Hidalgo, Miguel

Hidalgo (y Costilla), Miguel

(born May 8, 1753, near Pénjamo, Guanajuato, Mex.—died July 30, 1811, Chihuahua) Mexican priest, called the father of Mexican independence. Ordained in 1789, he had an uneventful early career. In the town of Dolores (now Dolores Hidalgo), he joined a group plotting independence from Spain in the light of Napoleon's invasion of that country. On Sept. 16, 1810, when his group was betrayed, he rang the church bell and addressed his parishioners with his Grito de Dolores (“Cry of Dolores”), calling them to revolution. Thousands of Indians and mestizos joined him, and he succeeded in capturing Guanajuato and other cities in the region before reaching Mexico City, where his hesitation led to their defeat and his execution. The martyred Hidalgo became a potent symbol of the independence movement that eventually succeeded, and each September 16—now celebrated as Mexico's Independence Day—the president shouts a version of the Grito de Dolores from the National Palace balcony.