Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America

Hernán Cortés is perhaps the most well-known Spanish conquistador, known as the conqueror of the Aztec Empire. He was born in 1485 in Medellín in Extremadura, Spain. His first experience in the Americas was in 1504 in Hispaniola (Dominican Republic/Haiti). He did well and was awarded an encomienda there. Between 1511 and 1519, he participated in the conquest of Cuba under the command of Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, the governor of Hispaniola. Cortés proved himself well and continued to gain favor with Velázquez. However, within a few years, the relationship between the two began to sour, so much so that in 1518 Cortés was placed in command of an expedition to explore the interior of Mexico, but Velázquez canceled it at the last second. Undeterred, Cortés continued preparations and set sail in February 1519.

Cortés and his men landed in the Yucatan and claimed it for Spain, defeating the myriad coastal peoples. He was awarded with several young women, one of whom would become his renowned mistress La Malinche. In July of 1519, he and his men moved northwards and captured Veracruz. It was here that he famously scuttled his ships to prevent his men having the possibility to retreat. It was do or die. After Veracruz, Cortés marched against the large Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, gathering Indigenous allies along the way. By 1521 Cortés had captured the city and renamed it Mexico City. From 1521-24 he ruled as governor of Mexico. Over the ensuing years, Cortés would lead expeditions south into Central America and would return to Spain twice. In 1541, he led an expedition into Algiers. He died of dysentery in Seville in 1547.

As the conqueror of Mexico, his legacy is one fraught with turmoil. There are few primary sources on his life, and those that exist tend to either describe him as a ruthless, bloodthirsty villain or as a noble and honorable conquistador. In Mexico, there are few representations of him. The most notable, however, is in the giant mural by Diego Rivera located in the National Palace in Mexico City. Cortés is depicted in several panels and always with La Malinche at his side.

Father Hidalgo was a Creole, born in 1753 in New Spain (Mexico). He began studying with the Jesuits when he was 15, but after their eviction he continued to study for the priesthood. He earned his degree in philosophy and theology in 1773 from the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico in Mexico City. Hidalgo was talented in languages, learning some of the Indigenous tongues, like Nahuatl and Otomi, but also Italian and French. His knowledge of French gained him access to Enlightenment works current in Europe to which he would otherwise not have had because they were forbidden by the Catholic Church in Mexico. Already, one could see his penchant for operating outside of Church jurisdiction. His earlier work as a priest showed is magnanimity towards the poor and his doubt about Spanish rule and Catholic docility and doctrine.

Hidalgo’s revolutionary rhetoric truly began while a priest in Dolores. After the overthrow of the Spanish monarchy at the hands of Napoleon’s French forces, Hidalgo gave a mass that came to be known as the “Grito (cry) de Dolores,” wherein he asked the people to follow him in ousting the current local government in the name of the King. Hidalgo did not call for the destruction of the monarch as the French had done; rather, he sought a change in the local government, which he saw as corrupt, and he wanted to change the social order in Mexico.

While his insurgency saw initial success, it was eventually defeated, and Hidalgo was executed by firing squad. In Mexico today, Hidalgo is honored as “Father of the Nation,” an altar to the Fatherland was placed on the spot he was executed, and the church bell in Dolores was removed to Mexico City where the Mexican president rings it to celebrate Independence Day.

Simón Bolívar is nicknamed the Liberator. He was instrumental to the independence of many Latin American nations. The country of Bolivia is named after him.

Bolívar was born in 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela in a wealthy household. His father was a colonel. Both of his parents, however, died when he was young. He bounced around from relative to relative after the death of his mother, and the one constant in his life seems to have been the care of the family’s enslaved person, Hipólita, whom he viewed as a parent.

Bolívar entered military service early and went to Spain to further his education and training. He traveled around Europe and even witnessed Napoleon’s coronation in Milan as King of Italy. He returned to Venezuela in 1807. In 1810, after a successful junta in Caracas, Bolívar was part of the mission sent to Great Britain seeking recognition and aid as a sovereign nation. Between 1811 and 1814, Venezuela witnessed two republics that failed. During the second republic, disagreements led to Bolívar’s exile to Haiti. However, in Haiti he would find the support of Haiti’s President, Alexandre Pétion. For his support, Pétion requested that Bolívar free any enslaved people in Spanish America that he captured. A promise Bolívar kept.

In 1816, Bolívar began his campaign against Venezuela. In 1821, he successfully entered Caracas and soon became president of the new republic. From his position in Caracas, Bolívar launched other campaigns for independence into Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. While he was able to liberate much of Latin America, Bolívar quickly became despondent and pessimistic regarding the political situation and the lack of unity. In 1830, he decided to surrender the presidency of Venezuela and go into exile in Europe. He died from tuberculosis before leaving Cartagena that year.

