Vicente Guerrero

“ The absence of Victoria in Vera Cruz, and of Bravo and Negrete in Nueva Galicia, had left the executive in charge of the substitutes Michelena and Dominguez, and necessitated the appointment of a third substitute, the choice by the congress falling on General Vicente Guerrero. The government was then practically in charge of Michelena. [17]
The congress in its deliberations enacted measures for the improvement of the country's industries, and for the reorganization of the army. ”

“ Guerrero, Manif., 1-20. ↑ The certificate of his christening at the parish church is dated Aug. 10, 1782, by which it appears that he was named Vicente Ramon. ↑ 'Su última esperanza, la única protesta del país contra la dominacion española.' Tornel, Breve Reseña Hist., 313. ↑ Guerrero loved the race he sprang from, and never was ashamed to own it. Zavala, Revol. Mex., ii. 57. Bustamante has it that no enthusiasm was shown by the people, not a viva uttered, which is incredible. Voz de la Patria, i. no. ”

“ General Bravo, Vice-President of Mexico, and leader of the Escocés, having issued his proclamation, declaring that, as a last resort, he appealed to arms to rid the republic of that pest—secret societies, and that he would not give up the contest until he had rooted them out, root and branch, took up his position at Tulansingo—a village about thirty miles north of the City of Mexico. Here, at about daylight on the morning of the 7th January, 1828, he was assailed by General Guerrero, the leader of the Yorkinos, and commander of the forces of government. ”

“ Bravo shines for his magnanimity, and Victoria for his tenacious loyalty to the cause; while Guerrero stands forward as an able successor to Morelos, one whose stanch purpose and self-denying patriotism sustain a flickering revolution. Iturbide is typical rather of the following period as soldier and schemer, brilliant yet selfish, who fox-like watches the opportunity to seize the bone of contention. As a rule, they are a self-willed class, rising frequently to heroic spheres, but unsustained, and falling repeatedly into moral and military errors. ”

“ General Don Sebastian Guerrero, who is standing so bold and upright before you at this moment, is one of the greatest noblemen of Mexico, a Cristiano viejo of the purest blood, descended in a direct line from the Spanish Conquistadors. His fortune is immense, incalculable, and he himself could not determine its amount. This man, by the mere strength of his will, and the implacable egotism that forms the basis of his character, has always succeeded in everything he has undertaken. ”

“ Santa Anna, incensed because Guerrero would not appoint him minister of war, had at first coquetted with Bustamante’s movement; but soon, overshadowed at Jalapa by the Vice-President and by Bravo, whom Guerrero had pardoned, he retired to his estate. On the outbreak of the revolution he took up arms for Guerrero; but when his chief gave up, he followed that example, and patiently awaited, crouching, the time to spring. Now he saw the tide of passion rising, and saw also the best citizens agreeing that Mier y Terán, [F] an able and honorable man, should be the next chief magistrate. ”

“ At this time the question of expelling the Spaniards was moved in the legislature of Mexico. Old wounds were reopened, and every means resorted to for keeping up the excitement against the Spaniards, who were accused of being incessant conspirators against the national independence, and for that reason ought to be forced to leave the country. Victoria did nothing to allay the excitement, and Guerrero promoted that measure with all his influence ”

“ A knife in the dark, a shot from a bush, that is their method, and if you should happen to kill one, even in self defense, gringos are not so well beloved in Guerrero but that some one would be found to swear it a murder. ”

“ But General Guerrero was one of those powerful athletes who do not allow themselves to be overcome so easily; they may totter in the struggle, and roll on the sand of the arena, but they always rise again more terrible and menacing than before. ”

“ His most important literary work is El Genesis del Crimen en Mexico (The Genesis of crime in Mexico) . The title of the book scarcely accords with its content. It is really an analysis of the Mexican society and character. Rarely does any student see, so clearly as does Guerrero, the actual condition of his own society; still more rarely does one so clearly state it. In some of his conclusions and views Guerrero differs profoundly from us, but we are forced to admire his sincerity and earnestness. ”

