Pedro Hinojosa

Pedro Hinojosa de la Garza Falcón (31 January 1822, Matamoros, Tamaulipas - 5 March 1903, Matamoros) was a Mexican politician and military general who fought in the Mexican–American War, the Reform War, and in the French intervention in Mexico.[1] In addition, Hinojosa was governor of Durango, Nuevo Leon, and Chihuahua, and served as Secretary of War and Navy.[2]

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Hinojosa and the second or maternal family name is De la Garza Falcón.

Pedro Hinojosa
Secretary of War and Navy
In office 1 December 1884 – 20 March 1896
President	Porfirio Díaz
Preceded by	Francisco Naranjo
Succeeded by	Felipe Berriozábal
In office 22 December 1861 – 2 May 1862
President	Benito Juárez
Preceded by	Ignacio Zaragoza
Succeeded by	Miguel Blanco Múzquiz
Personal details
Born	(1822-01-31)31 January 1822 Villa del Refugio, Mexico
Died	5 March 1903(1903-03-05) (aged 81) Mexico City, Mexico
Political party	Liberal

Military career

Pedro Hinojosa was born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas to Ramón Hinojosa and his wife Mamerta de la Garza Falcón. Hinojosa eventually enlisted in the National Guard of Tamaulipas at the age of 18.[3] In Tamaulipas, he fought the Texan rebels and the Apache and Comanche tribes, who maintained determined against the government. In 1848, during the Mexican–American War, Hinojosa rose through the ranks and became a lieutenant. He continued to defend Tamaulipas through its national guard until 1854, the year he was elected as a lieutenant colonel due to his efforts in protecting local territories from the Texan military and the native tribes.[4]

Reform War

In 1854, Hinojosa adhered to the Plan of Ayutla against Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna joining the national guard of Tamaulipas, and having ascended to the position of colonel in the triumph of the revolution, became a permanent formal member of the military. After the coup by Felix Zuloaga he remained loyal to the government of Benito Juarez and fought with the liberal band during the Reform War, fighting in the Batalla de Lomas Largas, in the siege of Monterrey, where he was made a prisoner by the conservatives. He later escaped and fought in the attack on Zacatecas under the orders of General Juan Zuazua, as well as the attacks on San Luis Potosí and Guadalajara in 1858. For this last actions, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in November 1858.

Hinojosa continued fighting the conservatives in the Bajio area and later in northern Mexico. In May 1859 he was defeated in La Flor, Durango by the conservative leader Domingo Cajén. In this battle Hinojosa suffered a leg injury and due to this he walked with a limp the rest of his life. After this battle he traveled to the state of Chihuahua where he assumed leadership of the garrison substituting for Luis Terrazes who had gone to battle the Tulices rebels. The Tulices rebels were conservative forces from Durango who were under the direction of Cajén. After the triumph of the liberals and nomination to federal elections, Hinojosa was elected a general delegate for the Federal Electoral District I of Chihuahua to the II Legislature of 1863. Hinojosa was to move to Mexico City to carry out this office from May 1861 to May 1863, but while traveling through the city of Durango and due to the illness of the governor of that state, General Jose Maria Patoni, the Congress of Durango named Hinojosa governor, a position in which he served from July to August 1861.

French intervention in Mexico

Hinojosa thereafter fulfilled the office of federal delegate until December 22, 1861, when president Benito Juarez named him Secretary of War and Navy. His responsibilities included initiating the preparations for defending the county from French intervention. Hinojosa fulfilled this post until May 2, 1862, which was 3 days before the Mexican victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla.

Hinojosa moved on to active service having at his charge several different military bodies. He participated in the defense of the city of Puebla de Zaragoza which was besieged by the French troops and had to surrender in 1863, falling prisoner to the invaders. He was able to escape when he was being transported to Veracruz and he headed north to join the Juarez forces. During the rift between the Nuevo Leon chief Santiago Vidaurri and Benito Juarez, Hinojosa briefly took Vidaurri's side but he soon reconsidered his decision and reaffirmed his loyalty to Juarez, escorting Juarez's family to what was then the Texas territory. To combat the influence of Vidaurri, in August 15, 1864, Juarez declared the separation of the states of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon and designated Hinojosa as the Governor of Nuevo Leon until December 1864. Hinojosa was then given the leadership of the republican troops in Tamaulipas and together with Mariano Escobedo they victoriously attacked the imperialist garrison in the port of Matamoros.

Rebellions of La Noria and Tuxtepec

After the republican victory, Hinojosa stayed in the military permanently. In 1871 he joined the uprising in favor of Porfirio Díaz pursuing the Plan of La Noria against Benito Juarez, in which he was defeated and taken prisoner in Saltillo. He was able to escape and later was given amnesty by the new president Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada. Hinojosa again joined an uprising in favor of Diaz and the Plan of Tuxtepec, fighting in Matamoros, la Huasteca and the port of Tuxpam, and therefore contributing to Diaz's victory.

Diaz named Hinojosa military commander of the state of Chihuahua on June 4, 1877 and governor on June 13 of the same year with the goal of ending a conflict between the head of the pro-Diaz Chihuahuan forces Jose Eligio Muñoz and the head of the Chihuahuan federal forces Juan B. Caamaño. Hinojosa remained in this post until August 14, 1878 at which time he turned over the governorship to his constitutionally elected successor Angel Trias Ochoa. Hinojosa's governorship included an unprecedented action in which he was arrested and imprisoned under the orders of the head of the Iturbide camp, Jose Gonzalez Salas, without respecting Hinojosa's constitutional authority as governor. The arrest was due to a criminal complaint filed by the journalist Tomas Cordero Zuza who opposed Hinojosa and whom Hinojosa had struck on the head when he ran into Zuza in the Plaza Hidalgo in the city of Chihuahua. Hinojosa remained in prison until he was granted a federal appeal, which was followed by a trial in which he was found innocent.

Secretary of War and Navy

After completing his term as governor of the state of Chihuahua, Hinojosa took control of the military command of Chihuahua until 1878 at which time he was named the head of the injured body of the military. He was later elected federal delegate to the XII Legislature for the state of Hidalgo from 1884 to 1886. However, on December 1, 1884 he was named Secretary of War and Navy by President Porfirio Díaz. He remained in this post for 12 years until March 20, 1896 at which time he resigned due to his health. He went on to serve as the president of the Supreme Court of Military Justice for more than a year until he finally retired from the military.

Hinojosa died in Mexico City on May 5, 1903.

References

1. Thompson, Jerry D. (2007). Cortina: defending the Mexican name in Texas. Texas A&M University Press. p. 332.
2. Cisneros Young, Patricia (2007). South Texas Tales: Stories My Father Told Me. Tate Publishing. p. 171.
3. "La Ronda de las Generaciones". Humanistas Mexicanos. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
4. Bauman, Richard (1995). Folklore and Culture on TheTexas-Mexican Border. University of Texas Press. p. 317.