FIRST MEXICAN EMPEROR WAS SHOT IN TAMAULIPAS

By Juan Montoya
It was July 19, 1824.
In Padilla, Tamaulipas, near present-day Victoria, the populace awaited the arrival of a contingent from Soto La Marina on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
In that contingent is included Agustin de Iturbide, the ex-president and emperor of Mexico.
Iturbide had fled Mexico on March 1823 and lived in exile in Florence and England after he fled Mexico. He had been captured in that coastal village when he alighted his ship to travel cross country to Mexico City where his followers had convinced him the people wanted their emperor back.
How was it that Iturbide, a fighter for the independence of Mexico came to accept the emperorship that eventually led to his death by firing squad in Tamaulipas?

Iturbide was born in Valladolid (today Morelia) in 1783. He was the son of José Joaquín lturbide y Arregui, a wealthy Spaniard, who came to Mexico and married María Josefa de Aramburu and Carrillo, a Michoacana Creole.
From this marriage were born three children with Agustin the eldest son and future emperor of Mexico born on September 27, 1783.
After studying at the seminary, Iturbide began his career in the ranks of the Spanish colonial army. At age 17 he joined the 22nd Infantry Regiment in Valladolid. At the outbreak of the revolution of 1810, father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla offered him the rank of lieutenant general of the people's revolution, but Iturbide did not accept. He took part in several battles against the revolutionaries led by Hidalgo and Morelos, with the capture of guerrilla leader Albino García earning him the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
In 1816 he was accused of being a warlord and prosecuted for illegal operations and acquitted.
Although his orders were to combat insurgent fight in that region, arriving at Teloloapan, he agreed with insurgent liberal leader Vicente Guerrero on the Plan of Iguala (religion, independence and union) of 24 February 1821.
The system of government would be a constitutional monarchy in which the emperor would be elected from among the members of a European royal family, preferably Spanish, "to give us a monarch already done [to] save us from fatal acts of ambition".
On the other hand, a conference would prepare the national Constitution.
Thus, with the first of the so-called "three guarantees," lturbide won the support of the old guerrillas who fought for independence, especially that of general Guerrero, who by then operated in central Mexico.
Following talks with Guerrero, Following these talks Agustin became convinced that independence was the only way Mexico could progress and the Plan of Iguala called for an independent Mexico albeit under King Ferdinand VII of Spain.
The plan offered security to Spaniards born in the peninsula but residing in Mexico (peninsulares), and and the third sought to earn the support of the clergy by preserving the privileges that were threatened by the revolutionary liberal regime.
However, the viceroy rejected the plan and Iturbide found himself looked upon as an insurgent by the crown. However, most of the garrisons and cities expressed their adherence.
In less than six months Iturbide controlled the country, with the exception of the capital and the ports of Acapulco and Veracruz.
The last phase of the independence campaign ended with the entrance of the victorious army  in the capital on September 27, 1821, with Iturbide as its head.
Iturbide decided to take in charge the direction of public affairs, chairing the governing Provisional Committee of 38 Members who were bound to comply with the treaty and the plan.
His biography indicates that he had himself appointed  appointed President of the Regency, received important privileges, a substantial salary of 120,000 pesos per year, $1 million pesos of equity capital, the ownership of land in Texas and the title of His Serene Highness.
Finally, on May 18, 1822 he was proclaimed emperor that was ratified by Congress on May 19.
The coronation of Agustín I was held May 21.
None other than General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana rebelled and issued the Plan of Casa Mata, reinstated the Congress (which had been dissolved) and recognized national sovereignty and denied recognition of Iturbide's reign as Emperor on January 1823.
 The rebels ended up forcing the abdication of Iturbide and refitted Congress March 19, 1823.
They also rescinded his pension and  labeled him a traitor to the  to the fatherland.
Urged by some of his supporters – and ignorant of the acts of Congress while he was away – Iturbide decided to return to Mexico and disembarked in Tamaulipas on July 14.
Before he was shot, he is said to have told the soldiers: “A ver, muchachos... daré al mundo la última vista”,  and kissed a crucifix. (Let's see, fellows. I'll give the world a last look.)
His name remained banned and forgotten until 1833 when his old enemy, general Santa Anna, decided he would be buried in the urn containing the remains of the first heroes of the independence. The order was fulfilled in 1838, when it was placed in the Cathedral of Jesús Felipe in Mexico City.
Modern-day Padilla now stands next to a lake that formed when the river was dammed and parts of the original town can still be seen standing across the lake.
And so it came to be that Mexico's first dreams of empire were buried in the foothills of Tamaulipas.