Municipal authorities from San Miguel de Allende participated in a Civic Ceremony commemorating Lieutenant Colonel Juan Aldama’s birthday on Tuesday, January 3rd.
City Hall councilors, Dolores Rosales, Agustina Morales and Luz María Gutiérrez; Senior officer, Rodolfo Jurado; Director of Culture and Traditions, Gustavo Vidargas; Director of Education and Infrastructure, Verónica Rodríguez, and Alfredo Orduña, from COMUDE attended the official ceremony that was held at the garden of the “San Juan de Dios” church.
After honoring the flag and reading the ephemerides, government officials remembered the Mexican insurgent, as one of the main characters of the Mexican Independence process.
The birthday of Juan José de los Reyes Martínez Amaro, better known as “El Pípila” (1782–1863) was also commemorated at the act.
El Pípila, became famous for an act of heroism near the very beginning of the Mexican War of Independence, on 28 September 1810. When the Spanish barricaded themselves–along with plenty of silver and other riches–in a grain warehouse known as the “Alhóndiga de Granaditas”, he tied a flat stone to his back to protect him from the muskets of the Spanish troops, and carried tar and a torch to the door of the Alhóndiga and set it on fire.
“I believe that no civic act is less importance than another, we are here to remember and pay tribute to those heroes of our war of independence, who set the example of not surrendering to their ideals. In their time, they gave everything from themselves, even their lives, because they believed in a better country, they believed in what we have today and so we have to continue working, “said Rodolfo Jurado, San Miguel’s Director of Culture and Traditions.
After the protocol message, authorities and other attendees approached the monument of Juan Aldama, where a flower wreath was placed as part of the celebration of the aforementioned hero’s 243rd Birth Anniversary.
El C. Excmo. Juan Aldama (Anonymous – inehrm.gob.mx) Jean Meyer’s book, Hidalgo, México, Editorial Clío, 1996, p. 52.
Juan Aldama (1774 – 1811) Mexican insurgent rebel soldier during the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. He was also the brother of Ignacio Aldama.
At the beginning of the War of Independence, Aldama was a captain of the cavalry regiment of the Queen’s militia. He attended the conspiratorial meetings for independence in Querétaro, organized by Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, despite having to travel from San Miguel el Grande (now San Miguel de Allende) in neighboring Guanajuato.
Aldama was in San Miguel when he heard news that the conspiracy had been betrayed by a supporter who informed the Spanish colonial authorities. He traveled to Dolores (now Dolores Hidalgo) to inform Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and Ignacio Allende. He witnessed the Grito de Dolores (“Cry of Dolores”) on the night of September 16, 1810, which started the armed conflict.
Aldama was later captured by the Spanish colonial authorities in 1811. He was court-martialed for insubordination towards the Spanish Crown and executed for treason, by firing squad on June 26, 1811, in the northern city of Chihuahua, Mexico.
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