ROBERT LAMBART HARVEY

Iturbide became a non-person in Mexico. His body was not removed to the great Independence Monument erected in 1925 with those of Hidalgo, Morelos, Matamoros, and Guerrero – all of whom had so signally failed to secure Mexico’s independence. The man who actually gave Mexico nationhood remains despised and obscure.

Those strutting, heroic figures who destroyed Spanish rule were, it seemed, unable themselves to rule for any significant period of time, or to build lasting institutions. Worse, the cult of personality that grew up around them served as a precedent for the two most serious evils that were to afflict Latin America until well into the late twentieth century – popular dictatorship and caudillismo, military rule – which alternated in many countries, and even sometimes merged, with doubly tragic results. Latin America’s underdevelopment since independence, particularly as compared with the United States, has been largely ascribed to such misgovernment.

Unity was the real key to the success of the United States. The constitution of 1787 was in many respects the imposition of a central national government upon the quarrelsome states... In a country so constituted, the weaknesses of one state were compensated for by the strengths of another.

Iturbide became a non-person in Mexico. His body was not removed to the great Independence Monument erected in 1925 with those of Hidalgo, Morelos, Matamoros, and Guerrero – all of whom had so signally failed to secure Mexico’s independence. The man who actually gave Mexico nationhood remains despised and obscure.

Those strutting, heroic figures who destroyed Spanish rule were, it seemed, unable themselves to rule for any significant period of time, or to build lasting institutions. Worse, the cult of personality that grew up around them served as a precedent for the two most serious evils that were to afflict Latin America until well into the late twentieth century – popular dictatorship and caudillismo, military rule – which alternated in many countries, and even sometimes merged, with doubly tragic results. Latin America’s underdevelopment since independence, particularly as compared with the United States, has been largely ascribed to such misgovernment.

Unity was the real key to the success of the United States. The constitution of 1787 was in many respects the imposition of a central national government upon the quarrelsome states... In a country so constituted, the weaknesses of one state were compensated for by the strengths of another.