Miguel Hidalgo

Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Gallaga Mandarte y Villaseñor (Pénjamo, Intendancy of Guanajuato; May 8, 1753-Chihuahua, Nueva Vizcaya; July 30, 1811), known as Miguel Hidalgo was a insurgent soldier and New Spain priest. In Mexico, he is known as the Father of the Nation.

He stood out by initiating the first stage of the Mexican War of Independence with an act known in Mexican historiography as Grito de Dolores . He led the first part of the independence movement militarily and politically but, after a series of defeats, he was captured on March 21, 1811, almost six months after the revolt began, and taken prisoner to the city of Chihuahua, where he was tried and shot. on July 30 of the same year in Chihuahua.

Early years

He was born in the Hacienda de San Diego Corralejo, Pénjamo (currently Guanajuato), on May 8, 1753; he was the second of four children of the marriage formed by Cristóbal Hidalgo y Costilla, administrator of Corralejo, and Ana María Gallaga. He was baptized with the name of Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio, in the capital of Cuitzeo de los Naranjos, today Abasolo, Guanajuato on May 16, 1753.

In June 1765 Miguel Hidalgo together with his brother José Joaquín went to study at the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo, located in Valladolid, capital of the province of Michoacán. The college had been founded in 1547 by Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, the first viceroy of New Spain, who handed over the university and the building where it was housed to the members of the Society of Jesus, who instituted chairs of Latin, law and priestly studies. It was in this house that the Hidalgo brothers studied until 1767 .

On June 25, 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from the territories of the Spanish Empire by order of the King of Spain, Carlos III, and his minister, the Count of Floridablanca. The school remained closed for a few months and classes resumed in December .

In this institution, Hidalgo studied Latin letters, read classical authors such as Cicero and Ovid, and others such as Saint Jerome and Virgil. At seventeen years of age he was already a teacher in philosophy and theology, so among his friends and classmates he earned the nickname of El Zorro, due to the cunning he showed in intellectual games. He learned the French language and read Molière, an author whom years later he would represent in the theatrical days that he himself organized as the parish priest of Dolores. Thanks to the contact he had with the workers of his hacienda in his childhood, most of them indigenous, Hidalgo learned many of the indigenous languages ​​spoken in New Spain, mainly Otomí, Nahuatl and Purépecha. since the Pénjamo area was one of the regions with the greatest diversity of indigenous groups and contact between the native world and the Spanish. All this knowledge allowed Miguel Hidalgo to teach Latin and philosophy classes while he followed his studies. Once he finished them, he worked on hisalma mater from 1782 to 1792, many times as treasurer, other times as teacher and from 1788 as rector .

History of the War of Independence

French invasion of Spain in 1808

The French invasion of Spain, in 1808, produced in the viceroyalty the political crisis of 1808 in Mexico, characterized by the overthrow of Viceroy José de Iturrigaray at the hands of the Spanish, followed by the capture and execution of politicians related to independence ideas, such as Francisco Primo de Verdad y Ramos and the Peruvian friar Melchor de Talamantes. In place of Iturrigaray, a military man from Alcalá was appointed, Pedro de Garibay, who in May 1809 was replaced by the Archbishop of Mexico, Francisco Xavier de Lizana y Beaumont.In December of that same year, the Valladolid Conspiracy was discovered, a conspiracy whose sole purpose was to create a junta that would govern the viceroyalty in the absence of Fernando VII, a prisoner in Bayonne. The culprits were arrested and sentenced to death, but the Viceroy Archbishop spared their lives by sentencing them to life imprisonment, which is why Lizana was dismissed in April 1810 by the Seville Board. A military participant in the battle of Bailén, Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Xavier Venegas de Saavedra, was appointed as the new viceroy .

In 1808, the arrival of a French agent in the service of General Moreau, Napoleon's enemy, was documented in Dolores. The agent gave his name as Octaviano D'Almíbar, he said that he was on a mission to the United States and in October of the same year he disappeared without leaving any trace.

When Andalusia fell into the hands of the French, in the spring of 1810 all of Spain was already in the hands of the Napoleonic army. The Archdiocese of Zaragoza, in charge of religious affairs throughout the metropolis, ordered parish priests throughout the empire to preach against Napoleon. Hidalgo followed this order.

The Queretaro Conspiracy

Meanwhile, in Querétaro a conspiracy organized by the corregidor Miguel Domínguez and his wife Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez was taking place, and the military officers Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama and Mariano Abasolo also participated. Allende was in charge of convincing Hidalgo to join his movement, since the priest of Dolores had friendships with very influential people from all over the Bajío and even from New Spain, such as Juan Antonio Riaño, mayor of Guanajuato, and Manuel Abad y Queipo. , Bishop of Michoacan. For these reasons it was considered that Hidalgo could be a good leader of the movement.

