Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla - Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico
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Metro2
N 20° 36.899 W 105° 13.908
13Q E 475848 N 2279554
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Jesuit priest, was one of the leaders of the Mexican War of Independence.
Waymark Code: WMK1N6
Location: Jalisco, Mexico
Date Posted: 01/30/2014
Views: 3
This lifesized bronze statue of Hidalgo y Costilla is located in the Park named after him in Puerto Vallarta. The proportions seem somewhat off, but it depicts the priest standing with right arm raised is apparent salutations while he holds a scroll at waist level with his left hand. He wears a long overcoat with a large ribbon with tassles at his waist. The artist is J. Esteban Ramirez Guareno and is dated 1988. Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo-Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), more commonly known as Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla ... was a Jesuit-trained, Mexican priest and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence.
As a priest, Hidalgo served in a church in Dolores, Mexico. After his arrival, he was shocked by the poverty he found. He tried to help the poor by showing them how to grow olives and grapes, but in Mexico, growing these crops was discouraged or prohibited by the authorities due to Spanish imports of the items In 1810 he gave the famous speech, "The Cry of Dolores", calling upon the people to protect the interest of their King Fernando VII (held captive by Napoleon) by revolting against the European-born Spaniards who had overthrown the Spanish Viceroy.
He marched across Mexico and gathered an army of nearly 90,000 poor farmers and Mexican civilians who attacked and killed both Peninsular and New World-born Spanish elites. Hidalgo's troops lacked training and were poorly armed. These troops ran into a clan of 6,000 well trained and armed Spanish troops, and most fled or were killed at the Battle of Calderon Bridge on January 17, 1811. Hidalgo was executed by a firing squad on 30 July 1811 at Chihuahua, Chihuahua."