Valentin Canalizo

José Valentín Raimundo Canalizo Bocadillo (Monterrey, Nuevo León, February 12, 1794 - Mexico City, February 20, 1850), was a prominent Mexican military and politician, who has been until today the only President of Mexico born in the state of Nuevo León. He was President of Mexico twice, for a total of one year, in 1843 and for the second time in 1844, in a difficult and unstable period of Mexican history, after the Independence of Mexico and the separation of Texas from Mexico, and prior to to the American invasion. Before being President, he was Mayor or Prefect of Mexico City (today Head of Government of Mexico City), and previously he was Governor of the state of Puebla. Before that, he was mayor or prefect of the city of Cuernavaca.

Military by trade, he fought in numerous famous battles of the Wars of Mexico's history. He was military governor of the states of Oaxaca and the State of Mexico in the early 1830s. At age 17, his first job was as a royal infantry cadet fighting the Insurgents at the start of the Mexican War of Independence in 1811, and towards the end of said war in 1821 he swore allegiance to independent Mexico with Agustín de Iturbide.

Months after the Battle of the Alamo in Texas in 1836, he was commander of the Division of the North in Tamaulipas. In 1847 at the age of 53, three years before his death, he was Minister of War (Minister of Defense) with the President of Mexico Valentín Gómez Farías. During the United States-Mexican War, he fought in Veracruz as a general leading the Eastern Division.

As a young man, he had been part of the council of war that sentenced Vicente Guerrero to death in 1831 for which he would be best remembered. It was said at first that he was "the most faithful to the President of Mexico Antonio López de Santa Anna"; Hence, he chose him as his successor to the presidency of the country, at the time of the & # 34; dictatorship & # 34; of Santa Anna, in which several presidents, including Gómez Farías and Canalizo, held presidential power for periods and taking turns with Santa Anna. However, at the end of the Mexican War with the United States, Canalizo distanced himself from Santa Anna due to disagreements with him about military tactics on how to combat the American enemy, withdrawing from the last battles of this war and withdrawing from politics.

Biography

Early Years

He was born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, on February 12, 1794, the son of Don Vicente Canalizo and Doña María Josefa Bocadillo. For many Creoles of his generation, the arms race represented a good chance of life, especially for those who had relatives with a good position in the army. It is perhaps for this reason that shortly after the independence revolution began, Valentín was sent with his relatives, General José Rafael Canalizo and Juan Nepomuceno Canalizo, to Querétaro where he became a cadet of the Provincial Infantry Regiment, in Celaya, the August 30, 1811, until said body was recast into the First Line Infantry Regiment, in 1821.

Accepted as a cadet in the royalist army

At the age of sixteen, in August 1811, he was accepted as a cadet in the Celaya Provincial Regiment, a unit later commanded by Colonel Agustín de Iturbide. Military service led him to leave his homeland and wander through a large part of the national territory, a fact of significant importance for the formation of his character and a subsequent national awareness of him.

In the royalist army, the young Canalizo fought against the insurgents in almost all the campaigns in the center of the country and the lowlands in 1814, in the actions of La Purísima, La Quemada and San Miguel el Grande and, in 1815, in the attack on Valle de Santiago, and at the site of Copero, where he was wounded in the right arm during the assault on March 4, 1815, in which the Celaya Regiment was repulsed with serious losses. It should be said that this was the only defeat that Iturbide suffered in his career.

Become a steely soldier who was constantly in combat, promotions came fast. In 1816 he was commissioned a second lieutenant and the following year he obtained the rank of lieutenant. Some historians have referred to him at that stage of his life as one of the most bloodthirsty officers , because Iturbide's troops had as a rule to execute the insurgents who were taken prisoner. But you have to remember that Canalizo at that time was a subordinate.

In the army of Agustín de Iturbide

Committed to Iturbide since 1820, like most of the officers, Canalizo accepted the Plan of Iguala whose intention was the emancipation of Mexico and joined the Trigarante Army, as major of orders of the Vanguard Division. He swore Independence on March 2, 1821. One of the first tasks entrusted to him was to convince the troops of the Celaya Regiment to join the independence.

