[Two] heroes whose defeat was reversed by time were the Mexicans Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and Jose Maria Morelos. Hidalgo, who till the age of fifty was a peaceable rural priest, pealed the bells of the church of Dolores one fine day to summon the Indians to fight for their freedom: "Will you stir yourselves to the task of recovering from the hated Spaniards the lands robbed from your ancestors 300 years ago?" He raised the standard of the Indian Virgin of Guadalupe and before six weeks were out 80,000 men were following him, armed with machetes, pikes, slings, and bows and arrows. The revolutionary priest put an end to tribute and divided up the lands of Guadalajara; he decreed freedom for the slaves and led his forces toward Mexico City. He was finally executed after a military defeat and is said to have left a testament of passionate repentance.
The revolution soon found another leader, however, the priest Jose Maria Morelos: "You must regard as enemies all the rich, the nobles, and high-ranking officials . . ." His movement—combining Indian insurgency and social revolution—came to control a large part of Mexico before he too was defeated and shot. As one U.S. senator wrote, the independence of Mexico, six years later, "turned out to be a typically Hispanic family affair between European and American-born members... a political fight within the dominating social class." The encomienda serf became a peon and the encomendero a hacienda owner.