Ramírez, José Fernando (1804–1871)

José Fernando Ramírez (b. 5 May 1804; d. 4 March 1871), Mexican political figure. Although born in Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, Ramírez represented Durango in the federal Congress in 1833–1834 and was rector of the State College of Lawyers. He helped formulate the Bases Orgánicas of 1843 and served as secretary of foreign relations three times: December 1846–January 1847, September 1851–March 1852, and June 1864–October 1865 under the empire. A moderate Liberal, he rallied to the Plan of Ayutla in 1854. In Europe from mid-1855 until spring 1856, he continued research, which he had begun in the previous decade, on the pre-Columbian era. He declined to participate in the Assembly of Notables of 1864, but served on Maximilian's Council of State until March 1866. Tainted by collaboration with the empire, he died in exile in Bonn.

A collector of rare books and manuscripts, Ramírez championed the idea of a national library. His Vida de Fray Toribio de Motolinía (1858) formed volume one of Joaquín García Icazbalceta's Colección de documentos para la historia de México.

See alsoMexico: 1810–1910; Plan of Ayutla.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Additional Bibliography

Duncan, Robert. "For the Good of the Country: State and Nation Building during Maximilian's Mexican Empire, 1864–67." Ph.D. diss., 2001.

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

Rodríguez O, Jaime E. The Divine Charter: Constitutionalism and Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005.

Villegas Revueltas, Silvestre. El liberalismo moderado en México, 1852–1864. México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1997.

                                            Brian Hamnett