200 hundred years since that cold morning at Dolores in what is now the State of Guanajuato. The local priest Miguel Hidalgo, warned by some of the officers of the Spanish army, that the conspiracy he was part had been denounced, called the people to arm themselves and start another war against the Conquistadores.
Yes, another war.
The call from Hidalgo was not the first, others before him had tried to break the ties of Mexico from Spain. Maybe the very first Criollo that rebelled against Spain and tried to make Mexico independent was Martin Cortez, the son of Mexico's Conquistador, in 1565. The rebellion was a failure and Cortez was taken to Spain to be judged. He was exiled to Oran and lost his estate. He was later pardoned and he died in Spain. The important thing is that he was the first Mexican with Spanish descent that rebelled.
After many other attempts a group of Criollos tried to sever the ties with Spain, at the time in the hands of the drunkard brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. The idea was to keep the colony until the legitimate King was able to return to his throne. This rebellion failed as well although the Viceroy Iturrigaray was involved in it.
Hidalgo, along with other influential Criollos like Miguel Dominguez and his wife, Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama conspired to get rid of the Spaniard Viceroy, nominated not by the King but by the "Cortes de Cadiz". All the conspirators lived close to the city of Queretaro and the group included soldiers as Allende, politicians, government officials and merchants. The premise of the rebellion was similar to the one 1808, keep the colony safe from "Pepe Botella" the nickname that the Spaniards gave to Joseph Bonaparte.
A post officer discovered the conspiracy and alerted the local authorities, that were involved in it, and the whole process was triggered. Miguel Dominguez in his role as a Magistrate of the King in the city was involved in discovering the facts and arresting the actors. Behind the scenes he alerted, with his wife help, the other conspirators in the neighboring towns. Juan Aldama rode his horse from San Miguel el Grande several hours until he reached the town of Dolores in the early hours of 16 September 1810.
Hidalgo was a good politician and a liked people leader. Many peasants joined his movement, with the military leadership of Allende. They won several battles, notably the one for Guanajuato and its big corn storage, that provided the means for the informal army to move towards Mexico City. Maybe the landmark battle was the one called the battle of "Cerro de las Cruces" about 45 miles north of Mexico City were Hidalgo forces had an important victory. What happened after that is not clear, but Hidalgo refused to advance to Mexico City and Allende, while keeping the farce that Hidalgo was still the leader, took him virtually as a prisoner. The fare of the rebellion went down hill until in Acatita de Bajan, Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama and Mariano Jimenez were taken prisoners by the Spaniards. They were judged and sentenced to death in Chihuahua. That was the end of the rebellion.
In reality Mexico's independence war was never a continued process. There was no continuity in the effort, no higher authority like the Continental Congress in the American Colonies, no single leader like Washington. The turmoil lasted at least eleven years, under the leadership of many people: Jose Maria Morelos, Guadalupe Victoria, Pedro Moreno, Francisco Javier Mina and Vicente Guerrero. Maybe the most important one was Morelos that called a Congress in Apatzingan and prepared a Declaration of Independence in 1813.
And the fact is that none of the several leaders was really capable to complete the independence. The very capable Spaniard general, Jose Maria Calleja, commander of the Spain army and later Viceroy defeated them again and again.
To complete the process the muscle of the Spanish Army stationed in Mexico was required. Yet another group of Criollos, this time under the leadership of Agustin de Iturbide, the most decorated Criollo in the Spanish Army, decided to join forces with Vicente Guerrero, an obscure leader in the south, to give the act some legitimacy that it was done by native Mexicans.
And in 21 September, 1821, the combined army of Guerrero and Iturbide paraded in Mexico City, finalizing a series of rebellions and completing the independence war.
But the turmoil did not finish. All the leaders fought against each other for personal gain. New names were added to the list of leaders in sight of personal gain: Antonio Lopez de Santana, Ignacio Comonfort, Juan Alvarez and others. In 1856 the whole country was set on fire by the Guerra de Reforma, were a group of liberals led by Benito Juarez, had to defend the country against a group of conservatives.
And just after the "Guerra de Reforma" was over the weak and incapable nephew of Napoleon decided to conquer Mexico for France. Another war and more leaders looking for personal gain. Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada and Porfirio Diaz rounded up a century of social turmoil, poverty and poor political organization.
And guess what? The next century was a century of social turmoil, poverty and poor political organization. New names arrived, most of them to fight basically for personal gain: Francisco Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Victoriano Huerta, Alvaro Obregon, Plutarco Elias Calles, Lazaro Cardenas. All of them fought in a series of civil wars that lasted well into the 1930's. After that the war moved from the battle field to the election process and the political murder arenas. And the new protagonists were ruthless with their adversaries and also looked only for personal gain: Luis Echeverria, Jose Lopez Portillo, Miguel de la Madrid, Carlos Salinas.
In summary, 11 years of bloody war to become independent of Spain, just to become dependent of England, the United States, France, and just recently, of Spain, that controls the banking and telephony industries in Mexico and Latin America.
Great!
No comments:
Post a Comment