Juan Manuel de Rosas was a caudillo leader in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His rule, and caudillismo in general, became typical after the collapse of Bolívar’s dream of a larger, more unified Latin America.

Juan Manuel de Rosas was born into a wealthy, land-owning Creole family in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1793. His education was relatively typical of a wealthy family at that time, but he never attended anything above a private school. De Rosas’s ultimate education centered on ranching. Growing up, de Rosas learned how to manage and administer a large ranch. In 1813, he married and set off to establish his own fortune, which he did very successfully. He became a rancher independent from his family lands, though he maintained close ties with family. He was exceptionally organized and got along well with the mestizo gauchos, the backbone of ranching labor in Argentina. More often than not, landowners did not get along with the gauchos; they viewed the laborers as shifty and untrustworthy. Rosas, on the other hand, dressed like them and competed with them in their horse games (similar to US rodeo) but always maintained a strict hierarchical authority over them.

De Rosas was conservative in most all his political views, so as the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata collapsed, he, like many powerful landowners, watched the liberal developments in Buenos Aires with increasing skepticism. Civil war erupted throughout Argentina during the power struggle between a more powerful Buenos Aires and regional autonomy. De Rosas played a key role militarily in repulsing invasions against Buenos Aires. With his military and financial success, de Rosas garnered much support that led him to becoming the Governor of Buenos Aires in 1829. Over the ensuing years, Rosas led a campaign against the Indigenous people to the west. While away, the situation in Buenos Aires deteriorated. His supporters besieged the city and demanded that de Rosas be given dictatorial powers, arguing it was the only way to gain stability.

De Rosas governed Buenos Aires with totalitarian authority. By 1845, he was able to gain control over the entire region of Argentina, though stability remained elusive. Although de Rosas successfully led campaigns against Uruguay and Paraguay and held off a blockade of Buenos Aires by French and British forces, his popularity within Argentina was in decline due to his tyrannical leadership. In 1851, he went to war against Brazil (the Platine War), which was a highly unsuccessful campaign. As Brazilian troops marched against Buenos Aires, de Rosas decided to go into exile.

In 1852, de Rosas left for Britain. Shortly after leaving Argentina, all his lands (some of which were quite palatial) were confiscated by the new government. He was charged as a criminal, found guilty, and sentenced to death. He never returned to Argentina and died in exile in Britain in 1877.

Like Juan Manuel de Rosas, Antonio de Santa Anna emerged during the era of caudillismo in Latin America.

Antonio López de Santa Anna was born in Veracruz in 1794. His family was Creole. His father was a lawyer, and his uncle was a public clerk. They represented those Creoles whose careers were hampered by Peninsular favoritism. With the support of his mother, Antonio López went to the military academy rather than becoming a clerk as his father had desired.

Santa Anna began his military career in 1810, first fighting against the insurgency on the side of the Spanish. However, in 1821, when Agustín de Iturbide changed sides and allied with Vincente Guerrero, Santa Anna joined him. Following independence, Iturbide awarded Santa Anna with command of the port at Vera Cruz. In his hometown, Santa Anna began garnering the support that made him a caudillo. In the meantime, Iturbide’s control of the new Mexican Empire was weak, and Santa Anna joined with many who sought his removal. After Iturbide abdicated, the following years witnessed political instability during the first Mexican Republic. During these years, in 1829, Santa Anna garnered more fame and support after defeating a Spanish army sent to retake Mexico. In 1830, a new president came to power in Mexico, Anastasio Bustamante, against whom Santa Anna quickly rebelled in 1832. Santa Anna became president in 1833. Like all the presidents before him, Santa Anna’s presidency suffered from economic woes and political upheaval. In 1834, Santa Anna replaced the previous constitution with a more conservative one. As a result, many provinces rebelled, including Texas, which would be Santa Anna’s undoing.

Following his defeat and capture in Texas at the hands of General Sam Houston, Santa Anna was removed as president of Mexico and spent a few years of exile in the US. He was allowed to return to Mexico in 1837. The years following his return were even more chaotic than those preceding them. He led forces against a French incursion in Veracruz, became president for a fifth time, and went into exile in Cuba in 1844 following revolts due to an increase in taxes, among other things. He returned to Mexico in 1846 at the request of the Mexican government (he also still had many supporters within Mexico and was popular among the people) to help lead forces during the Mexican-American War. Santa Anna told the government he had no desire to be president. He fought hard and stubbornly against the US forces. After Mexican defeat, however, he went back into exile in Jamaica. Despite this tumultuous history, Santa Anna was again requested to return in 1853 to be the president of Mexico following the former president’s overthrow. Santa Anna returned for a short time before being ousted in 1855. He spent the next two decades in exile in Cuba, the US, and Colombia.