Hidalgo accepted, and December 1, the day of the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos, was set as the starting date for the movement, where many Spaniards would gather to trade at a fair near Querétaro. Allende later proposed to do it on October 2, for tactical and military reasons.

Beginning of the war of independence

In the first week of September, Viceroy Francisco Xavier Venegas arrived in Veracruz and immediately received information about a conspiracy against the royal Spanish government in Mexico. The mayor of Guanajuato, Juan Antonio Riaño, ordered the plaza commander to investigate those rumours, and on September 11 a raid was carried out in Querétaro with the aim of capturing those responsible. Epigmenio González was arrested and an arrest warrant was issued against Allende, who escaped to a town in the Bajío.

Through the mayor of Querétaro, Balleza, Doña Josefa was informed of the capture of the Ibarras and set out to warn Hidalgo about the danger they were running. But before leaving her for Dolores, she was locked in a room by her husband, so that she would not notify the conspirators. However, the corregidor was able to contact Allende through Balleza, to inform Hidalgo in a timely manner.

Cry of pain

Allende, after receiving news about the denunciation of the conspiracy and the subsequent capture of some of its members, had left the town of San Miguel El Grande for Dolores, arriving around 6 p.m. on Thursday, September 13. At that time, both Hidalgo and the captain decided to wait until Friday the 14th to find out if they had news regarding the events that were beginning to unfold.On the night of Saturday the 15th, Aldama was attending a dance at the house of José Allende, brother of Ignacio, when he learned from the mouth of the mayor Ignacio Pérez, sent by the corregidora, that the conspiracy had been discovered and his arrests were imminent; so they both decided to head towards Dolores, arriving close to dawn at the parish house to announce to both Hidalgo and Allende what had happened .

Given this, both soldiers woke up Hidalgo and told him the news, urging the clergyman to take action and flee to the United States as soon as possible. Hidalgo, in order to calm them down and carefully plan the course to follow, invited them to have a cup of chocolate. After having finished drinking, Hidalgo sent for some of his followers and pronounced the following: "Gentlemen, we are lost! We have no choice but to go catch gachupines."". Ignoring Aldama's protests to think things over, and seeing that a total of 15 to 16 of his followers had finally gathered at the priest's house, including potters, artisans and watchmen, he ordered them to gather weapons that they had stored in their workshops and went to the town prison to free a total of 50 inmates. After that, they went to the barracks of the Queen's Regiment, from where they took swords and some members joined them with their weapons, to then divide between Hidalgo and Allende to round up and arrest all the Spaniards in the town.Finally, at 5 a.m., Hidalgo ordered the bell ringer to ring the mass that was to be celebrated at that time, using the parish bell. Gathered a good part of the population in the atrium of the church, Hidalgo launched the already famous Grito de Dolores, formally beginning the War of Independence .

It should be noted that, due to the lack of first-hand witnesses, the exact words and the specific order in which the events occurred are not known. However, the most likely versions (due to their age) are the following:Long live the Catholic religion! Long live Ferdinand VII! Long live the homeland and reign forever in this American continent our holy patron saint, the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe! Death to bad government!Long live our holy mother of Guadalupe! Long live Fernando VII and death to the bad government!Long live America! Long live Fernando VII! Long live religion and death to the Gachupines!Respectively (from left to right): Manuel Abad y Queipo (1810), Diego de Bringas (1810) and Anónimo (1810). Versions compiled by Ernesto Lemoine Villicaña

First moments of the insurgency

At 7 in the morning, Hidalgo left the town of Dolores with a total of 600 people and headed first towards the sanctuary of Atotonilco, where after having a picnic with the chaplain of the sacristy of that place, he took a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe , which he placed on a spear as a banner, to hoist it as a symbol of the insurgency.Immediately afterwards, the growing insurgent army, which already had 1,200 people, marched towards San Miguel El Grande, finally entering the town at around 7 pm that day. It was during his stay in this town that several important events took place: first, the vast majority of the troops of the Queen's Regiment joined the movement; second, all the Spaniards who were in the place were captured and imprisoned; and third, the first quarrels between Hidalgo and Allende began to take shape. This is due to the fact that the San Miguel military was in charge of severely suffocating several attempts by the populace to carry out looting and excesses; An act that Hidalgo censored, arguing that allowing these actions was the only way to ensure his incorporation into the movement. To which Allende replied by saying that victory could only be ensured with regulated troops, even going so far as to threaten the priest to go their separate ways if his ideas were not taken into account. That moment of tension dissipated when Hidalgo finally agreed to harangue the people to act without excesses and recognized Allende as the one in charge of organizing the troops and the military campaigns.​

After organizing the new government in that town and securing the amount of 80,000 pesos for the expenses of the movement, the insurgent army left for Chamacuero on the morning of September 19; After arriving at the town, arresting the local Spaniards, and gaining more supporters for the cause, they continued their course until they arrived at the Santa Rita hacienda, near the city of Celaya, at night. From there, Hidalgo and Allende wrote a summons to the city in which they offered guarantees to all Spaniards who voluntarily surrendered to the insurgents, otherwise they would be treated with all the rigor of war; At the same time, the insurgents threatened to kill 78 peninsulars they were taking with them as hostages.On the 21st, the growing number of troops were called and given some organization; and it would be during that moment, in the midst of the general acclaim, that the main leaders of the movement would be elevated to the following positions: Hidalgo, captain general and Protector of the Nation ; Allende, lieutenant general; and Aldama, field marshal .