Incorporated into the Trigarante Army with the rank of captain, he was part of the Vanguard Division in the successful march of General Iturbide towards the capital. Only six months would suffice to defeat all the Spanish and Creole forces still loyal to King Ferdinand VII in Mexico. Canalizo was found in the sites and shots of Valladolid, today Morelia, San Juan del Río, Zimapán and Querétaro. In San Luis de la Paz, Guanajuato, he participated in the combat where two Spanish regiments, the Zaragoza and Zamora regiments under the command of Colonel Rafael Bracho, surrendered en masse.

In the battle of Azcapotzalco, which occurred in August 1821 near the country's capital, and considered the last war action of the War of Independence, he distinguished himself by far. Wounded in the right leg, for his courage on August 19, 1821 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, on the same battlefield and awarded with a shield of distinction. He attended the siege and takeover of Mexico City. Victorious, the Triguarante Army entered Mexico City a month later, on September 27, 1821. Nearly sixteen thousand troops paraded through the streets and Valentin proudly marched at the forefront of the column leading two companies of his regiment, and on the day from Guadalajara with General José Joaquín de Herrera. He adhered to the Casa Mata Plan in 1823.

In the independent Mexican army

In independent Mexico a new army was created. The old Celaya Regiment became the 1st Line Regiment, and Canalizo joined the national army with the position of colonel. In the Archive of Canceled of the Secretary of National Defense there is his file, made up of almost three volumes, in which he is described as follows, in a half affiliation of his from that time, he was described as: &# 34;Noble quality, blond hair and eyebrows, blue eyes, white color and regular nose".

Arrest of Guadalupe Victoria

Although most of those who had formed the Ejército Trigarante were in favor of emancipation, not all of them had the same political ideas. The search for a new form of government would lead to the formation of parties and détente among Mexicans. Strongly supported by the army, Iturbide managed to establish himself first as president of the Provisional Government Junta and later as emperor of Mexico. Discontent was not long in coming, especially among the former insurgents. General Guadalupe Victoria would lead a conspiracy to establish a republic; but informed Iturbide of the existence of this conspiracy, he immediately ordered his arrest. The apprehension was in charge of Colonel Canalizo. Historian Lucas Alaman relates that after arresting him with a squad of soldiers, he was in charge of taking him to prison, but in the act of leading him, Victoria tried to flee, and Canalizo had to use the saber to stop him. With the plane of his back I tape him (planazos) several times on the back.

This incident would bring him strong resentments and subsequent consequences, since after the fall of Iturbide and the rise of Victoria as the first president of Mexico, he would be forced to retire from the army. He would return to active service until 1829, when the threat of Spanish reconquest arose and General Isidro Barradas' failed invasion of Tampico.

Supporting General Anastasio Bustamante

Reinstated with his previous position as colonel, he would support one of his former chiefs of the Trigarante Army and the battle of Azcapotzalco, Anastasio Bustamente, in the Jalapa Plan (1829) against the administration of President Vicente Guerrero.

Later, the continuous uprisings and revolts led him to a series of campaigns through the most diverse territories of the country. In 1830 he made the Puebla campaign, incorporated into the forces of Eligio Ruelas, attending the actions in the towns of Llano Alto and El Alacrán. The following year, 1831, he assisted in the pacification of the Costa Chica in the current state of Guerrero and the Mixteca, in Oaxaca against the Narváez and Luna rebels. In this last region, he carried out an outstanding service at the head of the Mexican army, saving Villa de Etla. According to the historian Carlos María de Bustamante, he destroyed in ten minutes more than six hundred men who were going to carry out the looting of that city . This fact, widely remembered in his time, would be used in his favor during a trial to which he was subjected years later by Congress, after his fall from the presidency. He was named Commander General of the Department (now the state) of Oaxaca.

