Malcontents, Rebels, and Pronunciados

The Politics of Insurrection in Nineteenth-Century Mexico

Will Fowler

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780803225428
• eBook ISBN: 9780803240803
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Mexican History
• Index: History

Behind every pronunciamiento, a formal list of grievances designed to spark political change in nineteenth-century Mexico, was a disgruntled individual, rebel, or pronunciado. Initially a role undertaken by soldiers, a pronunciado rallied military communities to petition for local, regional, and even national interests. As the popularity of these petitions grew, however, they evolved from a military-led practice to one endorsed and engaged by civilians, priests, indigenous communities, and politicians.
The second in a series of books exploring the phenomenon of the pronunciamiento, this volume examines case studies of individual and collective pronunciados in regions across Mexico. Top scholars examine the motivations of individual pronunciados and the reasons they succeeded or failed; why garrisons, town councils, and communities adopted the pronunciamiento as a political tool and form of representation and used it to address local and national grievances; and whether institutions upheld corporate aims in endorsing, supporting, or launching pronunciamientos. The essays provide a better understanding of the rebel leaders behind these public acts of defiance and reveal how an insurrectionary repertoire became part of a national political culture.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Maps
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Understanding Individual and CollectiveInsurrectionary Action in Independent Mexico, 1821–1876
• Chronology of Main Events and Pronunciamientos,1821–1876
• 1. The Compass Points of Unrest: Pronunciamientos from Within,Without, Above, and Below in Southeast Mexico, 1821–1876
• 2. The Rise and Fall of a Regional Strongman: Felipe de laGarza’s Pronunciamiento of 1822
• 3. Veracruz, the Determining Region: Military Pronunciamientosin Mexico, 1821–1843
• 4. The Clergy and How It Responded to Calls for Rebellionbefore the Mid-Nineteenth Century
• 5. José Ramón García Ugarte: Patriot, Federalist, orMalcontent?
• 6. Ponciano Arriaga and Mariano Ávila’s Intellectual Backing ofthe 14 April 1837 Pronunciamiento of San Luis Potosí
• 7. Ayuntamientos and Pronunciamientos during the NineteenthCentury: Examples from Tlaxcala between Independence and theReform War
• 8. The End of the “Catholic Nation”: Reform and Reaction inPuebla, 1854–1856
• 9. In Search of Power: The Pronunciamientos of General MarianoParedes y Arrillaga
• 10. The Pronunciamientos of Antonio López de Santa Anna,1821–1867
• 11. Intervention and Empire: Politics as Usual?
• 12. A Socialist Pronunciamiento: Julio López Chávez’s Uprising of 1868
• Bibliography
• Contributors