Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811) was a Mexican Roman Catholic priest whose Grito de Dolores, a patriotic call to arms delivered on 16 September 1810, sparked the Mexican War of Independence against the Spanish Empire. Hidalgo also served as a military commander of the revolutionary army until his decisive defeat at the Battle of Calderon Bridge in January 1811, and he was captured and executed shortly thereafter.
Biography[]
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was born in Penjamo, Guanajuato, New Spain in 1753 to a criollo family; his mother was of Basque ancestry. He received his university education in Mexico City before being ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1778 at the age of 25, and he studied Latin, Nahuatl, Otomi, Purepecha, Italian, and French; his knowledge of French exposed him to Enlightenment works which were current in Europe and banned in Mexico. The liberally-minded Hidalgo challenged typical political and religious views and also challenged the political power of the Papacy, clerical celibacy, and the virgin birth. As a secular cleric, he was able to own three haciendas, but he broke his vow of chastity and fathered at least eight children with at least four women. For these reasons, he was tried before a court of the Spanish Inquisition, although he was found not guilty. An egalitarian, Hidalgo opened his house to mestizos and Native Americans as well as fellow Ibero-Americans. After the Peninsular War led to Napoleon I's overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy in 1808, Spanish elites in Mexico City overthrew the local government, and their reforms empowered the aristocracy and diminished the power of the church. This motivated the charismatic Hidalgo to join the pro-independence cause, and, on the morning of 16 September 1810, while celebrating mass in Dolores, Guanajuato, he gave the Grito de Dolores address, calling on his parishioners to join him in a rebellion against the Bonapartist government in the name of the King. Hidalgo quickly gathered followers and captured San Miguel and Celaya without much resistance, and, by October 1810, he had amassed an army of 10,000 men. He then advanced on Acambaro, where he was named Generalissimo of the revolutionary army, and he took Valladolid on 17 October 1810. By the end of October, he had an army of 100,000 troops, but, following his victory at the Battle of Monte de las Cruces, he chose not to attack the Royalist capital of Mexico City and instead marched back north to take Guadalajara. The Royalists followed his army north and engaged and defeated it at the Battle of Calderon Bridge in Jalisco in January 1811, and, on 21 March 1811, he and his fellow generals were betrayed and captured by Ignacio Elizondo. He was executed by firing squad on 30 July 1811, and he told his executioners, "Though I may die, I shall be remembered forever; you all will soon be forgotten." His body was posthumously decapitated and his head displayed in Guanajuato; his head remained there for ten years, until the end of the war.