Last modified: 2005-09-02 by juan manuel gabino villascán
Keywords: mexico | mina (francisco xavier) | moreno (pedro) | aury (louis michel) | matamoros (mariano) | guerrero (vicente) | guerrilla | independence |
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Francisco Xavier Mina's has no any flag for his own,
but his followers, most of them from the US, England,
France and Spain flew a flag combined all elements described
in the Pururán Decree (War flag). Nevertheless,
the inscription on the scroll
read "Independencia Mexicana. Año de 1811", instead of "1810".
In 1823, Fr. Servando Teresa de Mier
called for adopting this
flag as the National one, but the Republican Congress voted for
the Inturbide's.
Juan Manuel Gabino Villáscan, May , 2002.
I greatly enjoyed your very informative website, "The Flags of Florida
History". I am writing especially in regard to the entry you have
concerning
Gregor MacGregor's 1817 expedition to Amelia Island. I edit the Suffolk
County Historical Society Register, a publication of the Suffolk County
Historical Society in Riverhead NY. We have in our collections an account
of
the participation in that expedition by Harry Hunt of Sag Harbor NY,
written
by his granddaughter. The account says that after MacGregor left in
September 1817 until December of that year Amelia Island, Florida, was
under
the command of Louis Aury, a French privateer holding a commission from the
Republic of Mexico, and flew the Mexican flag. Hunt served as
Superintendant
of Public Works under Aury.
In 1817 the flag flown would not have been the current Mexican tricolor of
green/white/red. I do not have an adequate description of what flag Aury
would have flown, but it would probably have included red, white and blue,
and the Mexican Eagle-Snake-Cactus arms [see "Flags Through the Ages and
Across the World", Whitney Smith, McGraw-Hill, 1975, p.149].
Interestingly, by 1818 Aury was holding islands off the coast of Honduras
under commission of the United Provinces of Rio Plata, now Argentina, and
there is speculation that his use of that nations blue/white/blue
horizontal
triband flag led to the adoption of a similar flag by the Central American
Confederation, which in turn was the source of today's flags of Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica [ibid., p. 241].
Ned Smith, February 12, 2000
This is fascinating, but I think there may be a chronological problem.
My sources tell me that Mexico was not a Republic in 1817. After the
defeat of the first Mexican revolt in 1811 Spanish control was generally
restored (I don't know how completely). Mexico didn't become independent
until 1821 and was briefly an Empire. The republic was established only
in 1823.
James L. Woods, February 14, 2000.
According to the sources I consulted, after the leader of the
1810 revolt, Fr. Miguel Hidalgo,
was executed in 1811, the revolt was carried on by
Fr. Jose Maria Morelos y Pavón.
In one of the FTTAATW references in my original
post, Whitney Smith stated the Mexican revolutionary forces apparently
adopted a National flag on 14 July 1815 [p. 149].
After
Morelos' capture and
execution in 1815 the revolutionary forces became disorganized and
ineffective- but they were never completely eliminated.
At
Francisco Xavier Mina web-site there is specific reference to
Louis Aury. In 1816 he was appointed revolutionary governor and naval
commander at Galveston Island, Texas (then a Mexican province)- a fact also
alluded to in the document I cited in my original post. This webpage
describes some actions he was involved in the Spring of 1817, but nothing
specific is attributed to him for the Fall, so the alleged expedition
against Amelia Island, Florida, is perfectly plausible chronologically.
See also:
Mexican Revolution
TMTFR- the webpage also says that Aury flew a unique flag- an illustration
is given on the page- and also the
Venezuelan flag, by permission of that
republic.
The document stating that he flew the
Mexican (América mexicana) flag at Amelia
Island was written by the grandaughter of one of the expedition's
participants. Her sources came presumably from her grandfather, but we don't
have his originals. It is possible that, being a Yankee, he confused the
Venezuelan flag for the Mexican (América mexicana),
but he had been a merchant in the Caribbean
and thus had some familiarity with the area. Also, he was relatively high in
the command structure. IMHO, while this document cannot be accepted as
conclusive proof that Aury flew a Mexican (América mexicana) flag
in
Florida, the claim merits
some consideration, and there is nothing inherently implausible about it.
Right after posting this I did find this
website
(citing work in a scholarly
journal) which agreed that the flag of the Republic of Mexico did fly over
Amelia Island in 1817.
BTW, in my last post I did not describe the other flag attributed to Aury at
this
web site.
It had a red-bordered white field
with a green wreath above blue crossed sword & olive branch. I don't recall
that flag being mentioned on the list previously.
Edward Smith, February 14, 2000