RAMOS ARIZPE, MIGUEL

Mexican priest and politician; b. Coahuila, Feb. 15, 1775; d. Mexico City, April 28, 1843. He studied at Monterrey and Guadalajara and was ordained in 1803 in the cathedral of Mexico City. In 1808 he received the doctorate in canon law in Guadalajara and in 1810 entered the Colegio de Abogados of Mexico City. During these years he held a number of posts in the bishopric of Linares. From 1811 to 1814 Ramos Arizpe was the representative of Coahuila to the Spanish Cortes. In Cádiz he became a Mason and was widely known for his extreme liberalism. He was accused of conspiracy and arrested on orders of Ferdinand VII, but the successful liberal revolution of 1820 gave him his freedom, after which he was named canon of the Puebla cathedral. In December of 1821 he arrived at Tampico and then went to Saltillo, where he devoted himself to masonic propaganda and engaged in a conspiracy against Iturbide. When Iturbide was over-thrown and the republic established, Ramos Arizpe became a deputy for Coahuila and a leader of the federalist group. The Constitution of 1824 was, in part, his work. He founded the Masonic Society, Águila Negra, and collaborated with poinsett in founding York Rite lodges. He served as minister of justice and ecclesiastical affairs (1826–28), as ambassador to Chile (1830), as a member of the junta that proposed the Plan of Tacubaya in 1841, and as a deputy in congress (1842). Beginning in 1831, he was dean of the cathedral of Puebla. He wrote a number of reports as minister of justice, and Memoria sobre las Provincias Internas de Oriente (Cádiz 1812; Guadalajara 1831; Eng. tr. Philadelphia 1814).

Bibliography: v. alessio robles, "Noticia Biográfica," in m. ramos arizpe, Memoria sobre el estado de las provincias internas de oriente (Mexico City 1932) 7–54.,

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