It is painful how Spanish academic historiography has tried to forget about this liberal revolutionary, and it is not to be proud of how it has continued in this oblivion, probably due to mere inertia, the historical memory of the Basques.

Recently I have been able to read a report in Basque and by a Basque historian, in which, when talking about the wars of independence in the Americas, the Basque descendants of Creoles are mentioned, as well as some Basques. But as for Mexico, nothing of our Xabier Mina; in fact, I have read the following in it: Since 1810, “in ten years no one in Mexico will dare to demand independence again, until 1821.” In one fell swoop, forgetting all the sessions from the first session of Hidalgo (1810) to the Plan of Iguala (1821). These are the times that happened to Xabier Mina, from his entry into Mexico in April 1817 until November of the same year, when he was shot...

Almost forgotten Xabier Mina, yes, among us, but more present in the collective memory of Mexico, as the primary hero of its wars of independence. In 1823 he was officially named Hero of Mexico and buried in the Metropolitan Cathedral. Later, during the construction of the Column of Independence (1921), his image was placed in the marble monument, surrounded by the four of Hidalgo along with Morelos, Guerrero and Bravo. They bear the name of Mina, as the historian Manuel Ortuño, who knows Mexico well, tells us, “Tens of places, squares, avenues, sports centers, population centers, a ship of the Mexican Army, the international airport of Tamaulipas and those of other major cities, such as Minatitlan (Veracruz).” In the Basque Country, there we have the fallen birthplace of Otano... a round symbol. I was a little relieved to go to the website of Noain Town Hall and see there a brief but interesting note about Xabier Mina, with a list of bibliographies provided. The effort of Editorial Chalaparta is also plausible, as it republished in 2003 the title of 1932 by the Mexican historian and narrator Martín Luis Guzmán: Mina the Mozo. Hero of Navarra. On the other hand, Manuel Ortuño has been researching Xabier Mina for several years, which has been the result of a violent book and in a sixth, Vida de Mina. In Guerrillero, liberal, insurgent (2008) you can read the rewriting of all the previous books, elegantly narrated and updated.

An exceptional entrepreneur

We don’t have a Xabier Mina theorist at all, but as his career – that of a clear and open-minded activist – progressed, he was dominated by strong liberal ideas, intimately linked to freedom, which he maintained with the strongest fidelity.

This eldest son of the wealthiest house in Otano, meaning he was a small landowner, was able to study in Pamplona between the ages of 11 and 17, and then in Zaragoza, in mathematics and philosophy. At the age of 14-15, he met his first military-political master, a man of the morning, former Colonel Areizaga, an ultramontano supporter of Fernando in the disputes of the Spanish court. And it is precisely when Fernando VII.ak received the crown for the first time that we have news of Mina in Zaragoza, leading a balance of students, burning the portrait of the enlightened Godoy and replacing Fernando, on March 23, 1808. In early May, Goya perpetuated the abdications of Bayonne that occurred three days after the Madrid uprising, when Napoleon won the Bourbon crown for his brother Joseph. Areizaga wanted to go to Bayonne with Fernando, but found out about Napoleon’s game in Irun, and from there he committed himself to the war against the invasion. The ex-colonel summoned Xabier Mina to the Dawns to propose his first missions.

That’s how Mina started her career when she was 19 years old. He was sent as a spy by Areizaga to the Basque Country in the summer of 1808, in the midst of the movements and plans of the imperial troops, taking advantage of the young man’s Basque language. He then walked through the Aragonese countryside always at Areizaga’s doorstep until, in August 1809, when he was only 20 years old, he organized the body of volunteer guerrillas called Corsairs Terrestrial de Navarra, which would give him such prestige. So large that when the French arrested him in Labiano in March 1810, his uncle Francisco Espoz named the body formed by Javier the Division of Mina, later the Division of Navarre, as well as endowing himself with the surname Mina for history: Francisco Espoz Ilundain became Francisco Espoz and Mina. It has been interpreted by many as the abduction of surnames, although Espozé says in his memoirs that he did so in honor of his nephew, to indicate to the French that the courage of Xabier Mina was still alive.

Liberal University of Vincennes

We can't talk about the liberal Xabier Mina yet. Fighting for the King, his homeland and his religion during those eight months, he recruited 1,800 volunteers at the highest moments, but he did not stop short in answering the French interrogators and said that it would have been 20,000 if he had had had more weapons.

Bayonne, Paris, and Vincennes would be his prisons, always with Napoleon's orders on their necks to carry out the death penalty without delay. In any case, he remained alive – in the words of his uncle Espoz, he had obtained from the Spanish Viceroyalty Board a document stating that he was a military man, so that the French would consider him a prisoner of war and not a criminal – and met with his future liberal master at Vincennes: French General Victor Fanneau de Lahorie, shot in October 1812 for conspiring against Napoleon. From Lahorie Mina learned the liberal concept of freedom, so different from the freedoms or privileges of the Ancien Régime. “First of all, freedom” was Lahore’s favorite motto.