After having held a previous meeting of war, the insurgents decided to march to Guanajuato, a city that was relatively unprotected compared to the city of Querétaro, which was already warned about Hidalgo's movements and had also already captured several of his followers, hoping to be able to use them as hostages before the possible insurgent advance. On September 23 they left Celaya for Irapuato, passing through the town of Salamanca from September 24 to 25. Throughout this time, Hidalgo continued to send commissions to various collaborators to spread the insurrection throughout the region. The insurgents entered Irapuato, amid a jubilant reception, on the afternoon of the 25th, with an army that had already grown to more than 9,000 men, and by September 27,​

Taking of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas

At dawn on Friday, September 27, Hidalgo and his troops, already numbering 15,000, left Irapuato and arrived at the Burras hacienda, on the Marfil course, a few kilometers from Guanajuato. From there, the insurgents learned that the city had been aware of the beginning of the insurrection since September 18 and that, when the city authorities learned that they would not receive any type of aid from some of the most important cities in the viceroyalty such as Mexico, Valladolid, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro or Guadalajara, the mayor of Guanajuato, Hidalgo's old friend, Juan Antonio Riaño, began to stockpile supplies and troops in the Granaditas corn exchange on the night of September 24. After that, on September 25, Riaño invited the notable Europeans and Creoles of the city to take refuge in that great fortress. In the same way, Hidalgo found out that Riaño barely had 400 soldiers and about 200 armed civilians. Hidalgo received all this information from the recently incorporated Mariano Jiménez, former student of the Mining College and director of La Valenciana.​

On September 28, before the start of the battle, and aware of the delicate situation in which his former friend found himself, Hidalgo sent two letters to Riaño. In the first, the parish priest confirmed to the intendant that his army amounted to more than 50,000 men and that if they did not agree to the surrender of the city, then he would apply all the necessary measures against it, without giving hope of barracks. Meanwhile, in the second letter, of a more personal nature, Hidalgo acknowledges that although he would fight against Riaño as enemies, he was willing to offer guarantees of protection to his wife and children .

After receiving the official response from Riaño, in which he refused to hand over the plaza and to recognize Hidalgo as captain general of the insurgency, he ordered Allende to start the attack and seize the city of Guanajuato. Initially, he advanced through the city to capture the Cavalry Barracks without encountering much resistance, as most of the lower town sided with the insurgents. However, at exactly 12 noon, the first hostilities began to seize the alhóndiga.After several hours of combat, noticing that most of the enemy forces were concentrating on one of the main trenches, the intendant wanted to go out to reinforce that point; however, he received a rifle shot over his left eye, killing him instantly. That caused panic among the defenders and in the midst of the confusion, Mr. Manuel Pérez Valdés, who legally should have been considered Riaño's substitute, wanted to put himself in command of the situation and try to negotiate with the rebels, however, Major Diego Berzábal, alleging that at that moment of crisis, he should bear all the responsibility of the defense, demanded to continue with the fight. This caused a crisis of command among the defenders of the alhóndiga that did not allow them to coordinate efficiently.In the midst of all the chaos, one of Riaño's aides attempted to lean out of one of the building's windows and wave a white flag, causing the insurgents to cease their attack, thinking they had succeeded. However, the wizard was discovered, executed, and the defenders of the building renewed their attack, killing those who had approached the fortress.

Around 4 in the afternoon, several members of the crowd who had joined the insurgents had looted a store near the alhóndiga and extracted from it several slivers of ocote and oil, with which they began to set fire to the store. large cellar door. For their part, many other day laborers who worked in the mines and had joined the movement, including the legendary Pípila , Juan José de los Reyes Martínez, had placed stone slabs tied on their backs and then approached the gate with burning torches. , to later smear it with pitch and set it on fire, finally being able to enter the building and kill everyone who was inside.By 5 p.m., the population had surrendered to the general looting of the city, which lasted all night and two more days. Hidalgo and his troops dedicated themselves to collecting the greatest possible amount of funds and materials to continue with the war effort; however, the prevailing lack of discipline at that time only allowed them to collect the modest amount of 8,000 pesos in reais and a total of 32 silver bars, since everything else had been lost at the hands of the Indians and other commoners of the city ​​that was more focused on taking as much as they could. Finally, after many efforts, by September 30 the looting could finally be controlled and the next day, October 1, the remaining authorities in the city recognized Hidalgo as the undisputed leader of the insurgency.​

The conquest of Guanajuato and its consequences once again provoked tension between Hidalgo and Allende, who could never forgive the priest for all the excesses that, in his opinion, he deliberately allowed. However, the capture of the mining city clearly showed how precarious authority and little control the caudillos had in the face of large, disorganized crowds; same that, although they could be useful due to their high numbers, they also hindered the advance of the movement to other areas. As if that were not enough, the actions committed by the insurgents in that town, in addition to the news about the arrest and imprisonment of Spaniards, and the confiscation of their property, would end up affecting the prestige of the cause in the long term .

