El difícil camino hacia la Independencia: los desafíos de la emancipación política y del compromiso periodístico en México

Abstract

On the occasion of the bicentenary of the Mexican Declaration of Independence in 1821, this article aims to examine the extent to which political and social processes, the gradual emergence of a public space and the increasingly dynamic development of the press interacted in the run-up to this event. The study reveals that in the course of the formation of a public opinion in the sense of Habermas, many periodicals saw themselves as instruments of resistance against Spanish rule. It becomes clear that the struggle for freedom of the press was a particularly important concern of editors and publishers, as was their involvement in nation-building. During this process, a number of national myths emerged that were intended to help mask the massive socio-political aporias and social dislocations. The article also reveals that even before 1821 a struggle for leadership in opinion-building between conservative and liberal periodicals had begun, in which Iturbide wanted to intervene by bringing the press into line. But this measure also contributed to his eventual failure, because the censorship ordered by Iturbide and the attempts to prevent the development of a polyphonically structured press landscape did not meet with the approval of the Mexican public. His political opponents, it becomes clear, were thus offered another argument for his removal.

Keywords

• war of independence
• mexican newspapers
• mexican press
• public space
• freedom of the press
• nation-building