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Chapter 2: Blood and Tears: Meetings
Meetings
Pablo Fierro stretched his hands during a break from note taking. He had been called on to be here as a note taker for the Bishop of Mexico City, Pedro José de Fonte, who seemed to be in ill health and was starting to talk about heading home back to Spain. Pablo reflected that when he did leave, it would be a quiet sort of sign of the change that had occurred here. His Excellency had been appointed Bishop here just five years into the long war for Independence and had been the man who had crowned Iturbide.
As he looked around the large room that served as the primary meeting place for the cause of his present endeavor, he also thoroughly wryly about the fact that Mexico was a country that had witnessed more meetings to figure out a workable system of government in its brief span of independence than some countries had witnessed in a century.
The Constitutional Convention, although some of the participants still hesitated to call it that, was as small as the men could make it while including everyone who must be present to make sure all parties felt themselves to be represented. It was a delicate balancing act: too many people would make the convention more prone to argument, infighting, and a long drawn out process that was likely to fail. Too few and someone was bound to feel they had not been presented and would not abide by the agreements made there, defeating the whole point.
Every day was a series of interminable meetings: First a set of meetings among the members of the informal “parties” which made up the convention. These usually occurred in smaller rooms around the building and constituted discussions between members of the group to determine strategy, discuss the current proposals being drafted and determine how comfortable everyone was about where things stood. Then there were larger meetings which were usually held in the main meeting hall where he was now. These were usually between representatives of two or more of the parties involved to discuss alliances, strategies and various sorts of horse trading. Last but not least here in the large meeting hall all the representatives from everyone involved would meet to have proposals to put into the draft of the constitution read aloud, discussed and debated.
The representatives from the Church, some of them actual Priests, others just members of the present government who supported the Church, had just finished their own little strategy meeting. So far, they were pleased: so far their efforts to maintain Catholicism as the official religion of Mexico were very much still being successful, and it seemed that the Liberals for now had accepted that this would be the case. There was still a great deal of hesitation at supporting the constitution, however. The present arrangement was already favorable to the Church and any changes, even if they did not relate to the primacy of the Church in society, could not help but eventually lay down the path by which that might change. It was well known the Liberals wanted to engage in a radical diminution of the Church’s role in society: Valentin Gomez Farias, their present leader, had done that very thing as President before being overthrown in the coup that had created the present favorable arrangement. By definition, anything he agreed to was to be greeted with suspicion.
The next meeting was going to be with the military. That should be interesting: Pablo had never personally met with Santa Anna. He got his materials ready and said a quick prayer of thanks for the fact that the Church was paying for his paper, the price of paper right now had to be seen to be believed.
The “Church delegation” he was a part of was made up of Luis Alman as well as the Archbishop of Puebla, Francisco Pablo, the Bishop of Guadalajara, Diego de Aranda, and some of their assistants. Bishop Pedro Jose was not present (as was usually the case), letting his Mexican brethren speak on behalf of the Church. The various members got themselves reorganized as Santa Anna, along with a few other Generals, came in. Santa Anna and the other members of the military showed their proper respects to the Bishops, greetings were exchanged and then finally everyone sat back down to start business again in earnest.
Santa Anna was many things, but the man never hesitated as he got right to the point.
“Thank you for meeting with us. We in the army wanted to see how you were feeling about the current state of events, because we have realized something that has shifted our own thinking on this matter to some degree”
Fransisco Pablo looked thoughtful and gestured for Santa Anna to continue.
“You see, Your Holiness, it’s about the recent war. I am sure that like myself, you are grateful to God for granting our efforts to keep Mexico united, but our meetings after the end of the war have revealed that it was a closer thing than we would have liked and that it strained our abilities to the limit.”
“But we did win, thank god.” chimed in Diego.
“Of course. But what if rebellion should break out again? Or even worse, what if one of the stronger powers, such as say, the United States, attacked us? We have no doubt that man for man we are stronger than the Americanos but we do not have the guns, the cannons or the industry set up to properly equip our brave soldiers for such a contest. Most of our weapons we got second hand off the British. It is an intolerable state of affairs.”