Valladolid and Toluca in insurgent power

Valladolid, capital of Michoacán and one of the most influential cities of the viceroyalty, was the next objective of Hidalgo and his troops, who left the city of Guanajuato on October 3, and a few days later they reported in the capital of the quartermaster Michoacan. All the wealthy, mainly Spaniards, began to flee weeks before the capture of the city, especially due to the knowledge of the looting that the army had carried out when they took Guanajuato. On October 17, Hidalgo entered the city with his troops and took 400,000 pesos from the cathedral for the insurgent cause. By October 20, he joined Ignacio López Rayón in Tlalpujahua, and later that same day he spoke with José María Morelos, in Charo. This priest, once his former student, asked permission to fight, and in the end he would become Hidalgo's successor at the head of the fight when he was entrusted with raising arms on the southern coast. Toluca fell to the insurgents on October 25, and it was rumored in the capital that an insurgent advance was inevitable.

Battle of Mount of Crosses

On the morning of October 30, Torcuato Trujillo faced the insurgents in the battle of Monte de las Cruces, an action in which the royalists, inferior in number of soldiers, were defeated by more than 80,000 insurgents, who nevertheless lost a great number. of troops.

Withdrawal from Mexico City

The next step in the military plan was the taking of Mexico City. Viceroy Francisco Xavier Venegas took charge of the few things that guarded the city —located on the Bucareli and Piedad avenues and in Chapultepec—. The proximity of Hidalgo's troops to the city in question filled its inhabitants with anxiety: they hid their money and kept the women and children in convents; they had the general fear that looting would be carried out as in the previous localities that they had taken.

Hidalgo, wanting to avoid a massacre like the one that took place in Guanajuato, sent his emissaries. On the afternoon of October 31, two commissioners from Hidalgo (Mariano Jiménez and Mariano Abasolo) descended, along with a white flag, to ask for the realistic surrender of the city. Venegas rejected the bet, and threatened to shoot them if they did not leave.

It was taken for granted that, with Venegas's refusal, the assault on Mexico City was about to begin. The next day, November 1, many insurgent groups roamed San Ángel, San Agustín de las Cuevas, and Coyoacán; however, the great army never moved from the vicinity (at Cuajimalpa) .

On November 2, to the surprise of Venegas and all the inhabitants of Mexico City, the royalist scouts arrived with the news that the previous day Hidalgo had ordered the withdrawal of the place and a retreat towards Toluca and Ixtlahuaca, possibly in the direction of the Shallows. There is no consensus among historians about the cause of his removal: various historians have opinions about what made Hidalgo make this decision; the only sure thing is that, due to his imminent encounter, that was the last step for a possible consummation of the war.

The different hypotheses about the reason for the withdrawal are illustrated below:

• The proximity of a military encounter with Calleja's forces, since Hidalgo hoped that there would be no possibility that they would not accept the surrender.
• Other historians affirm that if Mexico had been taken, the insurgents would provoke a looting much greater than that of Guanajuato, to which the capital's plebs would be added, and that the priest's decision wanted to avoid this.
• However, according to Lucas Alamán, "that fear could not fit in Hidalgo, since looting and disorder was the essential means of carrying out his company" .
• It was hypothesized that the Inquisition imprisoned the children and widow of his deceased brother, Manuel Hidalgo, and that Venegas had threatened to cut their throats if the insurgents advanced .

In any case, several military chiefs, especially Allende, were against that withdrawal. On the way back, nearly half the men in his army had deserted , as Alamán explains, "they had joined the army because of the lure of looting in [Ciudad de] México".

On November 7, after the retreat, Hidalgo was defeated by the brigadier and captain general of San Luis Potosí, Félix María Calleja, in the battle of Aculco.

Stay in Guadalajara

After having lost almost their entire army in the defeat at Aculco, of which only a handful of followers remained who had taken advantage of the wooded land to disappear from the fury of the royalist forces, Hidalgo and Allende decided to separate to continue the fight. The few troops that remained after the general disbandment went over to Allende's side, who hurried back to Guanajuato to reinforce the position before the possible arrival of Calleja; while the parish priest, accompanied by his secretary Ignacio López Rayón, his brother, Mariano Hidalgo, and just a few men, sneaked back to Valladolid.During his stay in the capital of the Michoacan administration, Hidalgo was able to rebuild his army back to 7,000 horsemen, 240 infantrymen, and several pieces of artillery; as well as to accumulate the amount of 7,100 pesos for his troops.

