The Little Known Historical Figure That Defined Mexican Independence Day

Understanding the complicated founding father of Mexican independence provides insight into the internal tensions of the culture that is now redefining America

Photo by Obed Hernández on Unsplash

I know most of my readers know this but Mexican Independence Day is commemorated on September 16th. No, Mexican Independence Day is not on the Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) though I would not advise missing any opportunities to get a Margarita half off on that day or any other.

Hispanic Heritage month began on September 15th and Mexican Independence day is September 16th so I wanted to spend some time during the harried final rush of the campaign to also add some cultural texture to the social changes were seeing in this country. It also gives me a chance to take a break from the campaignt rail to tell a brief story about the man who fomented the uprising that led to the Mexican Independence movement. Understanding the nature of political uprisings and the people who led them are a great way to better comprehend nation, culture and the mythologies that support them.

As you also know, readers of The Great Transformation like to go deeper than surface level. Yes we spend a lot of time discussing data and polling but we also like to look under the hood and understand what is driving the numbers we see in campaigns. Our community is built on curious thinkers who want to know and experience more but also want to take a break from the anxiety of the political moment before us so this is gonna be a quick take on one of my favorite mercurial historical figures - the father of the Mexican Independence. In fact he was a “father” in many ways and isn’t known or discussed nearly enough in American history books but I’m guessing he will be as the Latinization of America continues.

The call for independence: Father Hidalgo’s Grito de Dolores

Now if there was one person in history I would love to do a biopic on (and I may yet) it would be Father Miguel Hidalgo - a Catholic priest who was the father of Mexican Independence.

This dude was complicated.

More than anything he was a father in virtually every sense of the term.

Father Miguel Hidalgo was the father of the Mexican Independence movement and it is distinct from what we refer to as the “Mexican Revolution”, which started in 1910. Hidalgo was a renaissance man clearly passionate about self determination for his people and casting off the yoke of oppression from the Spanish empire. He was also a father, or priest, of the Roman Catholic Church. The teachings of the Catholic Church both haunted and inspired him. The orthodoxy of the Church and its teachings on social justice and advocating on behalf of the poor were obvious driving forces in his life but he also rebelled against its demands of chastity and its structure which he clearly believed were complicit in keeping people locked in poverty. He was also a prolific father of many children from at least four women.

So yes, Father Hidalgo was a priest, a revolutionary, an investor, a father but most of all a contrarian who had a passionate calling to fight for the poor and the peasantry of Mexico. He was sort of a Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin and Jon Brown all wrapped up into one enigmatic man wearing a priests collar.

Born of a family of means, Miguel Hidalgo y Castillo was sent to seminary early to join the priesthood. He vocally and publicly called out the government and the Church that oppressed the people of his time. He learned the best practices to develop crops and even beekeeping and silkworms to provide lessons to the peasants to provide them economic self-sufficiency. Despite his vow of poverty he also accumulated vast wealth including three haciendas.

In the United States our Independence movement and our revolutionary war are essentially intertwined. Not so with the Mexican story. The Mexican Independence movement is distinct from what we refer to as the “Mexican Revolution”, which started in 1910. Independence was begun and fought from Spain a century earlier in 1810 and was the result of a power vaccuum of balkanized European states at war with one another. The Mexican revolution was a series of armed conflicts leading to an unstable period of Mexican controlled governments from 1910-1920. Essentially both were products of unstable political regimes and the filling of those voids by emergent power structures, one a problem in Europe the other a problem in Mexico.

The movement for Mexican independence began in the early hours of Sept. 16, 1810, when Miguel Hidalgo, a Catholic priest, delivered his famous "Grito de Dolores" ("Cry of Dolores") in the small town of Dolores. His rallying call inspired the people of Mexico to rise against Spanish colonization, sparking an 11-year battle that would eventually lead to freedom with the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba on Aug. 24, 1821.

