Mexican nobility refers to the titled nobles and untitled gentry families of Mexico[1]. Most of the descendants of these families still live in Mexico today, but some can be found in Europe and other countries.
With the victories of the Mexican Republics over the monarchies of the First Mexican Empire, headed by Agustín I, and the Second Mexican Empire, under Maximilian I—and the writing of the Mexican Constitution of 1917—titles of nobility in Mexico were legally abolished.
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From the pre-Hispanic era, and stretching from the viceregal and colonial periods under the Habsburgs and Bourbons, to the First and Second Mexican Empires and beyond, these families played vital roles in the history of Mexico. There are several periods in Mexico's modern history in which families were granted noble status and given titles. While titles were granted in Mexico itself, other families brought with them their old titles from Europe.
Mexicans who by marriage to titled foreigners or through outright purchase, acquired titles of nobility from European countries excluding Spain or the Vatican. These were primarily Italian and German titles, with some rare exceptions.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Mexican nobility—both titled and untitled—consisted of approximately 4% of Mexico’s population, or approximately 200,000 individuals[2]. Signers of the Mexican Declaration of Independence included: the Marqués de San Juan de Rayas, the Marqués de Salvatierra, the Marqués de Salinas del Río Pisuerga, the Conde de Santa María de Regla, the Marqués de la Cadena, the Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo, among others. Leading families active in 18th c. and 19th c. politics, the economy, the clergy, arts and culture included: Cervantes, Romero de Terreros, Rincón Gallardo, Pérez Gálvez, Rul, Vivanco, Canal, Cañedo, Fernández de Jáuregui, Obando, Fernández de Córdoba, Gómez de Parada, Pérez de Salazar, Valdivieso, Fagoaga, Echeverz, Dávalos de Bracamonte, Castañiza, Gómez de la Cortina, Moncada, Diez de Sollano, de Busto y Moya, Reynoso y Manso de Zúñiga, López de Zárate, Caserta, Trebuesto, García de Teruel, Vizcarra, Rábago, Sardaneta, Ozta, Azcárate, Samaniego del Castillo, Cosío, Rivadeneyra, de la Cotera, de Campa, Rodríguez Sáenz de Pedroso, Padilla, Rivascacho, Villar-Villamil, Sánchez de Tagle, Cabrero, Hurtado de Mendoza, López-Portillo, Meade, García Pimentel, Vasconcelos, Sainz Trápaga, Lascurain, Villaurrutia, Errazu, Escandón, Yturbe, Yermo, Béistegui, and Sánchez-Navarro, among others.[3]
Historically, many of these Mexican families married into European nobility and some of these unions have produced figures such as Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and Elena Poniatowska, who was a descendent of a brother of Stanislaw August Poniatowski the last King of Poland. Other families who have married into European nobility include the Gutiérrez de Estradas, and the Iturbides—the Head of the Imperial House of Mexico in exile, Maximilian von Götzen-Itúrbide, is married to a member of the Venetian and Croatian nobility.
The Aztecs and other Indigenous peoples in Mexico had a system of hereditary aristocracy in place when the Spanish arrived in Mexico. The Spaniards respected this system and added to it, resulting in many unions between Aztec and Spanish nobility. Descendents of the elites of pre-Columbian Mexico who received these distinctions included the heirs of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II; That family became known as the Condes de Moctezuma, and later, the Duques of Moctezuma de Tultengo. The holders of the title, who still reside in Spain, became part of the Spanish peerage in 1766 when they received a Grandeza. A branch of their family, on the female side, continued to receive an annual payment from the Mexican government in the amount of some 500 Ducats, gold, until 1938, as part of a contract signed in the 16th c. granting Mexico City access to water and lumber on family property.
Some families of pure Amerindian ancestry, such as the Mixtec Villagómez family, were among the richest landowners in New Spain after the conquest of the Aztec empire. Despite being part of the colonial elite after the conquest, the Villagómez retained their Mixtec identity, speaking the Mixtec language and keeping a collection of Mixtec codices.
Numerous other Indigenous elites collaborated with the conquest, earning noble titles and privileges. Most notably, all the Tlaxcallans, who resettled into northern Mexico, became hidalgos.
