PUBLICACIONES

DOCTORAL THESES

Author: Oscar S. Zárate Miramontes
Publication Date: 2024
Publisher: European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation
Collection: Tesis Doctorales
Number: 6
ISBN: 978-84-128495-1-6
Price: 20 euros

It only takes a bit of digging into the documentation of the period to find references, here and there,  to the abundant practices of penal indulgence by the supreme authorities of the monarchy, the superiors of the viceroyalty, and the subordinates in the provinces during the revolutionary process of New Spain between 1808 and 1821. Undoubtedly, this is a central component of the policy of the period; however, it has regularly been treated as a secondary phenomenon compared to the repressive efforts and general hostility of the actors of the time against their respective adversaries. Armed attacks and various forms of punishment, with or without judicial formalities, have filled countless pages of the historiography of independence and have even given rise to a subfield of studies specialising in those means of “force and rigor”.

This evident fascination with the enmity between the supporters of the colonial regime and their opponents, leading to a focus on coercive practices and a wide range of violent manifestations, might be due to the understanding of these as naturally constitutive phenomena of a revolutionary process or a “war of independence”. It might also be that, when compared, this “catalogue of horrors” seems more impressive at first glance than any attempt at reconciliation or decision to moderate and even renounce the exercise of force and punishment. Be that as it may, the verifiable fact is that we know much about the harshness of the conflict and very little, in contrast, about the efforts to make it less brutal and to heal wounds rather than open or deepen them. The objective of this study is to help bring to light this other “gentle” side of the New Spanish revolution.

Oscar S. Zárate Miramontes holds a Ph.D. in History from El Colegio de México (Mexico).

Winner of the 7^th Research Prize to Ibero-American Doctoral Theses.