Ramos Arizpe, José Miguel (1775–1843)

José Miguel Ramos Arizpe (b. 1775; d. 1843), Mexican political theorist and politician. Born in Valle de San Nicolás, Coahuila, Ramos was ordained in 1803 and subsequently became professor of canon and civil law in Monterrey. Elected deputy to the Spanish Cortes in 1810, he became a leading champion of American rights and was the architect of the provincial deputation, an organization that provided home rule to the provinces. Arrested in 1814, when Ferdinand VII returned from France and abolished the constitutional system, he remained in prison until 1820, when the constitution was restored. Elected to the Cortes once again, he, together with other American deputies, proposed commonwealth status for the New World. After Independence Ramos returned to Mexico in 1822 in time to join the opposition to Iturbide; he was instrumental in mobilizing the provinces and in drafting the Plan of Casa Mata. Elected to the Second Constituent Congress, he was an advocate of moderate federalism and the principal author of the Constitution of 1824.

One of the founders of the Yorkino Masonic lodges in 1825, Ramos sided with the moderates in opposing the expulsion of the Spaniards and in supporting the presidency of Manuel Gómez Pedraza in 1828. He served as minister of justice and ecclesiastic affairs in the Victoria and Gómez Farías administrations, distinguishing himself as a champion of national control of the church, while also continuing his clerical career, becoming dean of the cathedral chapter of Puebla. He was elected delegate from Puebla to the 1842 Congress shortly before he died.

See alsoMasonic Orders; Mexico: 1810–1910.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nettie Lee Benson, ed. and trans., Report That Dr. Miguel Ramos de Arizpe, Priest of Borbon and Deputy to the General and Special Cortes of Spain for the Province of Coahuila … Presents to the August Congress (1950); La Diputación Provincial y el federalismo mexicano (1955); and her Mexico and the Spanish Cortes, 1810–1822 (1966).

Jaime E. Rodríguez O., "La Constitución de 1824 y la formación del Estado mexicano," Historia Mexicana 40, pt. 3 (1991): 507-535, and his "Intellectuals and the Constitution of 1824," in Roderic A. Camp, Charles A. Hale, and Josefina Z. Vázquez, eds., Los intelectuales y el poder en México (1991), pp. 63-74.

Additional Bibliography

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

González Salas, Carlos. Miguel Ramos Arizpe. Montemorelos: Publicaciones Interamericanas Pacific Press de México, 1990.

Toro, Alfonso. Don Miguel Ramos Arizpe, "Padre del Federalismo Mexicano": Biografía. Saltillo: Coordinación General de Extensión Univesitaria y Difusión Cultural, 1992.

                                  Jaime E. RodrÍguez O.