Pronunciamiento

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Pronunciamiento

Pronunciamiento, the revolt that occurred in Mexico when a group rebelled against the Mexican government and issued a plan. The plan was a continuation and adaptation of a technique used during the independence wars in which its author espoused ideas for the organization of a future Mexican state. After the acceptance of the Plan of Iguala, Mexicans understood the "plan" as a document designed to "build the nation, give it foundations, [and] protect its institutions." Following independence, the plan became a protest document through which military officers, local political officials, or both asked for ratification from other groups around the country; each group had its own plan that adopted the guiding plan's message, and rose up in its support.

The first plan, issued on 23 January 1824 by José María Lobato, received six adherences but failed to topple the government. The Plan of Jalapa, issued by General Anastasio Bustamante on 4 December 1829, received an equivalent number and took power. The most famous period of pronunciamientos occurred when Antonio López de Santa Anna left the government in the hands of liberal Vice President Valentín Gómez Farías, on 1 April 1833. By May 26 the troops in Morelia had "pronounced." For the next year Mexico was flooded with plans and, even though Santa Anna dismissed Gómez Farías in April 1834, they continued. During a two-week period in May 1834, citizens in Cuernavaca, Toluca, and Jalapa issued three separate plans that were seconded by an additional 112 throughout the country. They indicate that during that month, Mexicans gathered in juntas, studied the pronunciamientos, and decided to support an already articulated plan, adapting its language and demands to meet their own particular situation. Nevertheless, the plans should not be seen as an example of democracy in action; rather, they reflect the wishes of the local notables seconded by those nearby. Although various leaders of the Mexican Revolution issued plans, by then the idea of the pronunciamiento had disappeared, having given way to the more sophisticated concept of revolution.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Guadalupe Jimínez Codinach, coord., Planes de la nación mexicana, 11 vols. (1988).

Barbara A. Tenenbaum, "'They Went Thataway': The Pronunciamiento During the Centralist Period, 1836–1847," in Patterns of Contention in Mexican History, edited by Jaime E. Rodríguez O. (1992).