The Making of a Revolutionary: Print Culture & Independence in Spanish Texas, 1811-14

 
Speaker: Raul Coronado, University of Chicago, Department of English

Respondent: Gabriela Nuñez, University of Louisville, Department of English

Only weeks before Father Miguel Hidalgo, leader of the Mexican movement for independence, was executed by the Spanish Royal forces in 1810, José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara was named as ambassador to the United States. Like many Spanish Americans of the early nineteenth century, Gutiérrez de Lara traveled to the US in the hope of gaining support for independence of Spanish America. Yet Gutiérrez de Lara returned to Texas armed not with ammunition but with pamphlets and proclamations instead. This lecture will focus on Gutiérrez de Lara’s travels to the US and his attempt to gain Mexican independence from Spain.