Mariano Matamoros (14 Aug 1770 – 3 Feb 1814)

While not the best known name on the short list of Mexican military leaders, Matamoros certainly was remembered … if only vaguely … in a number of geographical names scattered around the map: Matamoros, Tamaulipas; Izucar de Matamors, Mexico; Matamoros, Coahuila; etc. 

His fame rests mostly of having defended Cuatla (now Cuatla de Matamoros,) from Royalist forces during the war of independence, breaking though the seige, only to be captured and summarily shot..

… which, the Royalists weren’t supposed to do. You see, Matamoros was not a military man, but a priest, entitled to a clerical trial. A product of the creole middle class, Mariano was born and raised in Mexico City. Like Hidalgo and Morelos, his pastoral duties as a country priest with a higher education, radicalized him, making him an early adherant of the call for independence. 

The early independence revolt went horribly wrong, with the original conspirators — Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama and Mariano’s heads ending up hanging from the Alhóndiga of Guanajuato’s walls with a very short time. Leaving Morelos, the cowboy turned priest turned general, to lead the war. Matamoros, city boy that he was, as a priest perhaps, became particularly close to Morelos, giving command of his own units and becoming — as an artillery officer — not an expert on canon law, but on cannon law. He led the break out from the 72 day seige of Cuatla, the army’s escape covered by the 12 year old cannoner Narcisso Menoza, on 12 May 1812. 

Promoted to General, Matamoros continued harrassing and wearing down Royalist forces for the next 21 months, until captured at the Balle of Puruarán (Michoacán) in January, and … ignoring his rights as a cleric to a religious trial, put up before a firing squad and shot… leaving him, as all great Latin American heros are… young, handsome, and dead. Or, at least with a couple town named for him.