“ Bustamante, Medidas Pacif., MS., ii. 63-4; Alaman, Hist. Mej., i. 128-31; Arrangoiz, i. 33-4; Domenech, Hist, du Mex., i. 308-9. ↑ Guerrero was a native of Estepona in Granada, Spain, and had come to Mexico as purser of one of the ships from the Philippines. Having! been left at Acapulco on account of sickness, he asked his pay from the authorities at Mexico, but was refused. Poverty then drove him to rebellion. Alaman, Hist. Mej., i. 128-9. ↑ Besides Guerrero and Father Vara there were José Rodriguez Valencia, a wig-maker, intended as ambassador to the United States ”

“ General Guerrero insults us by inviting us not merely to abandon one of our countrymen, who is in every respect worthy of our support, through his loyalty, courage, and nobility of character, but also by proposing to us to hunt him down like a wild beast, and deliver him over. The general menaces us with outlawry if we assist the count, whom he brands as a pirate and a rebel. ”

“ After the death of Morelos, the germs of independence were kept alive and nurtured by Guerrero, who operated in the southwest, and was the most conspicuous figure among the insurgents when joined by Iturbide.
In the conflicts which have been waged on Mexican soil, guerrilla warfare has always borne a leading part, the inaccessible mountain fastnesses yielding immunity from danger of pursuit. This was the method pursued by the leaders after the fall of Hidalgo, Morelos, and Matamoras. ”

“ His secret ambition, which, on a day of pretended frankness, he had partly revealed in an interview with the Count de Prébois Crancé at Hermosillo, was not to render himself independent, but simply to be elected, by means of a well-arranged pronunciamiento, President of the Mexican Republic.
It was not through hatred that General Guerrero was so obstinately bent on destroying the count. Ambitious men, who are ever ready to sacrifice their feelings to the interests of their gloomy machinations, know neither hatred nor friendship. ”

“ Let us consider the man in the new position to which he has been raised. His elevation to the presidency was the triumph of the popular party; notwithstanding the assertions of his enemies to the contrary, he enjoyed the popular preference, and his inauguration took place amid the plaudits of the masses. [21] Guerrero believed that by leaving the people to themselves, untrammelled, and strictly maintaining the federal institutions, his would be a paternal government, and the country's institutions would become consolidated. ”

“ General Don Sebastian Guerrero," a rough voice said to him, whose accent made him start, in spite of all his courage; "resign yourself to your fate, for you have fallen into the power of men who will not liberate you till they have had a thorough explanation with you."
General Guerrero, whom the readers of the "Indian Chief" will doubtless remember, made a movement of impotent rage, but he was silent ”

“ Bustamente entered the capital in triumph, and Guerrero, after a succession of reverses, was taken prisoner, and condemned to be shot for taking up arms against the government, of which he had been recognized as the legitimate head. It was thus that distracted Mexico rewarded her heroes! This war-worn patriot, who had given the best years of his life for his country, was foully murdered by the representatives of the government, in the persons of the villain, Bustamente, and the arch-traitor, Santa Anna! ”

“ Between two pronunciamentos, Guerrero once more withdrew to the mountains of the south, where he took arms against his enemies, and Bustamente became President. It was under his government that a disgraceful method was taken to get rid of Guerrero. Persuaded that they could not conquer him in open field, the ruling party bribed a Genoese sailor to decoy Guerrero on board his little bark, Colombo, in the bay of Acapulco. ”

“ The step of summoning the chambers was a fatal one, for the reason that the senators and a large minority in the lower house worked in accord with the revolutionists. The president signifying his intention to command the army in person, the congress chose José María Bocanegra president ad interim. [54] Contrary to the advice of his friends — among whom was Santa Anna — who counselled him to make a firm stand in the capital, assuring him that they would begin operations against the rebels, Guerrero left the city at the head of 2,000 or 2,500 men, and marched in the direction of Ayacapiztla. ”