“And what does this has to do, exactly, with the present proposals?” asked Francisco.
“It’s quite simple. We have been meeting with the Department of the Interior to look at what possibilities there are to have the government fund the building of some local arms factories and start designing our own guns in the process. The ability is there, but at present, the money is not. We asked what we would need to have the money available and they proposed to us a change in our taxation system”
“Wait, isn’t that a different topic? The present meetings haven’t really been about taxes, after all.”
“Well, yes, but you see, any change to the taxation system would require that the present business be concluded first. And for a change to occur without bringing with it its own wave of chaos, the present business needs to be concluded successfully. We have come to the conclusion that the best way for us to get what we need for the army to grow strong and be the kind of weapon the Holy Church needs to be defended is to agree to at least some of the changes the Liberals are proposing so we can get a workable government with some legitimacy to then turn around and start changing our tax system.”
As the meetings to draft a new Constitution began in earnest the Armed Forces made it clear that a reform of the taxation system to increase revenues was necessary.
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The meeting room was packed, it was one of those meetings where everyone was present. Something was in the air. Rumor had it that Santa Anna was going to give a speech, but no one quite knew to what purpose, other than to the benefit of Santa Anna as he saw it, of course.
Alfredo felt his own palms sweat as he wondered if the man whose ambition had shaped every turning point in Mexico’s history was about to do it again. The room stilled as Santa Anna entered in his full uniform and took the speaker's podium then without further fanfare, began speaking.
“My fellow Mexicans. I am here today to speak to all of you on this most important occasion. We have all gathered to try and bind ourselves by some agreement which might allow us to achieve what has been missed from this country for more than twenty years: peace.
I, like you, have struggled valiantly for a solution that would have us arrive at that lost, dreamed off state. Peace. I have fought, and won, more than most men. It has been my honor and pleasure to lead our armies in their efforts to gain independence and to keep it and to have our beloved Mexico take its rightful place among nations.
It has become clear that neither our original Constitution and the more recent attempt have been satisfactory or workable. And so, I am here today to speak on behalf of the present effort and give my full support to this process, these meetings, and to say that while we are still some ways from finishing our work our present effort shows great promise.”
Alfredo could almost hear the intake of breath across the room. It had been known that Santa Anna was participating in the convention, but some question has remained as to what role he would play. Alfredo himself had not been sure: of the various players who had joined him for dinner, Santa Anna had been the one who was likeliest to go back on his word for what he saw as his own good reasons. But instead, it seemed, he would again lead the way where others might hesitate.
“My fellow Mexicans, I urge you to convey your sincere efforts to drafting and then abiding by our agreements here. I and the other leaders of our brave soldiers tell you this: if we cannot get our own house in order, and soon, we will be in great peril. Fulfilling our promise as a nation demands it.”
Santa Anna surprised some observers by giving a speech backing the effort to form a new constitution that would replace the one he himself had been responsible for creating just months earlier.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Inez Gomez found herself, for the first time, with something meaningful to do.
It has started simply enough, and as usual, with a letter from her cousin. The capital was buzzing with the news that there was another constitutional convention. She had written back, and of course, written some of her friends and acquaintances, as one did with bigger news.
Then, the letters had started to discuss what they could do.
On one level, “what they could do” was nothing. They were all young 20 to 30 some year old women, some unmarried, some married and mothers, but all without power, without vote, without really, anything.
On another level, all they could do was everything: not just communicating with their men as some sort of “power behind the throne” or somesuch, but through the web of letters they had organized newspaper articles, protests, petitions by state governments. Charity events. The list went on.
She had never felt so alive.
One of her other cousins, Marta, had written to her telling her she should come visit her, that she had something she thought Inez could help with. Marta lived in Zacatecas, which was some distance north. She had brought along her keeper and taken a carriage. It had been a rough trip, but two weeks later she had been there, and now she was here, in a house, waiting to see what she would find.
