Tornel and Santa Anna: The Writer and the Caudillo, Mexico 1795-1853 (review)

One of the central challenges to historians of early nineteenth-century Mexico is to explain the relationship between decades of national political instability and the continuity within the nation's ruling classes. Indeed, apart from a small number of dramatic executions--Miguel Hidalgo in 1811, José María Morelos in 1815, Agustín de Iturbide in 1824, and Vicente Guerrero in 1831--the vast majority of Mexico's political elite survived this disputatious era to participate in numerous governments, often in tenuous coalitions with putative enemies. Antonio López de Santa Anna stands as Mexico's quintessential political Lazarus, yet the era abounds with individuals periodically reduced to ignominy, only to return to power and prestige.

Will Fowler gamely engages this phenomenon in his book. Some may quibble that the title is a bit misleading, since the two figures mentioned do not share equal time in the text. In fact, this is a biography of José María Tornel (1795-1853), the first to appear in English of one of the most important political and literary figures of the era. Originally from the town of Orizaba, in the intendancy of Veracruz, as a teenager Tornel left for the capital to study at the prestigious Colegio de San Ildefonso, alma mater to a rising generation of Creole politicians and intellectuals who would shape post-Independence Mexico. Tornel abandoned his studies in 1812 to join the Independence movement. During the next nine years, he skirmished with royalist troops, was captured, escaped, and ultimately marched into Mexico City with Iturbide's Army of Three Guarantees.

Over the subsequent decades, Tornel served in myriad offices, including those of congressman, Federal District governor, and Minister of War. On several occasions, he received prominent mention as a potential presidential candidate. At the same time, Tornel emerged as one of the young nation's most esteemed writers. Through most of his career, he remained one of Santa Anna's most important advisers and propagandists. Like Santa Anna, Tornel endured periodic scorn and exile, but at his death in 1853, he was serving for the sixth time as Minister of War.

During his long public life, Tornel's political philosophy evolved from federalist to centralist, and from an ardent supporter of mass participation to a skeptic wary of calls to heed the will of the people. In this richly detailed work, Fowler ably connects this personal journey to the broader context of Mexican politics from the optimism of the mid-1820s to the despair of the 1840s. He avoids one of the greatest potential pitfalls awaiting biographers of the era, who might be tempted to reduce analysis of the state formation process to facile observations about personalities and ego clashes. To achieve a skillful balance that increases the reader's understanding both of the individual and his times, the author draws on an extensive knowledge of post-Independence Mexico's complexities, readily displayed in his numerous other books. Of particular interest in this work is the way in which Fowler helps us to understand santanismo, since Tornel served as an organizational and intellectual linchpin for the Veracruz caudillo. In his various incarnations as Minister of War, Tornel's tireless advocacy for his charges played a crucial role in cultivating support among significant sectors of the military. With the exception of a brief rift in the 1840s, Tornel remained loyal, even after Santa Anna's worst defeats. As his reward, each time Santa Anna's star rose, Tornel rose with him.

Tornel deployed a skillful pen as well. Like many of his contemporaries, he was a prolific writer. In fact, most of the materials used here are published sources: the memoirs, pamphlets, and newspaper articles in which the era's actors revisited time and again the twists and turns of their imbroglios. Fowler chooses not...