Miguel Hidalgo
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Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Gallaga Mondarte Villaseñor (May 8, 1753 – July 30, 1811) also known as Cura Hidalgo (Priest Hidalgo), was the chief leader of Mexico's war of independence against Spain.
Miguel Hidalgo, was a Criollo (Mexican of solely Spanish ancestry but born in the New World), and the parish priest of Dolores, now called Dolores Hidalgo, a small town in the modern-day central Mexican state of Guanajuato. The child of Cristóbal Hidalgo y Costilla and Ana Maria Gallaga, Hidalgo was a keen reader of banned French literature and was an avid nonconformist. He learned several indigenous languages, wrote texts in the Aztec language and organized the local communities in Michoacan. In the mining/farming region of central Mexico Miguel Hidalgo and other criollos of high society started conspiring for a considerable uprising of mestizos and indigenous peasants.
Alerted by Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez ("La Corregidora") that his revolutionary plot had been discovered and that he would soon be arrested for his conspiring, he brought his plans forward and, with the Grito de Dolores delivered in religious language and from the belfry of his defence against the usurpers of authority and the enemies of Fernando VII. In doing this, Hidalgo started the fight for independence in 1810. On September 16, 1810, in the town of Dolores, he used banners with the slogans which, included "Long live religion!, Long live Our Holy Mother of Guadalupe!, Long live Fernando the Seventh!, Long live the Americas and death to the corrupt government!" (¡Viva la religión! Viva nuestra madre santísima de Guadalupe. Viva Fernando VII. ¡Viva la América y muera el mal gobierno!). After ringing the town's church bells, Hidalgo lead the townspeople with shouts to join his battle against the Spaniards, with a war cry of "Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe and death to the Spaniards!" (¡Viva la virgen de Guadalupe y mueran los gachupines!).
In less than a year, he had recruited two hundred thousand men, mainly indigenous and created an army. They soon marched towards Mexico City to fight the Spanish Army. Some analysts and historians pointed out that the capital was entirely defenseless because the Spanish army had left it to combat him elsewhere. As he did not have confidence in the discipline of his newly recruited army and did not feel he could control looting or useless violence, Hidalgo abandoned his plans in Cerro de las Cruces and retreated. Nevertheless, his dreams of freedom was diminished. Hidalgo himself was captured, tried and executed for treason.
He was captured in battle along with other leaders of the revolution, among them Ignacio Allende, José Mariano Jiménez and Juan Aldama. The four leaders were held in the Federal Palace of Chihuahua and executed, three of them on June 26, 1811 and Miguel Hidalgo on July 30, 1811 at Chihuahua's Government Palace. 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 scare off the insurgents. Hidalgo and the other three leaders' heads were on display in the city until 1821, when Mexico finally won its independence. They are buried at the Rotunda of Illustrious Men in Mexico City.
Hidalgo is remembered today by Mexicans in different countries, as the Father of the Mexican Nation and Liberator of Mexico.
The state of Hidalgo in Mexico is named after him.
[edit] Hidalgo in popular culture
- Hidalgo is featured in the Microsoft computer game Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs as a revolutionary figure who starts a rebellion and a military coup.