Marta was guiding her through the house, which had a faint air of dust: no one had lived here for at least a few months. This was not surprising, the town had been thoroughly sacked only a year ago and was still recovering. Marta mentioned that her family had been traveling at the time and mentioned, in the matter of fact way people who witness horrors do, that they would probably be dead if they had been there.
“Sorry about the place” Marta said “but when we found the documents, we weren’t sure what they were, but we were pretty sure we’d want to hide them, so we put them here. Belongs to us, you see, but we haven’t used it since..well, you know.”
Inez did not really know, but she nodded anyway. She was not too surprised that Marta wasn’t sure what the documents were. She could obviously read, but knowing how to read letters from a cousin and knowing how to read and understand documents you found somewhere were two different things, and she had a reputation among her cousins now as some sort of scholar, which she supposed was fair.
Finally they arrived in a quiet little basement, and in the basement were a series of chests. Marta opened one and a pile of papers was revealed. Inez begin to read. Letters, reports, the list went on. Time passed.
Then her eyes grew wider. She read the document again. And again.
“Marta.”
Marta, who was napping in a somewhat broken down chair nearby, startled awake. “Hmm?”
“We’re going to want to talk to our friends with the printing press.”
The interesting thing about the scandal which broke out in May of 1837 was that it involved facts that people in general had known already. It was widely known that Santa Anna had ordered his troops into Zacatecas and that they had sacked the city for days after seizing it in 1835. The documents found and reprinted by newspapers friendly to the Liberals did not so much reveal something as bring it back into fresh memory during a moment in which the nation was grappling again with how to govern itself.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“I think” Valentin gazed up at the sky as if to seek guidance there “that we are finally nearing the end here.”
Alfredo knocked back his wine and chuckled. “I hope so. We’ve been working for, what, a year and a half?”
Valentin snorted. “Something like that, yes. Well, it’s been time well spent. While we’ve been talking, we haven’t been shooting. Maybe when this is finally over we’ll be so used to actually talking with each other and reaching acceptable compromises that we’ll just keep doing it. Stranger things have happened. ”
“Acceptable compromise? I’m surprised to hear that, coming from you.”
Valentin grimaced. “Yes, I know. I’m not at all happy about the church being written into the constitution. But at least we got a Federal structure back.”
Alfredo nodded. The last round of amendments had been voted on and the Constitution was now due to be voted on by the convention as a whole, after, of course, some more meetings and horse trading. But the shape of the thing was pretty clear now. A Federal system like the Liberal constitution of 1824, with a Bicameral legislature, but with the voting franchise limited by land ownership like the Conservative constitution of 1835. A strong executive that kept the compromise that had been made in the 1824 constitution with a single President, but with a powerful Legislature. States could govern themselves to some extent, but the Federal Congress could nullify laws passed at the state level and the army was controlled solely by the President as the national executive. Roman Catholicism as the official state sanctioned religion like the Conservatives wanted. Both states and the Federal government had the power to tax, but states could not tax imports or exports from other states in Mexico. Most crucially, a system to amend the constitution that, while not easy, was not too difficult either, requiring a simple majority vote by both houses and ratification by the legislature of 3/5ths of the states.
“The long term fight over the vote is going to be annoying.”
Valentin nodded. “We needed federalism. The last couple of years proved that. But we had to give conservatives what they wanted on the church and on the franchise to get it. Still, I’m optimistic that we’ll expand the franchise in time.”
He looked up at the stairs as they sat on Alfredo’s balcony. “What they don’t understand is that you can see the wind blowing, there is going to be change. We are the ones who can see that, admit it. So when the times comes, we’ll be the ones seizing the future. Assuming no one goes back to old habits, of course. But one way or another, we are the ones who are actually ready to meet the future.”
The draft of the proposed constitution was finalized after more than a year and a half of debates and meetings between the various political parties in Mexico.