In April 1814, Mina obtained her freedom when Napoleon was defeated and she left for Upper Navarre. In Lácar (Lower Navarre) he met his uncle Espozé, who was in charge of the Navarre Division of 11,000 soldiers. By then, without turning 25, “Mina had little to do with the brave guerrilla fighter who fell into the hands of the French, full of pure illusion,” says Manuel Ortuño. “He was a new man, modified by his general idea and illusion in favor of the homeland, which he had learned in his youth; now he had more rational, more solid, and more deeply constructed convictions, both morally and intellectually.” So when Fernando VII.ak repealed the Constitution of Cadiz, and after getting to know the Court of Madrid first hand with his uncle, he convinced him to take the fortress and the city of Pamplona, trying to force the king to put the Constitution back into effect. 1814.eko tried in September, but they failed because at the last moment the soldiers of Espoz did not follow their leader: The charisma of Mina’s uncle, while unflattering in his fight against Napoleon, did not seem to be enough to make his soldiers rise against Fernando. Both his nephew and his uncle had to flee to the absolutist French kingdom of Louis XVIII.aren.

From there began the new project of Mina to go to Mexico, with an interesting idea that later reminds us of the approach of Karl Marx who declared himself in favor of the independence of Ireland and Poland: that Mexican independence would facilitate the liberal revolution in the Metropolitan. This is what it said in the first Proclamation prepared during the trip to Mexico: “The tyrant obtained resources from the provinces of this part of the ocean to carry out his injustices, in which they also fought for freedom, and I did the cause of the Americans at that time.”

“The Triplets of Pain” in Mexico

Mina remained in London from the end of April 1815 to May 1816, where she prepared her Mexican career. He established close relations with the leader of the English opposition, Lord Holland, who was interested in the liberation of the Spanish colonies in the Americas. In August 1815, Lord Holland's secretary, Mina, described it as follows: “He’s a smart man, a rebel and a traitor in Spain who wants to go to Mexico.” The international powers that preferred the independence of the Spanish colonies of the Americas – especially the United States and England, although always in secret – had placed most of their

hopes in Mexico, in the military and political leadership of José María Morelos. Morelos, the successor of Miguel Hidalgo who created the war of independence in Mexico, had organized the Congress of Chipalcingo since September 1813, but it was clear that he would need external military assistance if he were to win. The pain was observed for this by several English and American agents.

He left England on May 15, 1816 and arrived in New Orleans on June 30. He turned 27 the next day. During his own naval voyage and his stay in the United States he had to endure the intrigues of some friends, rebellions, betrayals and double games of Spanish spies. But he still did not know that Morelos had been shot and that the Congress of Chipalcingo had failed. As a result, he sought the help of Simón Bolívar in Haiti, with whom he met on October 13, 1816. Mina fascinated the Liberator and almost convinced him to accompany her to Mexico. In a letter, Bolivar says: “I still don’t know if the arrival of General Mina will change my plans [after the defeat of the expedition in Los Cayos, it refers to the project of the second]. I saw it yesterday and we spoke without folds, what he told me has awakened great expectations, this can affect my projects. I’m not entirely convinced.” He did

not convince her at last, but he went on and landed on the beaches of Mina and Soto de la Marina on April 21, 1817. From there, the Triurehune of Mina, among them some Basques who had accompanied him in the guerrillas of Navarre, moved towards the interior of Mexico until he came into contact with the guerrilla Torres. The hike from the coast to Guanajuato was epic: brilliant victories, weapons and supplies were won at the expense of the colonial troops.

The Mexican insurgent Torres, like so many others since the disappearance of Morelos, was in a serious crisis. He didn’t have a strategic plan if it wasn’t just about survival and achieving a unique leadership among the other guerrilla leaders. Thus, the fortresses were lost, and the last, that of Los Remedios, when the Viceroy was besieged and without hope, Mina proposed to him the conquest of the city of Guanajuato, hoping that the besiegers would lose the most solid source of supply. It was hard for Mina to convince Torres’ advisors and she went to take the city. Not with his usual officers –who defended the fortress of Los Remedios–, but with those given by Torres: of good reputation on horseback, but more ineffectual in pedestrian contracts, such as those that should have been proposed for the case. He entered the city with surprise on October 24, 1817, but after a six-hour session Mina had to order a retreat. In the evasion, he made these officers hear immense things: “If you had done your job, your soldiers would have done theirs, and we would have had Guanajuato in our hands. You are insignificant people for any man who fights for his cause.” And he licensed the troops.

He took refuge near the city, on the ranch of a liberal friend, El Venadito, who spent the night and was surprised by the royalist troops at dawn on October 27; as in Labiano in 1810 the alarm system of Mina failed. The Viceroy ordered an immediate execution and was finally killed on November 11 at the age of 28. Although he mentioned his respect for religion in numerous Mexican claims, he did not ask for recognition or offer it by his murderers. He was able to send a final letter in Basque, secretly, to his lifelong collaborator Pablo Erdozain, Los Remediosa, advising him “to remain firm for the cause, even if it is necessary to die”. He was executed on his knees and with his liver as a traitor, so that, despite his request, he could be shot standing and beforehand. Today in Mexico, no one wants to remember – except to curse – the Viceroy of Apodaka, while they have Mina, one of the greatest martyrs of their independence.