Vicente Guerrero: Difference between revisions

'''Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña'''<ref>{{cite web|title=Vicente Guerrero Saldaña|publisher=Mediateca INAH|lang=es|url=https://www.inehrm.gob.mx/sitios/proceres/index.php?p=vicente|accessdate=2023-12-29}}</ref> ({{IPA-|es|biˈsente raˈmoŋ ɡeˈreɾo|lang}}; baptized 10 August 1782 – 14 February 1831) was a Mexican soldiermilitary officer and statesman who became the nation's second president. He was one of the leading generals who fought against Spain during the [[Mexican War of Independence]]. He is the first and so far only Mexican President of [[Afro-Mexicans|African]] descent and the first president of African descent in mainland North America.

Vicente Guerrero was born in [[Tixtla]], a town 100 kilometers inland from the port of [[Acapulco]], in the [[Sierra Madre del Sur]]; his parents were María Guadalupe Rodríguez Saldaña, and Juan Pedro Guerrero. His father's family included landlords, wealthy farmers, and traders with broad business connections in the south, members of the Spanish militia, and gun and cannon makers. In his youth, he worked for his father's freight business that used mules for transport, a prosperous business during this time. His travels took him to different parts of Mexico where he heard of the idea of independence. There is controversy regarding Guerrero's ethnic origin, with some authors describing him as ahaving mixedboth person withan Indigenous, and African background. <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beltrán |first=Gonzalo Aguirre |date=2008-12-19 |title=Ethnohistory in the Study of the Black Population in Mexico |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlca976.1.1.3 |journal=Contributions of the Latin American Anthropology Group |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=3–6 |doi=10.1525/jlca976.1.1.3 |issn=1935-4940}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jr. |first=Henry Louis Gates |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814733424.001.0001 |title=Black in Latin America |date=2020-06-05 |publisher=New York University Press |doi=10.18574/nyu/9780814733424.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-8147-3342-4}}</ref> However, no portraits of him were made during his lifetime and those made posthumously may not be reliable. Fellow insurgent [[José María Morelos]] described him as a "young man with bronzed or tanned skin ("broncineo" in Spanish), tall and strong (N.B. "forbid", strapping, muscular), [[aquiline nose]], bright and light-colored eyes and big sideburns".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/14876/vicente-guerrero-saldana|title=Vicente Guerrero Saldaña &#124; Real Academia de la Historia|website=dbe.rah.es}}</ref>

A key achievement of his presidency was the total abolition of slavery in most of Mexico. The slave trade had already been banned by the Spanish authorities in 1818, a ban that had been reconfirmed by the nascent Mexican government in 1824. A few Mexican states had also already abolished the practice of slavery, but it was not until September 16, 1829 that total abolition across almost all of the nation was proclaimed by the Guerrero administration. Slavery at this point barely existed throughout Mexico, and only the state of [[Coahuila y Tejas]] was significantly affected, due to the immigration of slaveowners from the [[United States]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Bancroft|first=Hubert|date=1862 |title=History of Mexico Vol. 5|location=New York |publisher=The Bancroft Company|pages=79–80|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmexico05banc/}}</ref> In response to pressure from Texan settlers, Guerrero exempted Texas from the decree on December 2, 1829.

[[Category:1820sPeople infrom MexicoNew Spain]]

[[Category:Afro-MexicanAfrican diaspora in Mexico]]