34 Facts About Juan Almonte

Juan Nepomuceno Almonte Ramirez was a Mexican soldier, commander, minister of war, congressman, diplomat, presidential candidate, and regent.

The natural son of Catholic cleric Jose Maria Morelos, a leading commander during the Mexican War of Independence, Almonte played an important role as a conservative in the Mexican Republic.

Juan Almonte served as Minister of War during multiple administrations as well as in various diplomatic posts in the United States and in Europe.

Juan Almonte was minister to the United States in the years leading up to the Mexican American War and lobbied against its interference in Texas, which Mexico considered a rebellious province.

Juan Almonte was a leading figure in conservative efforts to re-establish monarchy in Mexico, supporting the French imperial forces during the Second French Intervention in Mexico and the establishment Second Mexican Empire under Maximilian I of Mexico.

Juan Almonte was serving as a diplomat in France when France withdrew military support of the Empire, which fell in 1867.

Juan Almonte was born in the town of Nocupetaro in the state of Michoacan, the out-of-wedlock son of Jose Maria Morelos, a Roman Catholic priest who led the insurgents in the Mexican War of Independence from 1811 to 1815, and Brigida Juan Almonte.

Between 1822 and 1824, Juan Almonte was on the staff of insurgent rebel leader Jose Felix Trespalacios in Texas and then was sent as a part of the Mexican delegation to London.

Juan Almonte assisted Ambassador Jose Mariano Michelena in negotiating a commercial and amity treaty with England.

Juan Almonte edited the progressive newspaper Atleta, which was forced to shutdown due to government fines.

Juan Almonte married Maria Dolores Quesada on March 1,1840, in Mexico City and they had a daughter named Maria de Guadalupe Anastacia Aleja Brigida Saturnina.

In late January 1836 Juan Almonte was appointed aide-de-camp to Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and accompanied him to Texas in an attempt to quell the rebellion there.

Juan Almonte did not record the names of either the defenders or the survivors, and his count was based solely on who was there during the final assault.

Juan Almonte is said to have had the role in saving Susannah Dickinson.

Juan Almonte led the last organized resistance of the panicked army.

Juan Almonte stayed with Santa Anna during his imprisonment acting as interpreter and negotiator.

Juan Almonte accompanied Santa Anna during his incarceration on Galveston Island.

Juan Almonte, though, continued his diplomatic and military career and eventually rose to the rank of major general.

Juan Almonte published a book on geography in late 1837.

Juan Almonte nonetheless was still a noted partisan of Mexican self determination.

Juan Almonte presented an initiative to congress petitioning them to declare as traitors those Mexicans seeking foreign intervention in Mexico, and initiative which was ratified into law.

Ironically, in light of his later role, Juan Almonte found himself as one of the leading figures who denounced the essay, characterizing it as scandalous, offensive to the nation, and anti-constitutional.

Juan Almonte ordered as many copies as could be found of the essay to be confiscated.

Still retaining the liberal belief in federalism, Juan Almonte put forth his support for the restoration of the federal system, as opposed to the conservative dictatorship advocated by the rebels Mariano Paredes and Santa Anna, but the effort was futile, and the triumphant rebels would put into effect the conservative and centralist Bases of Tacubaya.

Juan Almonte stayed within the government and in that same year in 1841 he was made minister to the United States where he lobbied against intervention in Texas and attempted to maintain cordial relations between Mexico and the United States.

Biographer Rivera Cambas has written that it was this development which finally convinced Juan Almonte that United States expansion must be opposed even at the cost of courting European intervention.

Juan Almonte was a candidate for the presidency in 1845, but ultimately lost to Jose Joaquin de Herrera, who accommodated himself to Texan Independence in order to attempt to preserve it as a buffer state, an attitude which led to his overthrow by military hardliners led by Mariano Paredes in January, 1846.

Juan Almonte was made Minister of War, and he counseled President Paredes to seek foreign allies to give Mexico a fighting chance against the United States.

Paredes was successfully overthrown and Juan Almonte was made Minister of War in the new government, during which he organized the national guard, purchased arms, planned maneuvers for the troops in the north, and advocated for American conditions and proposals to be ignored.

Comonfort was overthrown by conservatives in 1858, triggering the Reform War, and Juan Almonte remained with the new government, being transferred to Paris as Minister to France.

Juan Almonte published a manifesto supporting the French and urging his fellow Mexicans to join them in establishing a government fit for the Mexican nation.

Juan Almonte advised Lorencez to attack an orchard of the convento del Carmen opposite the fortified heights of Guadalupe and Loreto, which was not done.

Juan Almonte would die in Paris in 1869, two years after the fall of the Empire.

The town of Juan Almonte, Ontario, was named for General Juan Almonte when Canada as well as Mexico were concerned with United States expansionism.