Juan Álvarez was a Mexican general and liberal leader who fought in the independence wars, the Mexican-American War, and the French intervention. He led the Plan de Ayutla revolt of 1854 that overthrew Antonio López de Santa Anna and served as interim president of Mexico in 1855, a period that opened the Liberal Reform.
Background
Juan Nepomuceno Álvarez Hurtado de Luna was born on January 27, 1790, in Santa María de la Concepción de Atoyac, the town now called Atoyac de Álvarez in the state of Guerrero. At that time the town belonged to the Intendancy of Mexico, an administrative division of New Spain, the Spanish colony that covered much of present-day Mexico. The Costa Grande region of which Atoyac forms part had been brought under Spanish control in the 1520s.
His family was prosperous and of mixed Indigenous and African descent. It moved to Mexico City but returned to Guerrero in 1807. As a boy, Álvarez attended primary school in Mexico City before going back to his native town at the age of 17 to receive his inheritance.
Education
Álvarez's formal schooling was limited to primary education in Mexico City. He left that schooling at the age of 17, when he returned to Guerrero to take up his inheritance, and his later education came from the military and political life that followed.
Career
In 1810 Álvarez became a soldier in the guerrilla army of the priest José María Morelos y Pavón, which fought for Mexican independence from Spain. The independence struggle had begun that year under the leadership of Miguel Hidalgo, and Morelos carried it on in the south. Álvarez rose rapidly to the command of the Regiment of Guadalupe. During the long and unsuccessful rebel struggle he lost much of his inherited wealth.
After Morelos's death, Álvarez raised troops from his own ranches and kept fighting in the mountains around Acapulco at a time when most rebels had surrendered. In 1821 the former royalist officer Agustín de Iturbide defected and declared for independence under the Plan of Iguala. Álvarez accepted that plan and seized the port of Acapulco in October 1821, holding the city until he retired from the military in August 1822.
After independence he entered politics as a leader of the Liberal party and a strong adherent of federalism. He became the dominant figure in the area that later formed the state of Guerrero, where he lived modestly on a small ranch and personally worked his lands. In 1823 he joined Antonio López de Santa Anna and Vicente Guerrero, a hero of the wars of independence, in a revolt against Iturbide, who had established a monarchy in Mexico. He served again with Guerrero, the Liberal leader, until Guerrero's death in 1831, and afterwards continued to fight the Conservatives.
In the late 1830s Álvarez offered his services against the French during the First Franco-Mexican War, also called the Pastry War, and extended his political influence over several southern states, including Guerrero, Michoacán, Morelos, and Oaxaca. In 1841, under Santa Anna's government, he was promoted to the rank of division general. In the 1840s he opposed Santa Anna and the Conservatives' attempts to establish a strong centralized government. He also led a southern Mexican contingent against the North American invaders in 1847.
Between 1848 and 1850 he helped found the federal state of Guerrero, then comprising much of southern Mexico, and served as its first governor. He later served as interim governor from February 1850 to October 1851. In 1853 Santa Anna and the Conservatives seized power again, and Álvarez once more took up arms, keeping much of Guerrero virtually independent of the national government.
In 1854 Álvarez joined Ignacio Comonfort in the Plan of Ayutla, which Colonel Florencio Villarreal proclaimed at Ayutla, Guerrero, on March 1, 1854. The plan declared Santa Anna deposed and called for a provisional government and a congress to draft a new constitution. Santa Anna left the country in August 1855. In October 1855 a council at Cuernavaca elected Álvarez provisional president, and Benito Juárez became minister of justice in his cabinet. His presidency aroused dissension among the Liberals, and he had difficulty maintaining order. On December 11, 1855, he handed the presidency to Comonfort and returned home.
During the Three-Year War, also called the War of the Reform (1857–1860), Álvarez commanded the Liberal southern division against the Conservatives. In 1864, at the age of 74, he took up arms against the French and Maximilian. He died on August 21, 1867, at his hacienda, La Providencia, shortly after Mexican forces had defeated the French-backed empire. On December 27, 1922, his remains were transferred with honors to the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in Mexico City, a monument established in 1876 to honor distinguished Mexicans and later renamed the Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres.
Achievements
Álvarez is regarded as a hero of Mexico's independence movement and of the Liberal party, and as the most important liberal military leader before the 1850s.
He led the Plan de Ayutla revolt of 1854, which brought about the overthrow of Santa Anna's dictatorship and opened the period of the Liberal Reform.
Politics
Álvarez was a member of the Liberal party and a federalist who favored a republic with substantial power in the states. His political career developed within the liberal movement of independent Mexico, whose supporters opposed the concentration of authority in the central government and sought a federal constitutional order.
In the 1830s and 1840s the central conflict in Mexican politics lay between Liberals and Conservatives. After Santa Anna abolished the 1824 constitution and imposed the Siete Leyes, a centralist system, Álvarez fought against the Conservatives' efforts to establish a strongly centralized government throughout Mexico.
The Liberal Reform, which the Liberals pursued after the overthrow of Santa Anna, brought anticlerical laws that were enacted between 1855 and 1863 and later incorporated into the new constitution. Álvarez's cabinet in 1855 included young liberals, and his government is regarded as the beginning of that reform program.
Connections
Álvarez's children included Diego Álvarez Benítez, who later became governor of Guerrero, and Encarnación Álvarez Benítez.
His most significant political and military associations were with Vicente Guerrero, Ignacio Comonfort, and Benito Juárez. He served under Guerrero in the revolts against Iturbide and in the Liberal cause, joined Comonfort in launching the Plan of Ayutla, and handed the presidency to Comonfort in December 1855. Juárez served in his provisional government as minister of justice.
child:
Diego Álvarez Benítez
Later became governor of Guerrero.
child:
Encarnación Álvarez Benítez
Collegue :
Vicente Guerrero
Served with Álvarez in the revolts against Iturbide and in the Liberal cause, and was the Liberal president whom Álvarez served again until Guerrero's death in 1831.
Collegue :
Ignacio Comonfort
Joined Álvarez in launching the Plan de Ayutla in 1854, served in his cabinet, and succeeded him as president in December 1855.
Collegue :
Benito Juárez
Served as minister of justice in the government that Álvarez led in 1855.
References
History of Mexico
A general history of Mexico that covers the nineteenth-century period of the Liberal movement in which Álvarez led the Plan de Ayutla revolt and served as president.
Juan Álvarez Hurtado
Spanish-language encyclopedia article on Álvarez's birth, military career, Plan de Ayutla, presidency, and burial.
Juan Álvarez
English-language encyclopedia article describing Álvarez's career as a Mexican general and president, from the War of Independence through the French intervention.
Álvarez Hurtado, Juan
Biographical entry on Álvarez's military and political service, including his interim governorship of Guerrero and his command of the Southern Division.
