![]() ![]() Nevertheless, it was a pattern that created a bitter split in the social elite. In New Spain, the social rank of people born in Europe was considered higher than those of European descent who had been born in the New World, though intermarriage between these two groups was a common pattern in the colony. Allende’s Spanish-born father had immigrated to New Spain, married into a prominent family of Creole or Spanish descent, and had become a wealthy merchant. With a dashing military figure and Michelangelesque nose-broken during a village bullfight-he was a superb horseman, exemplary soldier, amateur matador, gambler and womanizer. Hidalgo was joined in his enthusiasm for revolt by Ignacio Allende, a fiery, multitalented young regimental captain from the nearby Bajío town of San Miguel. Instead, taking them into his confidence, he set potters and tanners to the secret military task of making lances, slings and wooden swords against the day when he and other rebels would move to overthrow their Royalist oppressors. Still, he did not entirely forget his poorest parishioners. ![]() As his fascination with politics grew, his interest in other projects waned. With the same laudable intentions, he set up a pottery works and a leather-tanning shop beside his parish house. When first sent by Church authorities to Dolores, near Guanajuato, he took an avid interest in raising silkworms and cultivating grapes for wine, intending to provide self-supporting cottage industries for his Indian parishioners. He was a visionary, resentful of authority and with a touch of the crusader about him. In his student days, he had won debates and honors as a theologian he enjoyed considerable local renown. He had a restless, willful nature, and his expressive green eyes shot fire when he argued politics. He carried his head habitually bent forward, giving him the appearance of a true contemplative. Miguel and an older brother entered the ranks of the clergy, and a third brother studied law.Īt age 55, Hidalgo was a tall, gaunt man with a high, domelike forehead and a long, narrow face. His father, a poor Creole in a society of poorer Indians and mestizos, worked to ensure his three sons would rise above his own modest station in life. Having grown up on a hacienda where his father acted as superintendent in place of the absentee owner, Miguel Hidalgo had always had sympathy for the illiterate and unskilled Indian workers who provided the field labor. First discovered in 1548, by 1810 they were producing 64 percent of all the silver in the world, giving employment to large numbers of Indian and mulatto laborers. In addition to splendid stone palaces, churches and public buildings, Guanajuato boasted some of the richest silver mines in the world. ![]() Abounding with thriving towns and flourishing haciendas, the Bajío was further enriched by the presence of Guanajuato in the central sierra. Located a four-day horseback ride north from Mexico City, the Bajío was a fertile alluvial plain, called the breadbasket of New Spain. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (Library of Congress) One near-miss revolt was scotched by Spanish Royalists, but a dozen more were floating on the wind, especially in the Bajío, where Hidalgo’s conspiratorial clique gathered. ![]() Flying every ideological flag, they hatched countless conspiracies, from liberating New Spain from Napoleon, to saving it for Ferdinand VII (the “rightful” Spanish king), to demanding outright independence. Clandestine literary clubs sprang up, attracting restless or openly rebellious men. But once the French Emperor Napoleon’s military juggernaut rolled across the Iberian Peninsula, and Spain’s North American colonists learned that a Bonaparte-Napoleon’s brother Joseph-sat on the Spanish throne, everything changed. What began as romantic fancy became the call of destiny, however, transforming this obscure country priest into a revolutionary sworn to the cause of Mexican independence.įor 300 years, New Spain had been the most loyal and stable of all of Spain’s American colonies. THE INTRIGUING NOTION that he might personally lead an armed uprising against the viceregal government of New Spain apparently struck Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla sometime in 1809 as he was attending a meeting of a provincial literary club. Mexican War of Independence: Father Miguel Hidalgo's Revolt Close ![]()
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