[Hidalgo, Miguel]

Peña y Urquidi, Manuel de la. Document signed ("Man[ue]l de la Peña y Urquidi"), in Spanish, 2 pages (12 x 7 3/4 in.; 305 x 198 mm) on a gray sheet with validity stamp of 1810-1811, and validity stamps of Ferdinand VII and Charles IV, Chihuahua, Mexico, 29 July 1811, countersigned by José Zulanga and Miguel Rubio; formerly folded, a few stains. Boards folding-case, English translation laid in.

Lucas Alaman (ownership mark in manuscript in left margin of second page)

J. Amaya, El Padre Hidalgo y los suyos (1952), p. 134 (in trans.: "The Archivo del Museo Nacional has a photostat of the document which was the property of Lucas Alaman")

A chilling and important document in Mexican history — an affadavit confirming the degradation, execution, and subsequent decapitation of the father of Mexican independence Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla.

When Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808, he forced the abdication of King Ferdinand VII in favor of his brother Joseph Bonaparte. Many Mexicans, in response, formed secret societies to support either Ferdinand or independence from Spain. Hidalgo (1753–1811) belonged to such a group in San Miguel and when members of his group were betrayed, he organized a revolt capturing Guanajuato and other major cities west of Mexico City. He was defeated at Calderón on January 17, 1811 and fled, only to be captured and executed.

This document is signed by the official representing the Holy See in Chihuahua, who was charged with defrocking Hidalgo of his priestly vestments. Since Hidalgo was a priest, his execution was delayed until he had been ritually degraded from the priesthood. The date of the document is a day earlier than the generally accepted date of his execution, and the document clearly states that he was executed at six in the morning on the 29th. The document also confirms his decapitation, for his head was taken to Guanjuato and displayed outside the granary as a warning to rebels.

Lucas Alaman (1792–1853), who served as Minister of Interior and Exterior Relations in the Bustamante administration, was the author of several classic histories of Mexico.