In 1811 a secret society, Los Guadalupes de México, was formed in Mexico City in support of various insurgencies inspired by Miguel Hidalgo’s revolt. In this work, Virginia Guedea uses the activities and relationships of the Guadalupes as a window on the politics of independence. The Guadalupes were urban, socioeconomically diverse creoles who shared a Bourbon, Enlightenment philosophy that, according to Guedea, gave them a “global vision” of New Spain’s domestic and imperial situation.
As she describes it, the Guadalupes’ organization and operation resembled the “national liberation fronts” of our own century. To coordinate the armed insurgent movement, Guadalupe activist Ignacio Rayón established “La Suprema Junta Gubernativa de America.” Guadalupe secret agents—whose ranks included women—smuggled funds and information to the insurgents. Guadalupes also smuggled printing presses so that the insurgents could publish various sorts of propaganda.
After the promulgation of the Constitution of 1812, Viceroy Félix María Calleja adopted an anti-insurgency program that included stepped-up repression, but he also allowed open elections. This gave the Guadalupes a forum for political activity. Creole lawyers, who were prominent among the Guadalupes, won elective office, resulting in a creole ayuntamiento and the dispatch of Guadalupe delegates to the Cortes of Cádiz. At this time, Guedea says, the Guadalupes emerged for a brief period as a shadow government. It is worth noting that Calleja, unlike his predecessor, did not set aside the elections, even though he regarded the creole ayuntamiento as a de facto or actual supporter of independence.
Guedea has produced more than a study of the early independence movement: her portrait of the Guadalupes makes the dynamic of Agustín Iturbide’s movement intelligible and sheds light on the subsequent development of the liberal movement. Secret societies, however dysfunctional, would, from this time on, form a basis for political associations. Masonic orders functioned as political clubs; conservatives and moderates joined the Scottish Rite linked to Britain; while post-Iturbide liberals joined the Yorkist Rite introduced to Mexico by the U. S. minister Joel Poinsett. The Yorkist radical liberal or puro sect, to which Benito Juárez belonged, was known as the “American Party” because it advocated a close political and economic relationship with the United States. Porfirio Díaz’ famous policy of national conciliation was carried out partly through the Masonic orders. With the establishment of a neo-puro pax porfiriana came Yankee businessmen, who found Masonic brotherhood almost indispensable in establishing the personal connections necessary to function in Mexico.
By drawing attention to the secret society as a form of political organization, Guedea has produced a valuable archaeology of the liberal camarillas that formed the basis of nineteenth-century Mexican politics.
