Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla

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Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Gallaga Mondarte Villaseñor (May 8 1753 – July 31 1811), was a Mexican Roman Catholic priest and revolutionary rebel leader. He is regarded as the founder of the Mexican War of Independence movement; who fought for independence against Spain in the early 19th century.

Early life

Hidalgo y Costilla was born to a criollo family (historically, a Mexican of unmixed Spanish ancestry). Growing up in an hacienda, where his father Cristóbal Hidalgo y Costilla was employed as a superintendent, Hidalgo y Costilla developed an early sympathy for the unskilled Amerindian workers. He trained as a priest, retained an interest in political and social questions, which he carried with him to his first parish in the town of Dolores, now called Dolores Hidalgo, in the modern-day central Mexican state of Guanajuato. He learned several indigenous Amerindian languages, wrote texts in the Aztec language and organized the local communities in Michoacán.

In 1808, Spain was invaded by French troops, and Napoleon forced the abdication of King Ferdinand VII of Spain in favour of the French emperor's brother Joseph Bonaparte. Though Spanish colonial officials in Mexico were loath to opposed the new king, many Mexicans formed secret organizations, some supporting King Ferdinand VII, others independence from Spain. It is impossible to say exactly when Hidalgo y Costilla turned his thoughts towards rebellion against the colonial power, but the break is thought to have come sometime after Bonaparte replaced King Ferdinand VII on the throne of Spain.

Organizations began to emerge, expressing a variety of radical views, discontented against the French political leadership; and issues of Spanish oppression in the Spanish Empire. Hidalgo y Costilla, a priest of unconventional views, attended one such provincial group in Guanajunto. It was there that educated criollos started conspiring for a large-scale uprising of mestizos and indigenous Amerindian peasants.

Uprising

By 1809, Hidalgo y Costilla's sense of discontent was turning openly into revolutionary politics, and the possibility of an uprising against the colonial government of what was then the Viceroyalty of New Spain. He was joined by Ignacio Allende, a military soldier from the nearby town of San Miguel, also a criollo, frustrated by the inherent chauvinism in the colonial administration, which preferred the advancement of Spaniards and foreign immigrants, rather than people born in Mexico, no matter how "pure" their blood. The fall of King Ferdinand VII of Spain created an issue which Allende and other ambitious criollos were determined to fill.

On the late night of September 15, 1810, Hidalgo y Costilla and Allende received a messaged of warning from Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, that the Spanish colonial authorities had intelligence of the rebellion. Just before the dawn of September 16, Hidalgo y Costilla rang the bells of his church in the village of Dolores. Many parishioners, indigenous Amerindians and mestizos had been coming in from the surrounding countryside, expecting to hear mass; instead they heard a call to arms. He made a speech known as Grito de Dolores ("Cry of Dolores"), in which he demanded independence. Hidalgo y Costilla called on his people to expell all foriegn invaders and rulers out of Mexico, so that Mexicans could govern their country.

War of independence

On the dawn of September 16, the rebel army moved on to the town of San Miguel, gathering support. The army then march on to Guanajuato, a major colonial mining center, where Antonio Riano, the Spanish governor, attempted to organised a defensive strategy. But he was only able to assemble 500 Creole and Spanish soldiers, against an Amerindian and mestizo army estimate at 20,000 soldiers. The town fell to onslaught on September 28, during which many of the Spaniards and criollos were massacred.

In the ensuing victory at the Battle of Monte de las Cruces, the rebel army then moved south-east towards Mexico City, to the region where general Felix Calleja had placed 3000 cavalry and 600 infantry at the pass of Las Cruces. The Spaniards managed to hold off the advance in two days of fighting, assisted by the fact that some of Hidalgo y Costilla's men were poorly equiped without firearms. Hidalgo y Costilla's soldiers were defeated by a large and heavily armed Spanish army, forcing rebel survivors of the battle to seek refuged in the nearby provinces and villages.

Defeat and execution

Calleja, with an enhanced army, followed in close pursuit, finally forcing Hidalgo y Costilla and Allende to make a stand on the banks of the Calderón River, where the Battle of the Bridge of Calderón was fought on the morning of January 16, 1811. Although small in numbers, Calleja's soldiers were heavily armed. Hidalgo y Costilla, moreover, had poorly organized his army, ignoring the advice of the more experienced Allende. Under sustained attack by the Spanish cavalry, infantry and artillery, the rebel army collapsed in panic, promting a Spanish victory.

Allende, who had grown increasingly frustrated with Hidalgo y Costilla during the campaign, a mood that was compounded by the murderous indiscipline of the criollo, Amerindian and mestizo army, promptly relieved his leader of command, and carried him northwards with his remaining force, towards the United States-Mexican border, where he hoped to escaped. However, on March 21, he was intercepted by the Spanish army, and the two leaders taken prisoner.

The four leaders of the revolution including Hidalgo y Costilla, Allende, José Mariano Jiménez and Juan Aldama, were held in the Federal Palace of Chihuahua. They faced court trial and executed for treason, by firing squad; three of them on June 26, 1811 and Hidalgo y Costilla on July 31, 1811 at Chihuahua's Government Palace. Prior to his death, Hidalgo y Costilla expressed regret for the bloodshed unleashed by the revolt, though he remained firm in his conviction that Mexico had to be free. The corpses of the four leaders were decapitated and their heads were put on the four corners of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato, intended as a way to intimidate the insurgents. Following the death of Hidalgo y Costilla; one of his surviving soldiers, José María Morelos y Pavón assumed leadership of the army and continued the war of independence.

Hidalgo y Costilla and the other three leader's heads were on display in the city until 1821, when Mexico finally won its independence. Hidalgo y Costilla's decapitated body was disinterred from his burial place in the San Francisco Temple in Chihuahua and re-buried in Mexico City after independence had been achieved.

Legacy

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla is a national hero of Mexico. In his honour, the state of Hidalgo and city of Dolores Hidalgo is named after him. In addition, Hidalgo y Costilla's image is portrayed on the 1000 peso note.

Every year on the late night of September 15, just before the dawn of September 16, Mexico's president re-enact the event by ringing the bells of the National Palace in Mexico City and repeats the Grito de Dolores ("Cry of Dolores"). September 16, became the official anniversary of the "Grito de Dolores", which is celebrated as Mexico's Independence Day.

References

Hamill, Hugh M. Jr. "The Hidalgo Revolt: Prelude to Mexican Independence". University of Florida Press, 1966.
"The Birth of Modern Mexico, 1780-1824", ed by C. I. Archer. Scholarly Resources Inc., 2003.
Hamnett, Brian. "Concise History of Mexico". New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

External links

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