Abstract

VELASCO GOMEZ, Ambrosio. Ibero-American Humanism and the Independence of Mexico. Lit. mex [online]. 2010, vol.21, n.1, pp.35-52. ISSN 2448-8216.

The article maintains and argues that the principal intellectual source of the independence movement in Mexico is derived from a humanistic and republican tradition which originated in the middle of the 16th century with the principal followers of the School of Salamanca in Mexico, such as fray Alonso de la Veracruz and Bartolomé de las Casas, who roundly rejected the legitimacy of the Conquest and the Spanish domination in America. From then on a tradition of thought develops which defends the right of those born in the Americas to be in charge of the government and above all to gradually consolidate a feeling of pride in American culture, including the prehispanic period, as opposed to European civilization. This line of interpretation is opposed to conceptions that give to republican French thought, North American or Spanish, or the European enlightenment in general, any determining influence in Independence.

Keywords : fray Alonso de la Veracruz; Bartolomé de las Casas; School of Salamanca; humanism; republicanism; Independence; iberoamericanism.

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