During these proceedings, Hidalgo learned around November 15 that just a few days earlier, on November 11, the city of Guadalajara, capital of the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia, had fallen to insurgent hands under the leadership of insurgent chief José Antonio " el Amo" Torres, following his orders to extend the insurrection throughout the western zone of the viceroyalty; from where he extended the invitation to the Generalissimo to move there and take charge of his government. to Guadalajara, in the midst of a tremendous reception, on November 26. The leader of the insurgency was received by the MasterTorres together with the council, the university and other different authorities that still remained in the city; in the act, they had called him with the dignity of Serene Highness , to which Hidalgo did not hide his satisfaction with that treatment. After having heard a Te Deum in the cathedral, Hidalgo stayed at the Palacio de la Audiencia, where he organized a reception, in which he appeared dressed as a "highness" (with a lace cassock and a sash across his chest) and accompanied by two girls, while continuing to receive kisses from all the notables of the city .

During his stay in the Novogalaica capital, Hidalgo dedicated that time to, according to the main purpose of the movement, dedicate himself to the creation of a "national government". Among some of the measures that he carried out to carry out that objective, were the reorganization of the Court, which he also named as "national", in addition to making some important appointments among his collaborators; order the real miners, ranches and haciendas in the vicinity of the city to remit the funds they had to gather economic resources; and publish various edicts, proclamations, manifestos and decrees; many of whom sought to explain to the population the purposes with which the rebellion was carried out. One of the most famous decrees, published on December 6, was the abolition of slavery and the abolition of taxes. During that time, Hidalgo also commissioned the priest Francisco Severo Maldonado to edit and publish the first insurgent newspaper,The American Wake Up .

Allende, meanwhile, fortified himself in the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, where some Spanish prisoners were still being held. However, when it became known of the proximity of Calleja and the mayor of Puebla, Manuel Flon, he ordered the execution of the prisoners. By November 25, the joint forces of Calleja and Flon had finally recaptured the mining town from the insurgency; so Allende, Aldama and Jiménez found it necessary to flee from there to finally meet with Hidalgo on December 2.

Once in Guadalajara, Allende and Aldama sought to train and discipline the new insurgent army that had been formed in the city; however, the other tasks that the caudillos had in terms of organizing a new government absorbed too much of their time. During their stay in the city, however, there were also abuses against the population by the insurgents that culminated, again, in massacres against the Spaniards that took place behind the back of the old Belén hospital. At first these had been carried out in total discretion but eventually the news was known, causing horror among the population and some of the insurgent leaders, including Allende, who even considered the possibility of poisoning the "priest's rascal", as called Hidalgo,in order to put an end to those excesses. However, Severo Maldonado persuaded him not to do so .

After learning that Calleja was approaching Guadalajara, the insurgent high command held a war meeting in which they sought to draw up a plan of action in the face of the inevitable arrival of the royalist forces. The board was divided into two opposing opinions: on the one hand, Allende, Aldama and the rest of the caudillos with military experience, proposed to leave the city and divide the army into several factions that would be in charge of harassing the enemy and could allow the capture of other cities such as Querétaro or Zacatecas; on the other, Hidalgo, who proposed to go out and fight against the Medinan brigadier, confident in his numerical superiority. Ultimately, the priest's will prevailed and the insurgents left the city on January 14, 1811 .

Battle of Calderon Bridge

The insurgent troops arrived in Zapotlanejo on January 15, and then on the 16th they arrived and set up camp near the Calderón Bridge. The royalist forces, for their part, arrived hours later that same day, finding the insurgent camp already raised and in possession of various advantageous positions for the imminent combat. Allende was in charge of directing the war efforts and organizing the troops to the battle, while Hidalgo remained in the rear, along with most of the undisciplined forces. In the early hours of the morning of January 17, the battle began, which would extend for more than 6 hours and in which on several occasions it seemed that the situation would be favorable to the insurgents.

The decisive moment of the battle, in which fate finally turned against Hidalgo's forces, occurred when Calleja ordered the firing of his cannons to be suspended in order to cross the bridge with his forces; what was interpreted by the insurgents as a moment of weakness and before it, by order of Allende, the rebel artillery intensified its attack and fired all its pieces at the same time, which caused the start of a fire that spread rapidly over much of the land due to the dryness of the grasslands and whose smoke caused them to cut off their visibility, due to the wind that was blowing. In the midst of the confusion, it is said that a lost grenade fell into one of the gunpowder cars, owned by the Amo 's troops.Torres, causing a strong explosion that injured several of the rebels, causing them to flee in disarray .

