Morelos of Mexico: Man With a Future

by Starr Jenkins

This novel presents in fictional scenes the life and works of Jose Maria Morelos, the second great leader of the first Mexican Revolution (1810-1821). The first leader was Hidalgo, a lesser character in this novel; and the third was Iturbide - also a character in the story - a royalist officer who later changed sides, completes the revolution, and became the first emperor of independent Mexico. Morelos is a great hero to the Mexican people and should be to us, for he was an early champion of North American Union under democracy. A poor mestizo (mixed Spanish-Indian), he was a mule-driver on the Acapulco-Veracruz trail in his youth in 1788. Having learned Latin, he became a student in San Nicolas College, Valladolid (now Morelia) and later attended seminary there. After seven years of schooling he became a priest for twelve years in the Tierra Caliente, the hot country in the lower elevations closer to the Pacific. There and in the mountains around Valladolid he became a lover, a father

202 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1996