José María Luis Mora

José María Luis Mora Lamadrid (12 October 1794, Chamacuero, Guanajuato - 14 July 1850, Paris, France[1]) was a priest, politician and ideologist. Considered one of the first supporters of liberalism in Mexico,[2] he fought for the separation of church and state.

Early life

Mora came from the state of Guanajuato. He studied philosophy and theology at the College of San Ildefonso and in 1820 received his doctorate and ordination to the priesthood. However, he was never active as a priest. After the proclamation of the republic in Mexico in 1824, he was one of the drafters of the Constitution of the State of Mexico and was a member of the state congress.

Career

José Mora's principal writings date from the 1820s. Mora's main sources of inspiration were John Locke, Benjamin Constant and Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos. He was in favor of a republican system but opposed the principle of popular sovereignty, which according to him the bloody excesses of the French Revolution had led. Instead, he favored a Constitutionalist system, where the most important freedoms were protected from both the government and the whims of the masses. Mora was an opponent of all forms of demagoguery but saw the uprising of Miguel Hidalgo that the 1810 Mexican War of Independence initiated as a necessary evil. He criticized the Mexican Constitution of 1824 as incoherent and because of the lack of religious freedom, opposed the expansion of the Spaniards in Mexico and denounced the constant agitation of the Masonic lodges, both as liberal yorkinos as conservative escoceses. He was also an opponent of the populist Vicente Guerrero who came to power in 1829, and therefore supported the coup of Anastasio Bustamante. However, When Bustamante became a military dictator, Mora opposed him too.

Owing to ongoing political unrest Mora became disillusioned with constitutionalism and therefore increasingly focused his sights on breaking the privileged position of the church and the army.[3] Both for fiscal and ideological reasons, he was in favor of expropriating the property of the Roman Catholic Church, which controlled but didn't utilize the land it owned. Mora wanted to continue reducing the privileged position of the Church in the constitution, and he sought religious freedom and secular education as well. Mora supported Valentín Gómez Farías, who came to power in 1833 after promising a reformation program. Farías appointed Mora to reform education, and Mora opened the first secular school in Mexico City. However, Conservatives and the military, led by Antonio López de Santa Anna, opposed Gómez Farías' reform program and forced the President to resign in early 1834.

The grave of Jose Maria Luis Mora in the Cemetery of Montmartre

As a result, Mora went to live in Paris but continued to comment on the political events in his homeland.[4] In 1844 President José Joaquín de Herrera appointed him ambassador to the United Kingdom. In 1846, after returning to power, Gómez Farías asked José Mora to come back to Mexico, but he was prevented by the Mexican-American War. This shocked Mora, who admired the American political system. Even in 1848, after the war, he wasn't able to return due to health issues, such as tuberculosis. He died on the French national holiday (July 14), 1850.

Legacy

Mora's ideas would later be followed by a generation of liberal politicians who, during the Reformation, changed the face of Mexico dramatically.[5] There is a museum in his hometown of Chamacuero (today Comonfort, Guanajuato ), in what was his home town. His remains were moved to the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons on June 24 of 1963.

References

  1. ↑ "Biografia de José María Luis Mora". www.biografiasyvidas.com. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
  2. ↑ "Father José María Luis Mora, Liberalism, and the British and Foreign Bible Society in Nineteenth-Century Mexico". The Americas. 50 (3).
  3. ↑ "Mora, José María Luis (1794–1850) - Dictionary definition of Mora, José María Luis (1794–1850) | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
  4. ↑ "Biografia de José María Luis Mora". www.biografiasyvidas.com. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
  5. ↑ "Mora, José María Luis (1794–1850) - Dictionary definition of Mora, José María Luis (1794–1850) | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
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