Council of War and execution of Vicente Guerrero

In 1831 Canalizo was promoted to colonel, later he served as prefecture or mayor of Cuernavaca and later he was lieutenant governor of the Department of Mexico (now the State of Mexico). While in Oaxaca, chance also led him to form part of the court martial against former President Vicente Guerrero, after he had been betrayed and apprehended by the Genoese sailor Francisco Picaluga, when he was invited to eat on the Columbo brig on the who was a captain and was anchored in the bay of Acapulco, weighing anchor and handed over to the government in Santa María de Huatulco. As the highest ranking officer, Colonel Canalizo presided over the council made up of ten captains. Accused of sedition and mutiny, the former independence hero was sentenced to death after only 48 hours of trial. The council (---) condemns the aforementioned Vicente Guerrero to the penalty of being put to arms, in accordance with the provisions of the law, stipulated the final verdict, in which document was stamped first Canalizo's signature. The sentence was carried out four days later, on February 14, 1831 in Cuilapam.

Rebel and general

In less than two years, Canalizo would also become an insurgent. In 1833 he rebelled against the liberal reforms that Valentín Gómez Farías proposed to end the privileges of the Church and the military. Under the slogan Religion and fueros , he proclaimed himself in Ocotlán, Oaxaca, to defend the holy religion and uphold the fueros of the army .

Although the main leaders of this movement were soon defeated, Canalizo continued the fight for several more months, until finally the conciliatory attitude of President Gómez Farías convinced him to lay down his arms. The fact of not having been defeated earned him a reputation and in 1835 he was awarded the rank of brigadier general. During the following years he would obtain a series of important positions, as military commander of the department of Oaxaca, prefect of Cuernavaca, having governor of the State of Mexico and governor of that entity.

Commander of the Northern Army

Sent to the border to direct the Army of the North, in July 1836 he marched to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, under the orders of General Vicente Filisola, being appointed commander-in-chief and commander of the Division of the North. He took it upon himself to reorganize it because he had been seriously battered after the disastrous campaign in Texas. Although this distanced him from participating in more showy actions, such as the Pastry War, against the French (1838-1839), he would instead succeed in renewing the morale of his troops and turning them into a more efficient force.

In the Army of the North, in addition to the constant bandits and Comanches that plagued the region, he fought the revolts of José Urrea in Durango, Antonio Mejia in Tampico, Pedro Lemus in Nuevo León and Antonio Canales in Villas del Norte (Mier, Camargo, Reynosa and Matamoros After surrendering to Canales in Matamoros, he was called to Mexico City by President Anastasio Bustamante and on October 19, 1841 he was given the blue band of division general, the highest grade of army.

A new phase was now beginning in his career: that of participating in and deciding national politics. Although he was proposed for other military operations such as commanding the expedition to reconquer Texas or being sent to undermine the rebellion in Yucatan, his period of wars and campaigns had ended.

Santa Anna's ally

His adherence to one of the figures of the time, Antonio López de Santa Anna, would help him reach the zenith of his power and the presidency of the Republic. Forming a close bond of loyalty and friendship with Santa Anna, he would even become his best man at the second marriage of the Veracruz general with the young Dolores Tosta.

Canalizo was part of a military leadership, an elite of rulers, all of whom emerged from the ranks of the army that, after the collapse of federalism as a political system in Mexico, tried to establish a centralist republic between 1835 and 1846.

Called by some historians the Centralist Decade, it was a convulsive period characterized by economic stagnation and civil strife. Ten men successively held the presidential chair during that time; but each one was expelled from office as a result of armed rebellions, coups d'état, standing out among all of them Santa Anna, who, by presiding with broad powers over an apparently weak Congress, was more fond of maintaining power than dedicating himself to governing. Twice he withdrew from his post to rest at his hacienda El Lencero in Veracruz, leaving his loyal friend Valentín Canalizo as interim president.

