Miguel Hidalgo

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Don Miguel Hidalgo, in full Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Mandarte Villaseñor y Lomelí (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), was the chief instigator of Mexico's war of independence against Spain.

Hidalgo was a criollo (Mexican of pure Spanish ancestry), and the parish priest of Dolores, now called Dolores Hidalgo, a small town in the modern-day central Mexican state of Guanajuato. He was a keen reader of banned French literature and was an avid nonconformist. He learned several indigenous languages and openly defied many aspects of Catholic rule including that of sexual abstinence for the clergy. In the mining region of central Mexico Miguel Hidalgo and other Creoles of high society started conspiring for a considerable uprising of mestizos and indigenous peasants.

Alerted by Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez ("La Corregidora") that his revolutionary plot had been discovered and that he would soon be arrested for his conspiring, he brought his plans forward and, with the Grito de Dolores delivered in religious language and from the belfry of his defence against the usurpers of authority and the enemies of Fernando VII. Doing this Hidalgo started the great revolt of 1810. His battle cry was: "Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe, and Death to the Spaniards!" Hidalgo, and his unruly followers dispersed after only a few months. Hidalgo himself was captured, forced publicly to repent, and then was executed for his crimes. Hidalgo is remembered even today as the great liberator of Mexico and the Father of the Nation.ca:Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla da:Miguel Hidalgo de:Miguel Hidalgo es:Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla fr:Miguel Hidalgo ia:Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla ka:იდალგო, მიგელ ms:Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla nl:Miguel Hidalgo pt:Miguel Hidalgo simple:Miguel Hidalgo sv:Miguel Hidalgo