Biography of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla

                                          Biography of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla 

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla  (1753-1811)
Born in Hacienda Corralejo in Pénjamo, Guanajuato, on May 8, 1753.

He was sent to Valladolid (now Morelia) to study the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo, of which he became professor of theology, philosophy and moral and finally rector. In 1792 he was ordained as a priest ministering in the Parish of Dolores, after having done so in several other parishes. Liberal ideas, he joined the group of patriots who in 1810 conspired in Querétaro in favor of the independence of Mexico.

The armed movement to begin in October of the same year, but the conspiracy was discovered and arrested several of the complicated, Hidalgo, together with Aldama, Allende, Abasolo and others, in response to a warning that the risk of his life was sent to them by the magistrate Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez decided to conduct the survey on the spot, and so, at dawn on September 16, 1810, residents of the village of Dolores, potters, carpenters, blacksmiths and farmers, answered the call father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla to start the fight for independence.

In less than two weeks, the rebel army won a series of quick and easy wins. Dolores passed to Atotonilco, San Miguel el Grande (now Allende), Chamucuero, Celaya (in this place was given to Miguel Hidalgo the rank of captain general and Ignacio Allende star), Salamanca, Irapuato and Silao, reaching Guanajuato.

With the approach of the rebel army, the Spanish, along with their families and their wealth, took refuge in the "Alhóndiga" in the city of Guanajuato. On September 28, after a bloody struggle in which the angry mob annihilated its defenders, was taken to end the fort. In Guanajuato, Miguel Hidalgo went to Valladolid, a city that was taken by the insurgents on October 17, 1810, without its proponents oppose resistance. There he spent several days organizing his troops to go out for the viceregal capital: Mexico City.

In the Monte de las Cruces, just outside of Mexico, Hidalgo won a formidable victory on August 30, defeating Trujillo (Realistic Colonel), a victory that unfortunately missed because instead of throwing his troops on Mexico City to seize it, taking advantage of the confusion that his victory in the Spanish had caused rows, ordered the withdrawal of its troops to Ixtlahuaca, by way of Toluca. In Calderón Bridge, near Guadalajara, fought insurgents and royalists, the latter under General Felix Calleja, in a battle which proved to be disastrous for Hidalgo and his people, forcing him to retreat to the north.

The May 21, 1811, to reach Acatita of Baján, Hidalgo, Allende and 27 comrades were victims of a treacherous ambush Ignacio Elizondo and tended them were taken prisoner. Taken to Chihuahua, Allende, Aldama and Jiménez were shot on June 16, 1811 and a month later, on July 30 of that year, Hidalgo was shot too.

The colonial government was convinced that the death of the warlords, shot in Chihuahua, end the insurgency. But it was not.

Ignacio Lopez Rayon, who had remained in Saltillo, performed the feat of escape from the enemy and march from that city to the province of Michoacán, where they could have him and his crew with the help of the people. And, unfortunately for the realists, in the southern mountains were already fighting the military genius José María Morelos, supporting his victorious campaigns by Galeana, Braves, Mariano Matamoros and many others.

For 1821, the ideal for which he had fought Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and many other Mexicans over eleven years, had finally achieved: the country was free and independent.

Source: National Solidarity Microbiografías, Characters in the history of Mexico.


Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Mexico, 1993