author
Miguel Hidalgo
A parish priest turned revolutionary, he helped ignite the movement that became Mexico’s war for independence. His famous 1810 call to rise against Spanish rule made him one of the country’s most enduring national figures.
1 Audiobook
Homecoming
by Miguel Hidalgo
About the author
Born in 1753 in New Spain, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was educated for the priesthood and later served in several parishes, most famously in Dolores. He was known as an energetic, unorthodox cleric with broad interests, and he became deeply concerned with the hardships faced by Indigenous people and other poor communities.
In September 1810, he issued the cry now remembered as the Grito de Dolores, urging people to rise up against Spanish colonial rule. The uprising quickly gathered force, and although he was not a trained military commander, he became the movement’s best-known early leader and a powerful symbol of resistance.
Hidalgo was captured and executed in 1811, before Mexico won independence. Even so, his role in launching the rebellion earned him lasting recognition as the Father of Mexican Independence, and his memory remains central to the country’s public life and history.