The experience of the pronunciamiento in San Luis Potosí, 1821-1849

Abstract

The Hispanic phenomenon of the pronunciamiento, particularly prominent in nineteenth-century Mexico, is just one example of an insurrectionary political act that has contributed to the traditional portrait of chaos and disorder that has tainted much of our interpretation of the country‟s socio-political history. Once considered to be a violent, non-ideological, praetorian military act, recent studies reveal that the pronunciamiento was primarily a written petition that sought to further political proposals or address particular grievances through negotiation (albeit often backed by the threat of force). Although the military were largely the most visible leaders of the pronunciamiento, a plethora of political and civilian actors and interest groups partook in the practice with the intention of having their grievances/demands attended to by the national government. As well as being viewed as one of the causes of chronic instability, the pronunciamiento was also the primary mechanism employed to bring about tangible political changes throughout the country. At the local level of San Luis Potosí, the pronunciamiento seed also germinated and was used by all political groups and factions in their negotiations with local and national authorities alike. Local interests were often at the heart of these negotiations and so dictated the nature of the pronunciamiento in San Luis Potosí. This dissertation will explore and analyse the pronunciamiento practice, its origins, dynamics and nature, from the regional perspective of San Luis Potosí. Bearing in mind that the pronunciamiento was borne out of, and operated in a specific socio-political-economic context of constitutional disarray and transition, its analysis will also further our understanding of the broader socio-political culture not only of San Luis Potosí, but of Mexico in general. This in turn will contribute to the acknowledged need for reinterpretation and revaluation of the tumultuous period of early nineteenth-century Mexico. It will expose the period as an age of democratic revolutions; of intense political debate between emergent political groups and factions, who increasingly used the pronunciamiento to further an ideological stance, represent a spectrum of interests and force some kind of political change both at a national and regional level when all other constitutional options had been exhausted.