48 Facts About Miguel Hidalgo

Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villasenor, more commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or Miguel Hidalgo, was a Catholic priest, leader of the Mexican War of Independence and recognized as the Father of the Nation.

Professor at the Colegio de San Nicolas Obispo in Valladolid, Miguel Hidalgo was influenced by Enlightenment ideas, which contributed to his ouster in 1792.

Miguel Hidalgo was the second-born child of Cristobal Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Espinoza de los Monteros and Ana Maria Gallaga Mandarte Villasenor, both criollos.

Miguel Hidalgo's father was an hacienda manager in Valladolid, Michoacan, where Miguel Hidalgo spent the majority of his life.

Eight days after his birth, Miguel Hidalgo was baptized into the Catholic faith in the parish church of Cuitzeo de los Naranjos.

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Miguel Hidalgo's parents had three other sons; Jose Joaquin, Manuel Mariano, and Jose Maria, before their mother died when Hildalgo was nine years old.

At the age of fifteen Miguel Hidalgo was sent to Valladolid, Michoacan, to study at the Colegio de San Francisco Javier with the Jesuits, along with his brothers.

Miguel Hidalgo studied Italian and French, which were not commonly studied in Mexico at this time.

Miguel Hidalgo earned the nickname "El Zorro" for his reputation for cleverness at school.

Miguel Hidalgo was ordained as a priest in 1778 when he was 25 years old.

Miguel Hidalgo questioned the absolute authority of the Spanish king and challenged numerous ideas presented by the Church, including the power of the popes, the virgin birth, and clerical celibacy.

Miguel Hidalgo obtained this parish in spite of his hearing before the Inquisition, which did not stop his secular practices.

Miguel Hidalgo used the knowledge that he gained to promote economic activities for the poor and rural people in his area.

Miguel Hidalgo established factories to make bricks and pottery and trained indigenous people in the making of leather.

Miguel Hidalgo was interested in promoting activities of commercial value to use the natural resources of the area to help the poor.

Miguel Hidalgo's goal was to make the indigenous and mestizos more self-reliant.

Miguel Hidalgo's Grito did not condemn the notion of monarchy or criticize the current social order in detail, but his opposition to the events in Spain and the current viceregal government was clearly expressed in his reference to bad government.

Miguel Hidalgo's movement was joined by mestizos and the indigenous in such numbers that the original motives of the Queretaro group were obscured.

Miguel Hidalgo first went through the economically important and densely populated province of Guanajuato.

On 21 September 1810, Miguel Hidalgo was proclaimed general and supreme commander after arriving to Celaya.

On 28 September 1810, Miguel Hidalgo arrived at the city of Guanajuato with rebels who were mostly armed with sticks, stones, and machetes.

Allende strongly protested these events and while Miguel Hidalgo agreed that they were heinous, he stated that he understood the historical patterns that shaped such responses.

Miguel Hidalgo's uniform included a black baldric embroidered with gold.

Miguel Hidalgo argued that the objective of the war was "to send the gachupines back to the motherland", accusing their greed and tyranny as leading to the temporal and spiritual degradation of Mexicans.

Miguel Hidalgo forced the Bishop-elect of Michoacan, Manuel Abad y Queipo, to rescind the excommunication order he had circulated against him on 24 September 1810.

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The canon of the cathedral met Hidalgo and made him promise that the atrocities of San Miguel, Celaya and Guanajuato would not be repeated in Valladolid.

Miguel Hidalgo's troops led the royalist troops to retreat, but the insurgents suffered heavy casualties, as they had when they engaged royalist soldiers in Guanajuato.

Miguel Hidalgo's insurgency faced opposition from sedentary natives and castes of the Valley of Mexico.

Miguel Hidalgo's forces came as close as what is the Cuajimalpa borough of Mexico City.

One explanation is that Miguel Hidalgo's forces were undisciplined and had suffered heavy losses whenever they encountered trained troops.

Miguel Hidalgo initially occupied the city with lower-class support because Hidalgo promised to end slavery, tribute payment and taxes on alcohol and tobacco.

Miguel Hidalgo established an alternative government in Guadalajara with himself at the head and appointed two ministers.

On 6 December 1810, Miguel Hidalgo issued a decree abolishing slavery, threatening those who did not comply with death.

Miguel Hidalgo abolished tribute payments that indigenous peoples had to pay to criollo and peninsular lords.

Miguel Hidalgo ordered the publication of a newspaper called Despertador Americano .

Miguel Hidalgo named Pascacio Ortiz de Letona as representative of the insurgent government and sent him to the United States to seek support, but Ortiz de Letona was apprehended by the Spanish army and executed.

However, Miguel Hidalgo knew the royalist army was on its way to Guadalajara and wanted to stay on good terms with his own army.

The Inquisition pronounced an edict against Miguel Hidalgo, charging him with denying that God punishes sins in this world, doubting the authenticity of the Bible, denouncing the popes and Church government, allowing Jews not to convert to Christianity, denying the perpetual virginity of Mary, preaching that there was no hell, and adopting Lutheran doctrine with regard to the Eucharist.

Miguel Hidalgo responded that he had never departed from Church doctrine in the slightest degree.

Allende and Abasolo wanted to concentrate their forces in the city and plan an escape route should they be defeated, but Miguel Hidalgo rejected this, deciding to make a stand at the Calderon Bridge just outside the city.

Miguel Hidalgo remained as head politically but with military command going to Allende.

Miguel Hidalgo reached Saltillo, where he publicly resigned his military post and rejected a pardon offered by General Jose de la Cruz in the name of Venegas in return for Miguel Hidalgo's surrender.

Miguel Hidalgo was turned over to Durango, where Bishop Francisco Gabriel de Olivares had him officially defrocked and excommunicated on 27 July 1811.

Miguel Hidalgo was declared guilty of treason by a military court.

Miguel Hidalgo was tortured through the flaying of his hands, symbolically removing the chrism placed upon them at his priestly ordination and executed.

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Miguel Hidalgo's death resulted in a political vacuum on the insurgent side until 1812.

Insurgent fighting evolved into guerrilla warfare, and eventually the next major insurgent leader, Jose Maria Morelos Perez y Pavon, who had led rebel movements with Miguel Hidalgo, became head of the insurgents, until Morelos himself was captured and executed in 1815.

Miguel Hidalgo was laid to rest at the base of the Angel of Independence, Mexico City.