One of the most intriguing figures of Mexico's revolution against Spain was Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon, who was at one and the same both revolutionary and traditional in his political thought. Although this dichotomy would not be perplexing for Morelos and those who followed him into battle, it would prove to be a negative element in Mexican history during both the 19th and 20th centuries.Born a poor mestizo in 1765 in Valladolid - the city which in 1826 would be renamed Morelia in his honor - Morelos at an early age went to work on his uncle's ranch, where he learned the skills of a vaquero. Acquiring discipline and a solid work ethic from this experience, Morelos also developed a love of Spanish grammar and dreamed of someday furthering his studies.
Eventually, devotion and financial hardship joined to lure Morelos into the priesthood, and he entered the College of San Nicolas in Valladolid. At San Nicolas, Morelos would find a mentor and role model in Padre Miguel Huidalgo y Costilla, the deanof the college, who encouraged him to continue his studies in theology at the local seminary.
After graduation and ordination, Morelos was assigned to a poor parish in the unhealthy lowlands of Michoacan. There he not only ministered to the spiritual needs of his flock but also oversaw the construction of a new church which became the pride of the region, and he also encouraged the members of his parish to acquire skills in various trades to support themselves.
By 1810 Morels had become aware that Padre Hidalgo had initiated hostilities against Spain in the Bajio. That same year, in a meeting with his old mentor, Morelos was given command of revolutionary operations in the south, with the understanding that he had sole responsibility for raising and sustaining his army.
Capturing the imagination and loyalty of the people of southern Mexico, Morelos led a guerrilla movement that seized sufficient Spanish armaments to outfit an army, with which he would prove that he was a born general. Relying on the military treatises of Frederick the Great of Prussia, Morelos put together a well trained and highly disciplined force, in which his most trusted lieutenants were mestizo vaqueros. This force took control of most of southern Mexico, including Oaxaca as well as Acapulco and Taxco. Morelos and his army would carry on the revolutionary struggle after the capture and execution of Padre Hidalgo in 1811.
For three years, Morelos continued the fight against Spain. During that time, he also labored to provide Mexico with a constitution. By 1813, the Congress of Chilpancingo was convened. Although Morelos was an enthusiastic supporter of the congress and its task of drafting a constitution, the effort to guarantee its security with the army proved to be a military drawback.
As a political thinker, Morelos, like Hidalgo, had delved deeply into European thought of the 17th and 18th centuries. He was also aware of the new American republic developing north of the Rio Bravo. And, as a mestizo, he had definite ideas about the end of slavery, inequitable taxes and obligatory labor. He was, though, a fervent Mexican Catholic who combined liberal ideology with conservative Catholic principles.
One of the rationalizations for the Revolution was that the Spanish Bourbon monarch Ferdinand VII had been displaced from the Spanish throne by the Napoleonic wars. Morelos, accordingly, saw Ferdinand as a figurehead who might evdentually become a constitutional monarch, through whom ties with Spain might be maintained. However, as events progressed, Morelos became more and more convinced that Mexico should be governed as a liberal republic. But, as an ordained priest, Morelos was also of the opinion that such a republic should be a Christian (Catholic) republic.
During the 18th century, the crown had expelled the Jesuits and had been steadily eliminating many of the prerogatives and privileges of the Church. Among the privileges of the 13,000 clerics in Mexico at the end of the 18th century were immunity from secular justice and the right to acquire large parcels of land from donations of the wealthy. For Morelos, despite his liberalism, it was essential that such privileges should be restored to the Church.
By late 1813, the military fortunes of Morelos began to turn, due to the successes of Spanish commanders Calleja and Iturbide. However, in October of 1814, a final draft of a document called the Constitution of Chilpancingo was completed. Although Morelos was overjoyed that the long-awaited constitution had been finalized, the document did not contain all the elements of government that he had hoped for. Owing to its never having been implemented, the constitution was never considered legitimate.
Shortly thereafter, the revolutionary army of the south was forced into a battle in which the odds were decidedly lopsided. In the aftermath of defeat, Morelos was captured and underwent both secular and ecclesiastical trials, which resulted in excommunication, removal from the priesthood and a sentence of death. At the end of 1814, Morelos was executed by firing squad on an old estate of the viceroys near the village of San Cristobal Ecatepec. The Congress of Chilpancingo was disbanded, but the surviving revolutionary leaders closest to Morelos were fighting Spain until independence came in 1821.
From the short-lived emperorship of Augustin Iturbide during the early years of independence, through the War of the Reform of the 1850's, the French intervention in the 1860's , the Revolution of 1810, the Cristero movement of the 1920's and the formation and development of modern Mexican political parties, the legacy of Jose Maria Morelos has remained a consistent quandary as to how the intense religious conviction of a nation that is perhaps more fervently Roman Catholic than any other county in the world could be reconciled with an enlightened, liberal and forward-looking government. This dilemma has been a negative force in the fulfillment of of the ideals of the Mexican Revolution, and is still a factor to be considered in contemporary Mexican politics.
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