CHAPTER 7 MESOAMERICANS IN THE NEOCOLONIAL ERA 265since by the time of independence, there were over two million mestizos and almost
five million Indians in the Mesoamerican region, compared with only some 120,000
creoles. Indeed, as we shall now see, shortly before independence in Mexico, Indi-
ans and mestizos by the thousands participated in major uprisings that threatened
to become class wars between the haves and have-nots, and similar uprisings on a
smaller scale broke out in Central America around the same time.
Hidalgo and the Mexican Independence Movement
The great hero of the independence movement in Mexico was Father Miguel Hi-
dalgo, whose name is recalled each September 15 when from the balcony of the Na-
tional Palace the president of the republic repeats Hidalgo’s legendary cry:
“Mexicanos, viva México” (“Mexicans, long live Mexico”). In September 1810, Hidalgo,
priest of the Dolores parish in the Bajío (just north of the Central Basin), incited his
followers to rebel against the French usurpers of the Spanish Crown and to strike for
independence. Father Hidalgo was a creole (his father was a Spaniard), and his call
to independence was part of a popular creole plan to replace the ruling peninsulares
(Spaniards, also known as gachupines) with the creoles themselves.
The band of men who made up Hidalgo’s followers on that day in 1810, as well
as the tens of thousands who joined his cause in the ensuing months, were made up
largely of Indians and mestizos, and their goal was much more radical: to end trib-
utes, forced labor, discrimination, landlessness, and political subjugation (Figure
7.5; for places mentioned in the account to follow, see the map in Figure 7.1). In
many ways their goals were consistent with the liberal constitution being created in
Spain at the time as explained in Box 7.1.
Hidalgo seized the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as his banner and led sev-
eral hundred men in the takeover of Dolores, followed by the caputre of San Miguel,
the hometown of Hidalgo’s creole military chief, Ignacio Allende, and shortly there-
after the town of Celaya. At this time Hidalgo assumed the title of “Captain-General
of America,” and with a force that had swelled to over 25,000 men he marched on
the rich mining center of Guanajuato. The Spaniards of Guanajuato retreated to the
protection of the town’s granary (alhóndiga),which was stormed and overrun by the
furious Hidalgo “horde.” The rebels had lost at least 2,000 men in the assault, which
they soon avenged by hacking to death some 400 to 600 men, women, and children
found inside the granary. The town was sacked, everything of value being carried off
by Hidalgo’s rude warriors. Shortly thereafter, Hidalgo’s band took Valladolid (later
renamed Morelia), as their numbers swelled to around 80,000 men.
At this point Hidalgo turned his warrior band toward Mexico City, the capital and
main stronghold of the Spanish establishment. The rebels met a small but well-trained
Spanish contingent in the mountains between Toluca and Mexico City. The Spanish
forces inflicted very heavy casualties on the rebels (2,000 to 4,000 rebel warriors were
killed). Hidalgo decided not to march on the capital. Instead, he directed his fol-
lowers to Guadalajara, which was taken without a fight. In Guadalajara, the rebels qui-
etly executed hundreds of gachupines(Spaniards), while recruiting thousands of new
rebel fighters from the surrounding Indian communities and creole haciendas.