Families who received a título de Castilla during the Colonial period were the first to be granted European noble titles in New Spain (Mexico). One of the first was the Conquistador Hernán Cortés, who was granted the title of the Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca. Approximately 130 such titles were held by Spaniards born or resident in New Spain. Main centers of population included Mexico City, Puebla, Querétaro, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, and Morelia (Valladolid).
At independence, a few princely dignities were accorded the Imperial family's relations and three titles of nobility—the latter already under application with the Spanish government—were recognized by the Congress of the First Mexican Empire, such as the Marqués de Samaniego del Castillo. Knighthoods were also created, most notably, of Guadalupe. Over the nineteenth century, others received pontifical titles of nobility, and through loopholes in Spanish law, had these titles recognized as títulos de Castilla; these are known as títulos negros and include the titles of the marqués de Barrón, conde de Subervielle, conde del Valle (Fernández del Valle family), duquesa de Mier, and others. Many of these families were part of the hidalgo class. Some families, after Mexican Independence, received títulos de Castilla from the Spanish monarch directly, such as the duque de Regla and the duquesa de Prim, or indirectly, through marriage to individuals holding these titles, such as the duque de Castroterreño or the Escandón family members who subsequently became duques de Montellano, marqueses de Villavieja.
Many families received titles of nobility from the regencies and/or Congresses of the First or Second Empire. During the First Mexican Republic, after the end of the First Mexican Empire, many of the old families of the nobility lived as common citizens, but appended the prefix "ex-" to their titles, using them in their formal signatures, grave inscriptions, and portraits. Afterwards, during the Second Mexican Empire, under Maximilian I of Mexico of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, the nobility was resurgent.
Some of these families granted titles during these periods were the Iturbides—whose Basque ancestors had been ennobled by King Juan II of Aragon—, Samaniego del Castillos, and the Marquis de la Cadena.
During the Porfiriato, members of the Mexican aristocracy were very active in politics. Prince Agustín de Iturbide y Green, Maximilian's adopted son, was prompted by reactionaries into making public pronouncements against Díaz, who promptly exiled him after he served a brief sentence given him by a martial court . Don Agustín died in exile in the U.S., where he was a Spanish professor at Georgetown University. Members of the Rincón Gallardo, Fagoaga, and Pimentel families (marqués de Guadalupe, marqués del Apartado and conde de Heras Soto) were active in Mexico City government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Senate, the armed forces, and the Academia de la Lengua or the Sociedad de Geografía e Historia. Many journeyed and lived abroad, often doing so in Paris, London, and Madrid. Most men studied at the Jesuit-run British public school, Stonyhurst College.
Around 1902, Don Ricardo Ortega y Pérez Gallardo, Mexico’s unofficial King of Arms, commenced work on a project to prepare an encyclopedic repertoire of Mexico's aristocracy. The resulting Historia genealógica de las familias más antiguas de México (Genealogical History of the Oldest Families of Mexico), an Almanach de Gotha of sorts, listed the histories of a select group of families residing in Mexico who held Habsburg, Bourbon, Mexican, and Pontifical titles and patents of nobility, entailments, and knighthoods; it also listed notables who had accepted honors from foreign sovereigns and republics.
After the revolution, the nobility migrated to Mexico City in large numbers; many entered the professional and educated classes. A number found employment in the diplomatic service, arts and letters, public relations, and transnational corporations. A number of European nobles, bankrupted by the wars, resettled and intermarried in Mexico from the 1940s on, including the King of Romania. Art history and antiquities attracted many, such as the Marqués de San Francisco, don Manuel Romero de Terreros, among others. Monarchists organized masses for the repose of Maximilian well into the 20th century at the Church of La Profesa, and were kept under surveillance by the Ministry of the Interior. During Charles de Gaulle's state visit to Mexico, many turned out for the receptions. Many of them greeted the arrival of the Royal Family in 1977—the first such visit in Mexico's history—and purportedly feuded over the order of precedence at receptions. Pontifical orders of knighthood, as well as Independent orders, such as Malta, have chapters in Mexico. The most numerous is the Orden del Santo Sepulcro de Jerusalén with nearly 200 members organized into three chapters (Chihuahua, Guadalajara, and Mexico City).
Wealthy Mexican families have attempted to obtain titles of nobility from Spain since the 1980s, when relations were re-established, but ran afoul of the law. The appeal of and fascination with the nobility in Mexico, without a doubt, has not subsided. Countless soap operas, novels, films, museum exhibits, and websites are devoted to the topic.