Los Cuatro Caballistas

"Los Cuatro Caballistas", what does it mean? It means the four horsemen, which represents the four men who fought for Mexico and its independence. Those four men were; Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Jose Maria Morelos Pavon, Manuel Felix Fernandez (a.k.a. Guadalupe Victoria), and Vincente Guerrero. All four of these men were patriots. These four men fought for what they believed in, these four men fought for freedom. These four men fought for Mexican Independence. And I lived through it all...

It all started on September 16th of the year 1810. We had originally decided to start the war in December of that year. But the Spaniards had caught on to our plan, so Father Hidalgo had to deliver his speech then and there. We rung the bells of the church and watched as the small town of Dolores gathered around Father Hidalgo. He delivered the "Grito De Dolores" out to the crowd.

"Long live Our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to bad government! Death to the gachupines !" he yelled, and he continued to deliver, the crowd enthusiastic.

We then made the boldest move at that time and declared independence from Spain. At the time nobody saw what would happen in the near future. It was in March of 1811 that the insurgents were captured by Spanish officials. Father Hidalgo was tried and convicted if heresy and treason, then the unmentionable happened. On July 31st of the year 1811 Father Hidalgo was executed by the Spanish firing squad. His body was then mutilated and the Spaniards sent a disrespectful message to any would-be in surgents. They placed the amputated head of Father Miguel Hidalgo on display in the town of Guanjuato. After the death of Father Hidalgo a rebel stepped forward in the name of the deceased, Jose Morelos. Over the span of two more years Morelos lead the rebels against the Spanish.

In 1813 Morelos convoked a national congress to speak about Mexico becoming it's own independent nation. They spoke of how Roman Catholicism would be the nations official religion.
That as an independent country we could abolish slavery and end forced labor. That we could put an end to government monopolies and put an end to corporal punishment. All of this could have been achieved under the leader we had in the revolution. But in 1815 at the peak of the rebellion, Morelos was captured and faced the same fate as Father Hidalgo. The Spanish knew they couldn't defeat the rebellion with strong leaders, so they executed them for treason. Along with the leaders the would execute the insurgents. The rebellion was weak...

After the death of Jose Morelos there was no more formal way to approach the rebellion. Any fights against Spain was in isolated guerilla bands. From those bands rose two leaders, Guadalupe Victoria and Vincente Guerrero. These two lead the guerilla bands in battle against the Spanish resulting in casualties on both sides. The revolution was failing miserably, it seemed Mexico would forever be under the control of Spain. By early 1820 the revolution was ready to collapse, rebels were dying left and right. It seemed the end was near, it seemed it wouldn't be long before Mexico fell to it's knees.

In December of 1820 Viceroy Juan Ruiz sent Austine de Iturbide and his combat force to defeat Guerrero's army in Oaxaca. But after the clash with Guerrero's army, Iturbide had a change of heart and switched allegiances and invited the rebel leader to discuss priciples for a renewed struggle for independence.

Soon after on September 27th of 1821 the Treaty of Cordoba was signed and Mexico was an independent nation. The revolution was hard fought and many lives were lost. Out of the population of 1,000,000 rebels 15,000 died. And 8,000 Spanish died out of the Spanish population of 12,000,000. But it was worth it, we may have lost to leaders on long the way but those two men died for a huge gain. And for that every September 16th we honor Father Hidalgo, Jose Morelos, and every single one of the 15,000 that died for Mexico, we honor them for the day that we declared independence.


(for info above I used <http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/may/mexico/fmexico1810b.htm>