Interim President

Named President of Mexico, he took office on September 7, 1843, his appointment being confirmed by the Senate on January 27, 1844, a position in which he remained for nine months, until June of the following year, when Santa Anna returned. Again on September 21, 1844, he was sworn in as interim president, until a revolution broke out against his regime.

Declared by General Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga at the beginning of November in Jalisco, the movement was soon seconded by members of the departmental juntas of Puebla and Querétaro. To face this rebellion, Santa Anna returned to the capital and without prior authorization or notice to Congress, he left with troops for Querétaro, an action that immediately provoked the demand of the Legislature and the demand that the interim president and his cabinet appear to explain the illegal appointment of Santa Anna in the military command.

On the 22nd of that same month, his wife Josefa Danila died. During his time, the reincorporation of Yucatan, which had tried to separate, took place. On June 3, he handed over the government to General Santa Anna, who appointed him head of the main plant and later named him chief of arms, on the occasion of the pronouncement of February 26, for the restoration of the Constitution of 1824.

It encountered opposition from Congress, which Canalizo dissolved by decree on November 29, 1844, or as he himself explained months later before a grand jury, his intention was "only to suspend its sessions in response to the state of effervescence in which it found itself the Republic". In addition, with armed guards he prevented the entrance of the deputies to the compound. And he also stumbled upon the anti-Santanist writings of Juan Bautista Morales and Luis de la Rosa. His brother-in-law, Manuel de Céspedes, rose up in arms calling José Joaquín de Herrera, who was supposed to govern. Canalizo wanted to attack Céspedes, but then the deputies, meeting in the convent of San Francisco, were the ones who ordered him killed, which they did not achieve.

At midnight on December 6, the Mexico City garrison declared itself in favor of Congress, counting on the support of the population. In an authentic popular riot and shouting Death to the Lame, long live Congress , the crowd attacked everything that Santa Anna and his government represented. First, he demolished a bronze statue dedicated to the dictator, located in the Plaza del Volador. Then the mob went to the Santa Paula cemetery to dig up and drag through the street the leg that Santa Anna had lost six years earlier fighting the French invaders.

As interim president, Canalizo tried to establish order, but the army refused to comply. Locked up in the National Palace, in a fit of rage he began to take steps to blow up a powder keg that was in the compound. He gave the order for the National Palace to be blown up, which was about to be carried out , wrote the historian Alfonso del Toro, but realizing the futility of his action, he soon gave up.

At three in the morning on the 7th, after his personal safety and that of his ministers were guaranteed by General José Joaquín de Herrera, who led the rebellion, Canalizo surrendered without firing a single shot. This revolt would be remembered in history as the three-hour revolution.

The Last Battle

Taked prisoner, he was put on trial and sentenced to exile. He embarked to Cádiz, Spain, when the presidency of the government was resumed by José Joaquín de Herrera, where he remained for almost two years. Learning in Europe that Mexico was at war with the United States, he decided to return to offer his services to the nation.

In a letter written on June 4, 1846 from Madrid, he expressed to the Mexican Congress his wishes to confront the outrages and infamy of our audacious neighbors, pledging that after the defense of the territory was concluded, he would leave for comply with the banishment.

It was thus that on November 14, 1846, he arrived in Veracruz aboard the English steamer Clayde, whose insignia helped him to cross the blockade that the US Navy maintained on the port of Veracruz. The political winds had changed and Santa Anna was back in power, once again favored by public opinion and leading the army against the invaders. Canalizo was appointed Minister of War and Navy, a position he held briefly, from December 24, 1846 to February 23, 1847.

Commander of the Eastern Army

Assigned at the end of March 1847 as commander of the Army of the East and military chief of the State of Veracruz, Canalizo began to fortify the heights of Cerro Gordo by order of Santa Anna to prevent the advance of the North Americans, despite the recommendations from the chief engineer, Colonel Manuel Robles Pezuela, that it was not a good strategic site. Despite the arrival of Santa Anna with reinforcements, the point was taken by the enemy after a bloody battle.