In 1874, he returned for the last time to Mexico following a general amnesty granted by the then president, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. He died in Mexico City in 1876 at the age of 82.

Pedro II was the son of Pedro I, who was the first Emperor of Brazil. Pedro II, in contrast to his father, was born in Brazil, which earned him some favor among the Brazilian people and helped support his legitimacy as emperor because, following independence, Brazil struggled to fully gain autonomy from Portugal. Pedro II helped stabilize the Brazilian political situation following his father’s abdication and return to Portugal as king.

Pedro II was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1825. He was only five years old when his father left for Portugal. Thus, Pedro II was left as regent, and he spent a rather lonely childhood and adolescence dedicated to study in preparation for him to be emperor. He grew up witnessing the political intrigue and strife of the early, post-colonial years in Brazil, which affected him greatly. These experiences led to his developing a strong sense of duty and devotion to the Brazilian people, and it gave him a lasting distaste of rule.

As Pedro II grew and came of age, he began consolidating his rule by removing the factious regency that had been ruling the nation in his stead. He was coronated in 1841 when he was 14. The Assembly (Brazilian Parliament) welcomed him as a stabilizing power in the government. Pedro II proved to be a magnanimous leader, and his leadership did indeed inaugurate a time of economic and political stability in South America that was found nowhere else. He was patient, kind, diligent, and resourceful.

Regarding slavery, Pedro II participated actively in abolition, rather than just passively as his father had done. In defense of both Pedros, the sentiments in Brazil regarding slavery were overwhelmingly pro-slavery for decades following independence, and thus full abolition was an explosive political topic. Pedro I had freed his enslaved people, and Pedro II never owned any. He believed in abolition, but because of the situation he argued for gradual manumission. Thus, in 1871 he moved a bill of law through parliament using his power and influence as emperor that led to the enactment of the Law of Free Birth, which meant that any children of an enslaved person were born free. Many felt that his legislating for abolition would be equivalent to political suicide, but this was not the case. Brazil finally abolished slavery in 1887.

In his later years, Pedro II increasingly became exhausted from his duties as emperor and even a little disillusioned with the regime. Though the general public supported the emperor, a small but powerful and rising faction of wealthy coffee growers and discontented military officers planned a coup d’état. In 1889, the republicans (as they called themselves) arrested the Prime Minister and declared a republic. Pedro II did not intervene. Instead, he chose to leave Brazil with his family and live in exile in Europe.

Pedro II died of pneumonia in Paris, France in December 1891.

De Avellaneda wrote an important novel, Sab, and represents the cadre of women who rose above traditional roles for women during the era of Progress.

She was born in a wealthy Creole family in 1814 in Cuba. When she was young, she was an avid reader and certain experiences in her youth provided fuel for much of her rebellious ideas against patriarchal society. She was engaged to a wealthy man when she was 13 but refused to be married when she was 15. Her refusal gained her the opprobrium of much of her family.

When she was 22 her family moved to Spain, fearing the rumors of a slave revolt. There she began writing in earnest, predominantly poetry. While in Spain she experienced her first true love. In 1841, she published her most well-known novel, Sab, which described a love affair between an enslaved person and a white woman. She also wrote a famous poem, "A él", to her lover, Ignacio de Cepeda. Though the love was mutual, de Cepeda did not want to marry her, citing her lack of wealth and her non-feminine ways. Following their break-up, she went to Madrid, where she had several other loves. Eventually, de Avellaneda married a colonel and they moved to Cuba. Following his death in 1863, she left Cuba and traveled around on her way back to Madrid, Spain.

She died in 1868.

Porfirio Díaz’s birthday is unknown, though he was baptized in 1830. He was the sixth of seven children. His father was a Creole and his mother mestizo. He began studying for the priesthood but became swept up in the revolutions of the day and decided on a military career.

He was a staunch supporter of Benito Juárez, but after Juárez became president once more following the defeat of the conservatives and the French, Díaz split with Juárez (because Díaz felt that Juárez’s second term was illegal) and ran for president himself. He lost and revolted against the government. He led forces against Juárez and was defeated. Following Juárez’s death, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada became President of Mexico and offered all the rebels amnesty, which Díaz accepted. He retired for a time to Veracruz. However, in 1876, Díaz once again led forces in a revolt against the government that eventually, though arduously, succeeded. Díaz took power to become president the following year.

His presidency was marked by authoritarian rule mixed with some liberal ideas. He staunchly supported the export boom and gave preferential treatment to foreign investors over Mexican citizens. He remained Mexico’s president for nearly 30 years with only a brief pause between 1880-1884. In the 20th century, growing resentment to his rule eventually persuaded him to renounce his presidency. Díaz was elected president in 1910, but numerous rebellions broke out throughout Mexico, and in response Díaz resigned in 1911 and went into exile to Spain.

He died in 1915 in Paris.