of the Yukiyu Atabey faith, twenty years before Boriquén entered the Federation under the Boriquén Admission Act, 1718. He was raised in a household of modest means and kept his ties to Guánica throughout his public life.
He left the region to read law at the University of Punta Santiago, one of the few of his generation from Boriquén to study outside it, and returned home to practice rather than remain in the capital.
Legal career
Back in Boriquén, Magüana was in time appointed a bohique. In the region the bohiques are the priest-jurists of the Yukiyu Atabey faith, who serve the Wakara as priests and healers as well as judges; the King appoints them on the nomination of the Regional Governor and the legal profession, and the confirmation of the Areyto Legislativo de Boriquén. He sat first in the cacicazgo courts, rose to the Boriquén Court of Appeals, and for a time to the Tribunal de los Bohiques, the region's highest court.
On the bench he was exact about the record and slow to interrupt, and he held to the even hand that the office asks of a bohique. That standing on the bench is what later carried him to the Speaker's chair.
Federal Assembly
First elected for Boriquén at the 1744 AN general election, Magüana was returned at every general election that followed. He sat throughout for the Wakara People's Party, a small Boriquén party whose federal alignment shifted over the decades and which took its place in the governing Alliance by the 14th Cortes.
Bills of his own were few. He worked instead in the machinery of the House, on the committees that keep its business in order and settle disputes over its rules, and came to be treated across the benches as an authority on what the Standing Orders did and did not permit. That standing crossed party lines, and when the 14th Cortes met with no party close to a majority, his was a name both the Alliance and its partners could accept for the chair.
Speaker of the Federal Assembly
The 14th Cortes Federales opened on 12.I.1760 AN, and its first act was to elect a Speaker. Magüana defeated the Federal Humanist Party nominee Alexander Melas of Valencia by 480 votes to 321, from 801 valid ballots, and became the first Wakara to hold an office that had existed since 1693 AN and had until then been held by Speakers of Alexandrian, Caputian, Wechua and Martino background. As the office requires, he set aside his Wakara People's Party affiliation on taking the chair.[1][2]
Taking the chair, Magüana told the Assembly that "the opposition will get a fair hearing in this chamber, and so will the government," and warned that "on the day either one tries to talk over the other, it will find me standing in the way."[2]
His first division came three days later. On 15.I.1760 AN he presided over the vote on the Address in Reply, which the Assembly carried by 461 votes to 293, investing the Federal Accord government, electing Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves President of the Government and approving the Council of State in the same vote.[3]
Approach and reputation
Magüana holds to the procedure of the chamber and to the right of the minority to be heard, the standard his opening remarks set. The impartial presiding officer is a familiar figure in his own region: the Areyto Legislativo de Boriquén is led by a Taino, held deliberately above party, an office Guarionex II, Prince of Boriquén, has filled since 1723 AN. The office Magüana left and the chair he took ask the same thing of him, since a bohique is bound to judge without favor and the Speaker sets party aside to hold the floor evenly. In the Yukiyu Atabey understanding a wrong is a disturbance of the order the deities uphold, and its remedy is at once judicial and ceremonial, so for a bohique an even hand is less a procedural pose than a sacral duty.
See also
- Speaker of the Federal Assembly of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- 14th Cortes Federales
- Wakara People's Party
- Areyto Legislativo de Boriquén