However, recent studies have reached the conclusion that the origin of the incident that caused the insurgents to flee was because they did not put the cannon cartridge crates that were near their artillery to safety, and when the flames of the field reached those boxes, the explosions that killed and wounded many occurred, causing the insurgent discipline to break and everyone began to flee. Given this, the caudillos were forced to flee towards Aguascalientes, losing in the defeat a large number of money, weapons and troops, and the first stage of the War of Independence was mortally wounded.

Capture of Hidalgo

After the defeat at Puente de Calderón, the differences between Hidalgo and Allende, the main leaders of the insurrection, already seemed irreconcilable. After agreeing with Aldama, Abasolo and the rest of the military, Hidalgo was required to resign from the leadership of the insurgent movement at the Hacienda de Pabellón on January 24, leaving Allende as the new leader of the insurgency. After the mediation of Rayón, it was agreed that the priest would continue with the political command of the movement, while all military decisions would henceforth fall to Allende. However, this was only a mere formality, since in practice, Allende became the new leader of the insurgency, while Hidalgo was gradually and discreetly reduced to prisoner status by his own companions.

While in Saltillo, the insurgents decided to flee to the United States in order to obtain weapons and new recruits to continue the fight. Precisely around those days, Allende received communication from Ignacio Elizondo, who invited them to take refuge in the wells of Acatita de Baján, located on the border of Coahuila and Texas, then part of the New Spain viceroyalty. However, they were unaware that the counterinsurgency in that area had been successful and the local viceregal authorities had managed to convince Elizondo of the futility of the rebellion and managed to get him to change sides and decide to prepare a trap to capture the leaders of the insurgency. . Before leaving, Hidalgo and Allende appointed Rayón as the new leader of the movement.

On March 21, the insurgent forces arrived at the norias to rest a bit and continue on the road to Alta California. First came Abasolo's contingent and his soldiers, who were captured by royalist troops. Shortly after, and without noticing Abasolo's capture, Allende, his son Indalecio, Aldama and Jiménez got out of a car escorted by some captains. After offering them something to eat, they were apprehended, but Allende resisted and Elizondo killed his son. Hidalgo finally appeared, on horseback and escorted by a few men, whose capture was easier than the previous ones.

After enlisting all the prisoners, Elizondo sent part of them to Mexico City and the prisoners were transferred to Mapimi, Durango, to later be sent to Chihuahua, the capital of the nearest administration, where they would be placed under the command of Nemesio Salcedo, who He served as military chief of the place, and was in charge of taking their criminal cases. Hidalgo and his companions arrived in Chihuahua on April 25, 1811, and immediately began preparations for the trial of the priest and the other caudillos. Salcedo commissioned a military junta composed of Juan José Ruiz de Bustamante for the summaries, and Ángel Abella, postal administrator, for the causes and interrogation that would be made to Hidalgo; which began on May 7.As for Elizondo, for his actions in capturing the insurgent leaders, he was awarded the rank of colonel in the Royalist Army; but years later he would be executed with knives, when he slept on one side of the San Marcos riverbed, in the province of Texas, by Lieutenant Miguel Serrano, who recognized the man who betrayed the first leaders of the insurgency.

Allende, Aldama and Jiménez were found guilty of the crime of high treason, and sentenced to death that same month. Abasolo, for his part, provided additional data on the insurgency that allowed raids to be carried out where material was obtained to counteract the movement. His collaboration, added to the efforts of his wife, managed to commute his sentence to life imprisonment in Cádiz, Spain, where he died in 1816 of pulmonary tuberculosis. While Allende, Aldama and Jiménez were shot from behind in the square of the city of Chihuahua on June 26. Later their bodies were decapitated and their heads put in salt, in preparation for their transfer. Hidalgo was informed of this news the same night of the execution. Hidalgo had originally been sentenced to die on July 26,

Inquisitorial and judicial processes

Hidalgo, due to his priestly character, had two trials: an ecclesiastical one, before the Court of the Inquisition, and later, a military trial, before the Court of Chihuahua, which was the one in charge of condemning him to death. The inquisitorial trial It had been open since July 1800, due to accusations by Fray Joaquín Huesca, but it had been archived and had not been reopened until September 1810, when the insurgent movement broke out .

On October 13, 1810, the Court of the Inquisition resumed the records of the inquisitorial trial and summoned Hidalgo by edict so that he could defend himself against the accusations that had been made against him. The purpose of the summons edict was to inform Hidalgo about various issues. First, that a process was pending that began in 1800 and had continued until 1809; and second, that the crimes of heresy and apostasy had been proven against him; and that he was considered "seditious, schismatic and heretic". Similarly, the Inquisition accused him of taking part in the direction of the armed movement, as well as "preaching errors against the faith", and inciting sedition based on the religion, in the name and devotion of María de Guadalupe and Fernando VII.Said edict summoned Hidalgo to appear within thirty days and, if he did not appear, the cause would be pursued for rebellion and he and his followers would be excommunicated. Similarly, the Inquisition did not take into account the challenge made by Hidalgo and continued to consider him as excommunicated .

