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Miguelito

Dec 25, 2003, 3:57 PM

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What does "allende" mean?

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I realize the city San Miguel de Allende must have been named after me :), but where did "Allende" come from? Thanks, Michael (not quite the saint!)

Los que cantan oran dos veces! (Those who sing pray twice!)

esperanza

Dec 25, 2003, 6:01 PM

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Re: [mikelangford] What does "allende" mean?

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When the Mexican War of Independence began in the nearby town of Dolores (now know as Dolores Hidalgo) in the pre-dawn of September 16th, 1810 with an act now celebrated as "El Grito", the rapidly growing revolutionary army

came to San Miguel El Grande. Dolores Hidalgo is now known as the "Cradle of National Independence", while San Miguel de Allende calls itself the "Forge of National Independence". It was in San Miguel that General Ignacio Allende joined the army as Padre Miguel Hidalgo's chief lieutenant and led the army to several victories. Allende was not able to enjoy a an independent Mexico, free from Spanish colonial oppression, as he was captured during a battle and beheaded. General Ignacio Allende is now a national hero, and the San Miguel el Grande renamed itself "San Miguel de Allende" in 1826 in honor of his actions

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(This post was edited by esperanza on Dec 25, 2003, 6:03 PM)

Miguelito

Dec 25, 2003, 7:01 PM

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Re: [esperanza] What does "allende" mean?

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Ahhh, entiendo. Muchas gracias, Miguel

Los que cantan oran dos veces! (Those who sing pray twice!)

Carol Schmidt

Dec 27, 2003, 5:53 PM

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Allende wasn' t just beheaded...

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Addendum: Allende, Hidalgo, Aldama and Jiminez, the four leaders of the 1810 revolution, were not only beheaded early after the first victorious battles, but their heads were hung in iron cages on display for the ten years it took to win the revolution from Spain, to try to warn off the revolutionaries.

Their heads hung on posts on each corner of the Guanajuato grainery which was the first really major victory in the war, after Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel were the first cities to fall. The wealthy Spaniards all fled to the grainery when they heard the rebels were coming, and the place was a fortress. The revolutionaries could not even get to the front gate because of the weaponry pouring down death on them from the high walls.

One man, nickamed El Pipila, took a big table top, I forgot whether it was of stone or wood, and put it on his back and went to the front door and set off an explosion that broke it open. As it was war, I don't like to think about the massacre of the Spanish families which then occurred.

El Pipila is remembered with a fairly new statue of him, tabletop on his back, on one of the glorietas on the outskirts of town. There is a museum to Allende and the revolution right across from the Parroquia on the Jardin which I am sure you will visit.

Carol Schmidt

elcomputo

Dec 30, 2003, 8:34 PM

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Re: [Carol Schmidt] Allende wasn' t just beheaded...

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I believe I read some time back in Atencion that Pipila was from SMA and that his house here still stands. The writer said it was occupied by a fellow who repairs shoes.

One thing I don't understand about the business of Pipila carrying a huge slab of something or other on his back -- how did that protect him? Did he walk backward toward the grainery? And why didn't the heavily armed Spanish colonials fire at his legs? I think this tale must have undergone a bit of embellishment over the decades, much along the lines of the legends of the Alamo, where not every man died fighting. Archeologists have discovered the remains of a number of Alamo defenders behind the building, where Santa Ana had the survivors summarily executed.

Carol Schmidt

Dec 31, 2003, 8:29 AM

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Re: [elcomputo] Allende wasn' t just beheaded...

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As I understand it, the Spaniards were all on the top of the grainery shooting down, so the slab on Pipila's back protected him very well. I think I read the Spaniards were throwing things down as well as shooting--boiling oil as in medieval days, perhaps?

I remember the scenes from that Mel Gibson movie, Braveheart I think, where the two armies took turns shooting a bevy of arrows into the air toward each other, and the army on the receiving end raised their shields up toward the sky to try to protect them from the arrows raining down. Whoever survived then shot an arrow toward the other side, which waited while that rain of arrows came down on them. Very polite for war.

I just saw the third Lord of the Rings where the "soldiers," most of them computer generated, were shooting and ducking simultaneously, and there were soldiers on the ground levels and the rear as well as high on the various levels of the castle. Seems to me it would all be going on simultaneously, and that there would be fighters all over the place, not just up on the roof allowing Pipila to walk up to the grainery door and set off an explosion to open it. But I wasn't there.

I'm sure you're right about the changes in any historical incident which are made by the historians as the story passes through generations. History is written by the winners, they say. But it is the legends which shape a people.

Carol Schmidt