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)

Gordiano Guzmán

Lifespan: (1789 – 1854)
Profession: Regular army officer

Biography

Gordiano Guzmán (1789-1854) was a mulatto born in 1789 into a family of agricultural labourers from Tamazula in the South of Jalisco. He had little education and was probably barely literate. In 1811 he joined the insurgency, fighting in a cavalry regiment under the command of his brother, Francisco Guzmán and later under the command of José María Vargas and the Junta de Zitácuaro which earned him the rank of colonel. He also fought alongside Guerrero who, in 1819 made him lieutenant colonel and commander of Nueva Galicia. Thereafter, Guzmán offered his services to Agustín de Iturbide in the wake of the Plan de Iguala. However, in 1822 he was imprisoned by Iturbide along with the republican deputies of Michoacán but he escaped and joined Guerrero. He had fought alongside Guerrero in the insurgency and was to support him until the end. It was due to his support of Guerrero that Guzmán had won military honours and his position of power. Guzmán was to become a serial pronunciado. In the pronunciamientos he launched he was consistent in forwarding anti-Spanish ideas and was to defend federalism ‘hasta la muerte’. In the late 1820s and early 1830s he was to be involved in several federalist and guerrerista pronunciamientos and rebellions in south of Jalisco and Michoacán known as the Guerra del Sur. In August 1828 Guzmán had been elected to the Junta Electoral del Departamento de Zapotlán in the south of Jalisco. In December, together with a fellow former-insurgent and retired captain Gerardo Ramos, Guzmán formed the División Libertadora, under his command in the barracks at Zapoltitic. They launched a pronunciamiento in Tamazula on 30 December which called on the general congress to pass a law of exile for all Spaniards and upheld the federal system. It could have been a pronunciamiento de adhesión to Santa Anna’s Plan de Perote but until the actual pronunciamiento text is found it is impossible to know for sure. Despite Guzman’s political involvement in the department his pronunciamiento did not win the support of the local authorities. In September 1830 Guzmán joined Juan José Codallos, Juan Álvarez and Vicente Guerrero’s movement of pronunciamientos known as the Guerra del sur initiated by the governor of Michoacán José Salgado’s March 10 pronunciamiento. On 24 September he attended a junta de guerra in Michoacán signing the ‘Acta celebrada en junta de guerra de las tres secciones que forman la división federal’ as ‘Segundo Jefe de la División de Vanguardia del Ejercito Federal’. The plan demanded that any person supporting the plan de Jalapa or the centralist system should be excluded from employment and that any of the ‘Jefes y Oficiales que a la aproximación de cualquiera partida al Pueblo, Capital o Campo donde se hallen, no se unan a ellos abandonando las filas de los disidentes’ would be excluded from the army. It also specified that once the Jefes de División had occupied ‘Pueblos y Estados’ they should ensure that the laws exiling the Spanish be enforced there. By the end of the year Gordiano Guzmán was pushed out of Michoacán and the movement returned to the south of Jalisco where attempts to invade the cantons of La Barca and Lagos were rebuffed by the civic militias. On 2 February 1831, Guzmán and Montenegro, took control of Sayula. The commander of the cantón and several officers were captured, four people were killed and sixty rifles were requisitioned. Prisoners were released from the gaol and the casas consistoriales were burned and several houses including ‘la de rentas’ were raided. When Guerrero was captured by the federal forces and executed by Bustamante’s administration on 14 February 1831, Codallos, Salgado and Guzmán met on 2 April and agreed to continue fighting and Guzmán and Montenegro remained in Sayula. The Jalisco State Governor Anastasio Cañedo sent troops to the south to capture Guzmán. Álvarez surrendered and signed an agreement with Bravo on 15 April and Guzmán followed suit in May. On 23 May in Contla, near Tamazula in the lodgings of Parres, Guzmán, Montenegro and Álvarez met with Parres and Ignacio Pita, a representative of Bravo, to sign an agreement to end the ‘lucha entre hermanos’. The agreement included an amnesty for all those who had fought with Guzmán, some of whom would remain in the federal army. It also excused Guzmán from paying back money he had requisitioned or borrowed to pay for his campaign and bound him to persuade his former partisans in Michoacan to surrender. In 1834 the Guadalajara town council called on Gordiano Guzmán to head a regiment of the civic militia, offering him 1,000 pesos to protect the state against the pronunciamientos and asked him to launch a pronunciamiento seconding decree 562 of the State of Jalisco withdrawing recognition from Santa Anna as President. Guzmán used the opportunity to demand the repeal of some state laws which had led to the loss of communal lands in his cantón. On 15 June Guzmán launched the Pronunciamiento de los soldados del Pueblo from the Hospicio in Guadalajara. The plan criticised Santa Anna. Among the signatories were José Guadalupe Montenegro and Juan E. Calvillo, colonel of the first regiment of the state civic militia. From 1837 to 1842 he was involved in a series of pronunciamientos opposing the centralist system and in 1854 he signed the Plan de Ayutla. Guzmán’s involvement in pronunciamientos was apparently motivated by the will to protect the interests of the agricultural labourers and small landholders in the area of the South of Jalisco and Michoacán. His representation of these disenfranchised communities also gave him a power base of support in the region. Protecting his personal position of power should not be discounted as a motivation for Guzmán in his involvement in pronunciamientos but it would be unfair to assume that his only motivation was personal advancement. From 1837 to 1842 he was involved in a series of pronunciamientos opposing the centralist system and in 1854 he signed the Plan de Ayutla. Soon afterwards he was seized by santanista forces and executed in Cutzamala, Michoacán.

Rosie Doyle

Leader of
Pronunciamiento de valle de Aguililla (1 October 1840; Aguililla, Michoacán)

Signatory of
Pronunciamiento federalista de Aguililla (1 December 1837; Aguililla, Michoacán)

Unknown of
Pronunciamiento de Turicato (9 August 1840; Turicato, Michoacán)