While these processes were taking place, Hidalgo was given a military trial whose duration would last from May 7 to 9. Said court was made up of Colonel Manuel Salcedo, Lieutenant Colonels Pedro Nicolás Terrazas, José Joaquín Ugarte and Pedro Nolasco Carrasco, Captain Simón Elías González and Lieutenant Pedro Armendáriz, was in charge of questioning Hidalgo about everything concerning the motives of his insurrection. In the first interrogations that were carried out on him, Hidalgo confirmed his role as the main leader of the insurgency both politically and militarily, until the moment when he was forced to hand over command to Allende, after of the defeat of the Calderón Bridge.According to his initial statements made before his judges, he confessed to raising the insurgent army, as well as providing it with cannons, weapons, and ammunition; Similarly, he also admitted to having ordered the minting of coins and deposed authorities, European or Creole, who did not agree to follow him .

On May 8, 1811, in a second statement, Hidalgo was questioned about the causes for initiating the insurgent movement and admitted the hasty nature of the beginning of the insurrection due to the events related to the denunciation of the members of the Querétaro conspiracy. . Similarly, Hidalgo became responsible for the independence cause; but he always made an effort to separate the religious elements from his personal convictions and acts during the events of the rebellion, even acknowledging that it was not possible to reconcile his acts with the Gospel. During his statements, he admitted that he did not preach or exercise his ecclesiastical function, and that his only association with religion was the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe that he had taken from the sanctuary of Atotonilco. Similarly, Hidalgo confessed to ordering the execution of Spaniards to please the army which was mainly composed of the populace, for the purpose of starting the movement; because he had no control over the overwhelming popular movement.​

Finally, in a final interrogation, he was asked about the causes of the movement to defend the kingdom against the French invasion; to which Hidalgo replied that he did it in order to defend his country from him. After those three days of questioning, Abella closed the questions, which collected a total of 43 questions .

After confirming to Hidalgo the charges made by the Inquisition, an ecclesiastical court in charge of Canon Francisco Fernández Valentín, commissioned by the Bishop of Durango; the priest of Chihuahua, José Mateo Sánchez Álvarez; Fray Juan Francisco García, guardian of the convent of San Francisco; Fray José Tarrasa; as well as the presence of the civil judges Manuel Salcedo and Ángel Abella, and Fray José María Rojas, as a notary, were in charge of carrying out the priestly degradation of the former parish priest of Dolores . 6 in the morning on July 29, 1811 in the corridor of the Royal Hospital of Chihuahua.

For the ceremony, an altar was set up with a crucifix in the middle of two lighted candles, and the locals were allowed to attend the ceremony. After having prepared everything, Hidalgo was taken out of the cell and taken to the corridor to then remove his shackles and proceed to dress him in the collar, cassock and priestly vestments as if he were going to give mass. He was then forced to his knees. The commissioner, accompanied by the judge, proceeded to inform the attendees of the cause of the degradation. Later, he scraped the hands and fingertips of the condemned man with a knife as a sign of dispossession of the rights to take the host to consecrate; to then cut his hair and scrape his head, as a sign of removing his tonsure and with it, his total dispossession of his priestly investiture. Once that's done, Hidalgo was handed over to the military authority so that he could be executed. Finally, the military court that tried him previously designated him as guilty of high treason and pronounced the death sentence, which would take place the next day.

Performance

The time that his imprisonment and trial lasted, Hidalgo remained guarded in the old Jesuit College in Chihuahua (today being the current Government Palace of Chihuahua); which, after the departure of that religious order, had been adapted as a jail and barracks. The day before being executed, Hidalgo received the sacraments of reconciliation and Eucharist from the priest Juan José Baca, remaining in communion with the Catholic Church; since the disputed excommunication of him actually had a political purpose. In addition to the fact that the Inquisition would declare that " there are not enough merits to absolve his memory and fame, nor to condemn it " .

Similarly, on his last night, he wrote a series of farewell verses in octosyllables for his jailer Miguel Ortega, and for the warden Melchor Guaspe, thanking the care received during his time in prison. These verses read as follows:

Ortega, your fine upbringing,

your nature and friendly style,

they will always make you appreciable,

even with pilgrim people.

has divine protection

the mercy you have exercised

with a poor underdog

that tomorrow will die

and can not repay

no favor received.

Melchor, your good heart

has expertly added

what justice requires

and demands compassion;

You give comfort to the helpless

as long as you are allowed

split dessert with him

and grateful Michael

gives you thanks surrendered .

At dawn on July 30, 1811, at the time of his execution, Hidalgo was escorted to the courtyard of the compound. On the way, however, he remembered that he had left some sweets in his cell that Ortega's wife had sent him and asked that they be brought to him. After receiving them, he took one and shared the rest with the firing squad. Finally, after arriving at the designated place, witnesses say that, before sitting on the bench in front of the peloton, he put his right hand on his chest, pointing to his heart, and pronounced the following sentence: " The right hand that I will put on my chest will be , my children, the sure target to which you have to go ". After a brief discussion, Hidalgo was allowed to be shot from the front and not from behind .

