Quintana Roo, Andrés (1787–1851)

Andrés Quintana Roo (b. 30 November 1787; d. 15 April 1851), Mexican political theorist and statesman, who helped lay the groundwork for Mexico's nineteenth-century liberal reforms. Born in Mérida, on the Yucatán Peninsula, Quintana Roo moved to Mexico City in 1808 to complete his education. In 1812 he joined the insurgent struggle for Mexican Independence. His future wife, Leona Vicario, whom he had met in Mexico City, joined him in 1813. Not a military man, Quintana Roo provided intellectual leadership, writing for the rebel newspapers El Ilustrador Americano and the Semanario Patriótico Americano and serving in the Congress of Chilpancingo.

For several decades following Independence in 1821, Quintana Roo held executive posts under federalist governments, such as minister of justice in 1833. During centralist-conservative regimes, he played an important role as an opposition legislator. Throughout the era, he continued his work as a trenchant political commentator, most notably in the 1830s for the periodicals El Federalista and El Correo de la Federación.

See alsoJournalism; Mexico, Wars and Revolutions: War of Independence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charles A. Hale, Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 1821–1853 (1968).

Ana Carolina Ibarra, ed., Andrés Quintana Roo (1987).

Jesús Reyes Heroles, El liberalismo mexicano, 3 vols., 3d ed. (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Arnold, Linda. Política y justicia: La Suprema Corte mexicana (1824–1855). México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, 1996.

Fowler, Wil. Mexico in the Age of Proposals, 1821–1853. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

                           Richard Warren