An exploration of women's involvement in the Latin American Wars of Independence

Vicente Guerrero

Gender:Male

Ethnic origen: Mestizo

Events:

Connections:

Biography:
He was born on 4 April 1782, Tixtla, Mexico State. He had mestizo and African blood and claimed to descend from King Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco. He worked as a labourer and muleteer until joining Morelos's army on 15 December 1810. He backed Iturbide's Plan de Iguala in February 1821 after Iturbide's troops had been defeated by Guerrero. In September 1821, Guerrero marched into Mexico City alongside Iturbide. Iturbide alienated Guerrero by treating him as a servant, and Guerrero conspired against Iturbide. He was shot in the lungs at the battle of Cerro de Almolonga on 23 January 1823, a wound from which he never fully recovered. He became supreme tribunal of war and marine in May 1827. He was the first elected president of Mexico from 1 April to December 1829, when he was ousted by Anastasio Bustamente. In March 1830, Guerrero led a rebellion against Bustamente due to the latter's brutal regime and his persecution of indigenous peoples. Guerrero was betrayed, captured and executed in Oaxaca on 14 February 1831. (Richmond, 616-618)

He was a mason, like Carlos María de Bustamente, a member of the York Rite Grand Lodge India Azteca. (Racine, 539) .

In 1827, R.W. Hardy alluded to rumours that Guerrero “called by his partizans the ‘Hero of the Revolution’ [… had] betrayed his friend General Bravo into the hands of his recent enemies." Hardy made no further comment: "I shall say nothing. Time will unravel what is at present enveloped in mystery.” (Hardy, 519-20)

Rodríguez gives his birth date as 10 August 1783. (C. Rodríguez)

References:

Werner, Michael S. (editor). (1997) Encyclopedia of Mexico
Hardy, R.W.H. (1829) Travels in the Interior of Mexico in 1825, 1826, 1827, &1828,
Rodríguez, Carlos (1963) Heroes de la Independencia