Cerro Gordo was a real disaster for the Mexican army, a defeat that literally turned into rout. The retreat was so precipitous that General Canalizo, when passing through the Perote fortress, did not save a single cannon or supplies from the place, an error that earned him recriminations from the government and led him to face a military trial.

Disgraced, he asked for his voluntary discharge from the army in December 1847, determined to go into civilian life. Away from the military spheres, he retired to his farm in San Gabriel, bitter and resentful against the corporation that he had served for so many years. In addition, with the war against the United States, a new generation of soldiers had emerged that began to displace the old soldiers who had come out of the royalist ranks and were present in the first years of Independent Mexico.

At the end of the war, due to differences of criteria and opinion with Santa Anna regarding war strategies to face the last battles against the North Americans, he abandoned the armed struggle and retired.

Last years and notable descendants

Recently retired from public life, he died young in Mexico City, on February 20, 1850, at the age of 56. One of his grandsons, Antonio Canalizo Valdez, son of Antonio Canalizo Danila and Procopia Valdez Osuna, was the brother-in-law of the hero initiator of the Mexican Revolution and President of Mexico Francisco I. Madero, as he married in New York with Mercedes Madero González, one of the president's sisters Another of Valentín Canalizo's granddaughters and sister of Antonio, President Madero's brother-in-law, Josefa Canalizo Valdez, married the famous businessman, grandson of a Sinaloa governor and half German, Don Guillermo Haas de la Vega. He was a legendary Mazatlan, who on April 23, 1912, rejected the invitation of the President of Mexico Francisco I. Madero, brother-in-law of his wife Josefa Canalizo, to be Governor of Sinaloa, because he could not neglect his many businesses. Among them were: his sugar mill and his town founded by him & # 34; El Roble & # 34; in Sinaloa (to which the famous mariachi song El Sinaloense is dedicated), its Hotel Central de Mazatlán (the largest and most elegant in the city), its silver mines, its two department stores (the unique in Mazatlán), his farms in Navolato, his company "Alcoholera del Noroeste," and his positions and responsibilities as co-founder of Banco Occidental de México, president of the Mazatlán Chamber of Commerce, and co-founder and vice president of the Mazatlan Water Supply Company.

Doña Josefa Canalizo's husband, Guillermo Haas de la Vega, was the son of the German Agustín (August) Haas Bertram and Rafaela de la Vega y Díez, the daughter of Sinaloa Governor Rafael de la Vega y Rábago of the period Veguista or Veguismo of governors of the "De la Vega" In Sinaloa. The current Haas House Museum in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, was the home of Doña Josefa Canalizo and Don Guillermo Haas and their eleven children Haas Canalizo.

In Mexico from 1926 to 1929 during the Cristero or Cristiada War, it was forbidden to offer mass in churches, and Catholics were persecuted by the army of President Plutarco Elías Calles. Doña Josefa Canalizo de Haas pretended to be ill during the three years of the war, in order to offer mass on the upper floor of the Casa Haas to her relatives, neighbors and friends, who pretended to visit her as sick. Doña Josefa founded the church of El Roble, Sinaloa, a town in Mexico founded by her husband Don Guillermo Haas.

Finally, the Haas House was inhabited by one of the Haas grandchildren and great-great-grandson of President Valentín Canalizo, Antonio Haas, a prominent lawyer and economist from the North American Universities of Harvard and Georgetown, founder of the Mazatlán Literature Prize from Mexico, journalist with double National Journalism Award, farmer and cultural philanthropist who died in the Casa Haas in 2007, whose body was watched over by the Mazatlan people in the Mazatlán Cathedral, and later in the Opera of Mazatlán Ángela Peralta Theater that he rescued and revitalized, and of which he was a patron. Upon his death, the government of the city of Mazatlán bought the house of the Haas Canalizo family.

In 2011, with the support of the director of the Institute of Culture, Tourism and Art of Mazatlán Raúl Rico, the Haas Canalizo house became the cultural center Haas House Museum of Mazatlan.