He completed his higher studies at the
University of Córdoba. Due to the fact that
Córdoba did not offer a law degree, in 1799 he moved to Chile accompanying Governor
Joaquín del Pino, future viceroy of the Río de la Plata, who was married to his paternal aunt Rafaela de Vera Mujica y López Pintado. He studied law and theology at the
Royal University of San Felipe, obtaining the degrees of bachelor, bachelor and doctor in the second in 1799, and the doctorate in law in 1806. He was a professor of law at that University.
Political career In 1808 he was already a revolutionary and his position as secretary of the town council of Santiago de Chile gave him an important political position. On May 18, 1810, he was accused of subversion before
Francisco Antonio García Carrasco (governor of Chile) he was arrested on May 25, 1810, alongside
Juan Antonio Ovalle and . He was taken to the San Pedro barracks, and later on to Valparaíso, on the 29th, where he was forced to board the frigate "Astrea". When the events in Santiago became known, there was a strong popular commotion that frightened the governor. José Ignacio de la Cuadra, Bernardo Vera's father-in-law, presented a petition signed by forty "respectable neighbors" in which he asked the Cabildo to comply with the laws. In spite of having offered the opportunity to the prisoners to defend themselves publicly, they were deported to Callao. Due to their poor health, He was secretary of the government in Finance (July 1814) and War (September 1814). Due to the patriot
defeat in Rancagua, he emigrated to
Mendoza, joining the council of that city. When Deputy
Tomás Godoy Cruz informed him that the
Congress of Tucumán was considering the establishment of a monarchy for the
United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, he obtained from the council a prohibition to support those efforts. He returned to Chile with the
Army of the Andes in 1817, after the victory of the independence fighters in the
Battle of Chacabuco. In 1819 he composed the first
National Anthem of Chile, whose chorus was preserved in the current one. He was part of the Congress as deputy for
Linares (1823–1825). He was vice-president of the Congress (1824) and President of the Congress in 1825. In 1826 he was appointed professor of Civil and Canon Law at the
National Institute.
Family On March 16, 1808, he married Mercedes de la Cuadra y Baeza from Santiago, with whom he had two daughters: Lucía, married in 1833 to
Ramón Luis Irarrázaval, and María del Carmen de Vera-Mujica y de la Cuadra. == Bibliography ==