Pronunciamiento participants

Participants with biographies

A (27)

B (10)

C (24)

D (8)

E (4)

F (6)

G (15)

H (6)

I (3)

J (4)

L (6)

M (18)

N (3)

O (9)

P (6)

Q (2)

R (7)

S (4)

T (3)

U (4)

V (6)

Z (2)

 

Participants without biographies

Unknown (2)

A (527)

B (323)

C (737)

D (173)

E (197)

F (242)

G (561)

H (203)

I (62)

J (93)

K (3)

L (382)

M (706)

N (91)

O (210)

P (448)

Q (45)

R (631)

S (462)

T (227)

U (51)

V (356)

W (9)

X (8)

Y (15)

Z (117)

Santiago Imán

Lifespan: (1800 – 1854)

Biography

Santiago Imán (1800-1854) was a Creole merchant, plantation and property owner, and an officer of the reserve army in the State of Yucatán. He was born and raised in the eastern Yucatecan town of Tizimín. In 1824 he became the Captain of the Fifth Company of the Third Active Battalion (part of Yucatán’s reserve army), which was stationed throughout the eastern communities of Yucatán. The 1836 war between Texas and Mexico led to compulsory recruitment of the Yucatecan Third Active Battalion to fight the war in distant Texas, and in protest to his soldiers being sent there (who also happened to be his plantation workers), Imán attempted to pronounce in Tizimín in June 1836, resulting in his two-year imprisonment. After being released, he pronounced once more in Tizimín on 29 May 1839, but government forces defeated him once more. Imán attempted to pronounce a total of four times in the eastern towns of Yucatán throughout 1839, only for his meagre pronunciado forces to be continually and easily defeated by much more powerful government troops.Finally, Imán decided to coopt the Maya into his pronunciamiento. They were not allowed to possess arms, but Imán recruited them into his movement by offering them the abolition of their religious obvention tax (in previous years, Maya had been fleeing the towns to avoid paying this tax). Meanwhile, Imán’s wife Maria Nicolasa Virgilio provided him with essential information and recruited leaders for his pronunciamiento. With her help, along with the manpower of thousands of Maya who had decided to take up arms with Imán, he finally triumphed on 12 February 1840 in the city of Valladolid, where he issued his pronunciamiento. He called for a national federalist system, the invalidity of the 1837 centralist government and consequently all its officials and decrees, the dissolution of the Third Active Battalion, the end of the indigenous obvention tax, and the creation of his title of General Commander of Arms of the Liberating Army, granting him extensive military and political control over Yucatán. The powerful Meridian federalists seconded Imán’s pronunciamiento six days later, with the added condition that Yucatán was to become independent from Mexico until a national federalist system was re-established. The rest of the region seconded Imán’s movement, with the exception of the national army stationed in Campeche. After months of minor battles and negotiations between the supporters of Imán and the permanent army, the latter left Campeche in June 1840, defeated. The Yucatecan administration subsequently declared itself independent from Mexico, creating its own constitution in 1841. The Meridian federalists nevertheless refused to dissolve the Third Active Battalion, and although they abolished the obvention, they immediately replaced it with another religious tax for the Maya. Imán did not get his title or position, but instead was granted the almost useless rank of Brigadier General. He was forcefully persuaded to return to Tizimín in 1840, and was subsequently not invited to take part in any major military or political roles, despite his expressed desire to do so. He died in 1854, of what causes have not been discovered. Imán was the first figure to consciously coopt and educate the Maya in insurrectionary mentality and exercise, and throughout the 1840s, pronunciados would continue this practice, constantly using the Maya in their pronunciamientos. This would undoubtedly be a contributing factor in the Mayan protest against taxes in 1847, which had all the beginnings of a pronunciamiento, and which spiralled out of control, leading to the Mayan rebellion known as the Caste War of 1847-1853.

Shara Ali

Signatory of
Acta de la guarnición de Mérida (18 February 1840; Mérida, Yucatán)

Leader and author of
Pronunciamiento de Valladolid (12 February 1840; Valladolid, Yucatán)