“ Have we the right to plunge our unhappy country, already half ruined, in the horrors of a civil war, when in this unfortunate land nothing is prepared for an energetic resistance? The Government of Mexico, so weak for good, is powerful for evil, and it will manage to find troops to reduce us if we revolt. General Guerrero is an experienced officer—a cold and cruel man, who will recoil before no extremity, however terrible its nature, to stifle in blood any attempt at insurrection. ”

“ Gonzalo Guerrero bought his freedom, became a free man and joined to the mayan army and he became "nacon" (head of warriors) , and he married a maiden of the Maya high nobility called Zazil Há under their customs and religion, having three children, the first mestizos of Mexico and perhaps most importantly, taught the mayans to fight the spanish and died fighting against the spanish invasion. Gonzalo Guerrero is the symbol of the foreigner that upon coming to live in these lands and in our culture, not only gives the best of him and defends it, but also gives his own life in it. ”

“ Guerrero disinterestedly yields his own plans, and hopes for the prospect of immediate partial relief, and when the capricious soldiers begin to desert Iturbide, he remains true and assists to save the tottering movement. The waiting revolutionists, strengthened by a period of repose, fall into line. They recognize the brilliant qualities of Iturbide, as a soldier round whom to unite the discordant elements.
The new and now leading faction naturally objected to a republic, and many deemed a moderate monarchy a safer stepping-stone from a three-century despotism to independence. ”

“ The movement was popular, for the people were in fact friendly to Guerrero. The prejudices of the native or Creole party against the Spaniards and their supposed defenders the Escocesses, were studiously fomented in the capital; and, on the 4th of December, the pronunciamiento of the Accordada, in the capital, seconded the sedition of Santa Anna in the provinces. By this time the arch conspirator in this drama had reached the metropolis and labored to control the elements of disorder which were at hand to support his favorite Guerrero. ”

“ Don Sebastian Guerrero is too generous for us not to be faithful to him; besides, he appears to me at the present moment the only man capable of saving our unhappy country from the abyss. We are all too deeply attached to our country and too devoted to its real interests, not to sacrifice ourselves for it, when circumstances demand it. ”

“ Three days farther on is Chilpancingo, to which also complimentary terms—in a lesser measure than Iguala— may be applied. It is the capital of this rugged Guerrero, a state named after the patriot general, who was once, like our own Marcos and Vincente Lopez, a muleteer. It contains an ornate Government-house, a zocalo with a music-stand; and we met here a colonel of the detachment of cavalry guarding the country, gotten up in such dapper civilian riding-dress as if for a promenade in Central Park. Population—but populations are hard to get at in Mexico. ”

“ Guerrero gave in his adhesion to Iturbide, as soon as he ascertained that it was the general's design to make Mexico independent, though, in all likelihood, he disapproved the other features of the plan. Guerrero's act was of the greatest national importance It rallied all the veteran fighters and friends of Morelos and the Bravos. Almost all of the former leaders and their dispersed bands, came forth, at the cry of "independence," under the banner of Iturbide. Victoria even, for a while, befriended the rising hero ”

“ BEFORE we continue our recital, it is well, we believe, to make the acquaintance of this new personage. Don Modesto Guerrero was the son of an honorable farmer, who, like many others, was possessed of excellent parchments of nobility. During the war of independence, the French burned these parchments in burning his house, under the pretext that the children of a laborer are brigands,—that is to say, that they have committed the unpardonable crime of defending their country. The brave man could reconstruct his house ”

“ General Guerrero, shame on his brow and rage in his heart, fled at full speed along the Ures road, pursued closely by the French cavalry. The count had made a large number of prisoners, among whom were several Mexican officers.
The joy of the adventurers bordered on madness. Still the brilliant advantages had not been gained without a sensible loss, regard being had to the numerical strength of the army. It had lost twenty-two men—an enormous amount, which evidenced the obstinacy of the fight, and the courage with which the Mexicans had fought. ”