Later that year, the Constitution was passed by the voting members of the convention and ratified by 3/5ths of the states. The new constitution of 1838 represented an evolution of the compromises made in the earlier 1824 constitution as well as new compromises given the problems Mexico had developed over the first 15 years of independence.
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Phew! That was a a though update to figure out, which is part of the delay. Thanks as always for your patience and continued reading.
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Wow. So Santa Ana got in trouble for being a politician, eh? A bit further down the road toward an honest world, perhaps?
Or maybe not. We'll see how this goes.
Thank you!
Rensslaer
A bit further down the road toward an honest world, perhaps? Or maybe not. We'll see how this goes.
Thank you!
Rensslaer
An unexpected but welcome wave of rational thought seems to have hit the political and military elites. If the new constitution holds, Mexico may actually stand a chance at fending off the Americans to the north without having to beg other Great Powers for protection.
Marta and Inez again prove to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, and to possess a non negligible political acumen. Their male peers would do well not to snub them, they could be great assets to the new Mexico being forged.
Marta and Inez again prove to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, and to possess a non negligible political acumen. Their male peers would do well not to snub them, they could be great assets to the new Mexico being forged.
Imagine if we ended up with a Mexican NA, with the USA a puppet, or even better, part of the Mexican nation.
Through the balloting in the recent YAYA's, discovered this AAR. Great to have the perspective of someone from Mexico City who is playing Mexico in this game. Really like the characters and the writing style displayed here. Sorry I did not have time to read through it all before the voting deadline passed.
Amazing to think what would have happened if Mexico had been able to beat the Tejanos (or the Texicans if you like that term better). But what would be even more amazing is this imagined dinner party. If Mexican leaders had been able to do this and quell their infighting, there would truly be a different nation now. This has always been the issue. (Plus a huge revolution to start the 20th Century to attempt to fix all of these issues left unsettled in the 19th Century. And the failure in the Mexican-American War.... We can just start to count the major obstacles put in front of Mexico through history.)
Chapter 2: Blood & Tears - Cutting the Cake is a great chapter. So well put together and the handling of the historical figures is superb.
Also, love the hints about taxation in the last chapter posted. If Mexico had figured out a better tax system in the 19th Century it surely would have fixed a lot. Of course, 21st Century hindsight helps there.
It is truly sad that U.S. politics continues to see Mexico the way it does referenced in the quote above.
So that raises the obvious question: will there be subsequent chapters for us to find out?
We all have real-life commitments and it is understandable that those come first, so trying not to prod here. However, guessing there is still an audience for this very rich AAR. Definitely would read more if this one makes a return.
Amazing to think what would have happened if Mexico had been able to beat the Tejanos (or the Texicans if you like that term better). But what would be even more amazing is this imagined dinner party. If Mexican leaders had been able to do this and quell their infighting, there would truly be a different nation now. This has always been the issue. (Plus a huge revolution to start the 20th Century to attempt to fix all of these issues left unsettled in the 19th Century. And the failure in the Mexican-American War.... We can just start to count the major obstacles put in front of Mexico through history.)
Chapter 2: Blood & Tears - Cutting the Cake is a great chapter. So well put together and the handling of the historical figures is superb.
Also, love the hints about taxation in the last chapter posted. If Mexico had figured out a better tax system in the 19th Century it surely would have fixed a lot. Of course, 21st Century hindsight helps there.
It is truly sad that U.S. politics continues to see Mexico the way it does referenced in the quote above.
The very optimistic title of this AAR points in a different direction. What if the three powers of North America had found a different way to share the continent and manifest destiny had been avoided?Imagine if we ended up with a Mexican NA, with the USA a puppet, or even better, part of the Mexican nation.
So that raises the obvious question: will there be subsequent chapters for us to find out?
We all have real-life commitments and it is understandable that those come first, so trying not to prod here. However, guessing there is still an audience for this very rich AAR. Definitely would read more if this one makes a return.
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