North Looking South
By John Barham, Nov 24, 2006


José María Morelos: a perilous divide in Mexican history

For those living in the Bajío, it is quite natural that much of the history of the Revolutionary movement that began in 1810 is concentrated on Padre Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende.

Nevertheless, one of the most intriguing figures of Mexico’s revolution against Spain was José María Morelos y Pavón, who was at the same time both revolutionary and traditional in his thinking. Although this dichotomy would not be perplexing for Morelos and those who followed him into battle, it would prove to be a negative element in Mexican history that would span both the 19th and 20th centuries.

Born as a poor mestizo in 1765 in Valladolid—the city which in 1828 was renamed Morelia in his honor—Morelos at an early age went to work on his uncle’s ranch, where he learned the skills of a vaquero. Acquiring discipline and a solid work ethic from this experience, Morelos also developed a love of Spanish grammar and dreamed of someday furthering his studies.

Eventually, devotion and financial hardship joined to lure Morelos into the priesthood, and he entered the College of San Nicolás in Valladolid. At San Nicolás, Morelos would find a role model and mentor in Padre Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the dean of the college, who encouraged him to continue his studies in theology at the local seminary.

After graduation and ordination, Morelos was assigned to Nocupetaro, a poor parish located in the unhealthy lowlands of Michoacán. There, he not only ministered to the spiritual needs of his flock but also oversaw the construction of a new church, which became the pride of the region, and he encouraged the members of his parish to acquire skills in various trades to support themselves.

By 1810, Morelos received word that Padre Hidalgo had initiated hostilities against Spain in the Bajío. That same year, in a meeting between Morelos and his old mentor that occurred in Michoacán, Morelos was given command of revolutionary operations in the south with the understanding that he, Morelos, had sole responsibility for raising and sustaining his army.

Capturing the imagination and loyalty of the people of southern Mexico, Morelos led a guerrilla movement that seized sufficient Spanish arms to outfit an army, with which he would prove that he was a born general. Relying on the treatises of Prussia’s Frederick the Great on war, Morelos put together a well–trained and highly disciplined force, in which his most trusted lieutenants were mestizo vaqueros. This force took control of most of southern Mexico, including Oaxaca as well as Acapulco and Taxco. Morelos and his army would carry on the struggle after the capture and execution of Hidalgo, Allende, Jiménez and Aldama in 1811. 

For three years, Morelos continued the fight against Spain. During that time, he also labored to provide Mexico with a constitution. By 1813, the Congress of Chilpancingo was convened. Although Morelos was an enthusiastic supporter of the Congress and its main task of drafting a constitution, the great effort expended to guarantee its security proved to be a military drawback.

As a political thinker, Morelos, like Padre Hidalgo, had delved deeply into the Enlightenment. He was also very much aware of the American republic that was developing north of the Rio Bravo. And, as a mestizo, he had definite ideas about the necessity of equality for all the people of Mexico, including the end of slavery, inequitable taxes and obligatory labor. He was, however, a fervent Mexican Catholic who combined liberal ideology with conservative Catholic principles.

One of the rationalizations for the Revolution was that the Spanish Bourbon monarch, Fernando VII, had been displaced from the throne of Spain by the Napoleonic wars. Morelos, accordingly, initially saw Fernando as a figurehead who might eventually become a constitutional monarch, through whom ties with Spain could be maintained. However, as events progressed, Morelos became more and more convinced that Mexico should be governed as a liberal republic. But, as an ordained priest, Morelos was also of the opinion that this republic should be a Christian (Roman Catholic) republic.

During the 18th century, the Crown had expelled the Jesuits and had been steadily eliminating many of the prerogatives and privileges, or fueros, of the Church. Among the privileges of the approximately 13,000 clerics in Mexico in the later part of the 18th century were immunity from secular justice and the right to acquire large parcels of land from wealthy landowners in need of “celestial insurance.” For Morelos, it was essential that the fueros be restored and maintained in an independent Mexico.

By late 1813, the military fortunes of Morelos began to turn, and he had the misfortune to face two extremely ruthless Spanish commanders in Félix Calleja and Agustín Iturbide.

However, in October of 1814, a final draft of a document called the Constitution of Chilpancingo was completed. Although Morelos was overjoyed that the long-awaited constitution had been finalized, the document did not contain all the elements of government that he had hoped for. Because this constitution was not implemented, it was never considered a legitimate Mexican constitution.

Shortly thereafter, the revolutionary army of the south was forced into a battle in which the odds were exceedingly lopsided. In the aftermath of defeat, Morelos was captured and underwent both secular and ecclesiastical trials, which resulted in excommunication, removal from the priesthood and a sentence of death. At the conclusion of 1814, Morelos was executed by firing squad on an old estate of the viceroys near the village of San Cristóbal Ecatepec. The Congress of Chilpancingo was disbanded, but the surviving revolutionary leaders closest to Morelos were still fighting Spain when independence was gained in 1821.

From the short-lived emperorship of Agustín Iturbide, during the early years of independence, throughout the War of the Reform of the 1850s, the French intervention in the 1860s and the Revolution of 1910, the Cristero movement of the 1920s and the formation and development of modern Mexican political parties, the legacy of José María Morelos remains a consistent quandary as to how the intense religious conviction of a nation that is perhaps more fervently Roman Catholic than any other country in the world could be reconciled with an enlightened, liberal and forward-looking government. This dilemma has been a negative force in the fulfillment of the ideals of the Mexican Revolution, and it is still a factor to be considered in contemporary Mexican politics.

John Barham had a long career as an instructor and administrator in colleges and universities in the US and the Middle East and frequently lectures for Elderhostel groups in Mexico. He may be contacted at barhamjw@yahoo.com