The execution of the sentence finally occurred at 7 in the morning. A first discharge wounded Hidalgo in the stomach and broke an arm, causing him to writhe in pain and causing the blindfold that covered his eyes to fall off; while a second wounded him again in the same place and causing thick tears to come out of his eyes. After a third and unsuccessful volley, which ended up shattering his belly and back, two grace shots were fired at point-blank range into his heart to end his life .

At the end of the action, Hidalgo's body was removed from the patio, and he was left sitting on a chair of considerable height, so that it would be exhibited to the public in an immediate plaza as a lesson, where it remained for a few hours. Finally, His corpse was placed on a plank and an order was given to a Tarahumara Indian, in the presence of Colonel Salcedo, to cut off his head with a machete, which fell in one fell swoop. So the Spanish chief gave the indigenous a prize of 25 pesos in silver .

Mortal remains

Hidalgo's decapitated body was buried in the San Antonio chapel of the San Francisco de Asís temple, in the same city of Chihuahua; while his head was sent, along with those of Allende, Aldama and Jiménez, to Guanajuato, to be hung in the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, as it was the place of his first triumph, as a lesson to the population. Ensign José Ignacio de la Cuesta was in charge of taking the macabre trophies back to the mining city. Finally, on October 14, 1811, they were received by Calleja himself, according to a report he sent to Viceroy Venegas .

The heads were placed inside iron cages and were suspended from spikes in the four exterior corners of the great building, at "competent height" and next to them, on large bronze plaques, the surname to whom each one belonged. Later, by order of the royalist intendant, Fernando Pérez Marañón, an inscription was placed on the door of the alhóndiga that read:

" The heads of Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama and Mariano Jiménez, distinguished criminals and first leaders of the revolution, who looted and stole the goods of the cult of God and the Royal Treasury; they shed with the greatest atrocity the innocent blood of priests faithful and just magistrates; they were the cause of all the disasters, misfortunes and calamities that we experienced, and that afflict and deplore all the inhabitants of this so integral part of the Spanish Nation. Here nailed by order of Mr. Brigadier D. Félix María Calleja del King, illustrious winner of Aculco, Guanajuato and Calderón, and restorer of peace in this America "

These remained there for a total of 10 years; from October 14, 1811, until March 28, 1821, when they were ordered to be taken down by order of Anastasio Bustamante, who had occupied the city of Guanajuato on behalf of the Trigarante Army, to later be buried in the San Sebastián cemetery.​

Two years after the triumph of the Plan of Iguala and the subsequent consummation of Independence, Congress declared Hidalgo as " Father of the Nation " and ordered that his body and head be deposited, along with other heroes of Independence, in the Altar de los Reyes of the metropolitan cathedral of Mexico City, in the year 1823. Finally, on September 16, 1925, during the government of Plutarco Elías Calles, his remains, as well as those of his companions, were transferred in a civic ceremony from the cathedral to the Column of Independence, where they were deposited in a crypt that is inside the monument and where they remain to this day.

Legacy

Places

His name has been used on several occasions to name multiple toponyms within Mexico. Some examples of this are the following.

• In 1869, the State of Hidalgo was erected in his honor, with Pachuca as its capital.
• Territorial demarcation Miguel Hidalgo, territorial demarcation of Mexico City.
• Ciudad Hidalgo (locality in the state of Chiapas), Hidalgo del Parral (head city of the municipality of the same name in Chihuahua), Ciudad Hidalgo (head city of the municipality of Hidalgo de Michoacán), Zamora de Hidalgo (head city of the municipality of Zamora in Michoacán), Poza Rica de Hidalgo (city in the north of the state of Veracruz), Villa Hidalgo (head town of the homonymous municipality in Sonora).
• Dolores Hidalgo (municipality of Guanajuato) and Zacatepec de Hidalgo (municipality in the south of the state of Morelos).
• Hidalgo Station of the Mexico City Metro.

Bills and coins

Hidalgo's effigy has been used on the following banknotes:

• One hundred peso bill of the AA family. Issued by the Bank of Mexico (between 1945 and 1973) and printed by the American Bank Note Company .
• Ten-peso banknote of the AA family. Issued and printed by the Bank of Mexico (between 1969 and 1992). It appears next to the Dolores bell.
• Bill of a thousand pesos of the family D.
• Bill of one thousand pesos of the D1 family.
• Bill of a thousand pesos of the family F.
• Two hundred pesos bill of the G family (currently in progress). Issued and printed by the Bank of Mexico since 2019. It appears next to the bell of Dolores and José María Morelos.

Others

• Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, university in Mexico.
• (944) Hidalgo, asteroid discovered in 1920.