Hidalgo marched across Mexico and gathered an army of nearly 90,000 poor farmers and Mexican civilians who attacked Spanish Peninsular and Criollo elites. Hidalgo's insurgent army accumulated initial victories on its way to Mexico City, but his troops ultimately lacked training and were poorly armed. These troops ran into an army of well-trained and armed Spanish troops in the Battle of Calderón Bridge and were defeated.^[7] After the battle, Hidalgo and his remaining troops fled north, but Hidalgo was betrayed, captured and executed.

Like all Independence movements this one was messy.

I’m borrowing heavily from Wikipedia here to give a summation of the events that led to and unfolded during the chaos of the indpendence movement. “In the 1810s, what would become Mexico was still New Spain, part of the Spanish crown. The Napoleonic wars were causing chaos throughout the Iberian penninsula and French aggression was creating a situation where Spain was having a difficult time holding onto its vassal states. Following Napoleon's overthrow of the Spanish Bourbon monarchy in 1808, Spain's American possessions rose in rebellion, refusing to accept Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as king. In New Spain the creole leadership attempted to set a course of autonomy and in support of the legitimate heir to the throne, Ferdinand VII, but the peninsular elite fearing loss of the colony carried out a coup, also in the name of Ferdinand. Almost immediately groups of creoles began forming various plots around the viceroyalty, including in Querétaro, of which Father Hidalgo became a part. When the plot was discovered in early September 1810, some of the plotters decided to proceed with the uprising.”

Father Hidalgo, long an advocate for breaking with the Spanish empire, rose to the news that Spanish armies were in the area and the priest clamored up to the church tower bell at 2:30 am and rang it ferociously crying out for the peasants to rise up with their tools and rally to fight for liberation. This cry for freedom and revolt, or in Spanish ‘grito’, is still part of the celebration ritual throughout Mexico and increasingly in cities throughout the United States as more and more Mexican migrants settle in states throughout the country.

On the evening of Sept. 15, the president of Mexico stands on the balcony of the National Palace in Mexico City, reenacting Father Hidalgo’s call for independence by delivering a passionate speech, honoring the heroes of the revolution and ringing the very same bell that Hidalgo rang over 300 years ago.

Here’s a short clip of how “El Grito” works. Check it out

El Grito de Dolores

The event is marked by fireworks, parades and vibrant festivities across the country.

The story does get a bit more interesting especially when it concerns what exactly Father Hidalgo ‘cried’. History often falls on these small details but the debate about what the rallying cry entailed became the rationale for those interested in different political interests for the uprising. Did Hidalgo make the case against all monarchy? Was it just against the ‘bad’ Spanish government? Most historians observe that the cry did, in fact, include a call for the defense of their religion and the Virgen de Guadalupe herself as a rationale for revolt.

This is particularly interesting and I make specific mention of this in my book "The Latino Century” for it may sound like a small detail, but the summoning of the Christian religious figure of the Virgin Mary as a nationalist call for indigenous uprising against a European imperialist power, is an extraordinary moment in the Mexican mindset. At this moment the bifurcation of the European and indigenous meld into one new national moment. The indigenous revolt uses a religious symbol of the European oppressor to unite against the very oppressive force that brought the symbol to the new world in the first place - truly extraordinary!

Hidalgo becomes the father of the Mexican nation, not only by casting off the yoke of the oppresor, but by creating nation with the symbols of the oppressor in the first place.

Though massive, Hidalgos peasant militia was not well organized and vanquished by professional military soldiers in a matter of months. Hidalgo marched across Mexico and gathered an army of nearly 90,000 poor farmers and Mexican civilians who attacked Spanish Peninsular and Criollo elites. (Peninsulars were Spanish born citizens, Criollos were citizens of Spain but of mixed Spanish and indigenous blood). Hidalgo's insurgent army accumulated initial victories on its way to Mexico City, but his troops ultimately lacked training and were poorly armed. These troops ran into an army of well-trained and armed Spanish troops in the Battle of Calderón Bridge and were defeated. After the battle, Hidalgo and his remaining troops fled north, but Hidalgo was betrayed, captured and executed.

Hope this provided some brief background on the Mexican Independence movement, the tradition and importance of September 16th and the man recognized as the father of the Mexican nation - Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla.