By Francis Peyret
On April 1, Ricardo Sheffield presented his most recent book, «The Hidalgo Route: 7 Rules to Govern and Transform,» in the Miguel Malo auditorium of the El Nigromante Cultural Center. Sheffield himself says that for almost forty years, he has carefully investigated the life and work of Miguel Hidalgo to understand his very complex personality and to bring the life lessons that the independent priest can offer to present Mexicans.
Miguel Hidalgo remains an important figure for Mexicans more than two hundred years after his death. Unfortunately, for a long time, mainly during the last century, writers turned him into a sort of perfect representation of the father of the country. With access to more information, historians have recreated a more complete and complex character story. History is no longer a flat and unipolar story. We are discovering historical figures as personalities with light and dark moments, and they become more interesting people.
In the prologue to the book, Claudia Sheinbuam points out that recovering memory and rethinking history help to understand the present and illuminate the future. This is why a contribution like Sheffield’s is always an opportunity. After celebrating 200 years of independence in 2010, an unofficial version of the history of independence came to light, and its protagonists emerged. With the change of government (2018), more reflections began to appear on the moments that have marked Mexico’s history forcefully, such as Independence, the Reformation, and the Mexican Revolution.
Without going into the book’s content, Sheffield gave the audience a very entertaining presentation using colloquial language. He spoke about his childhood and the situations that aroused his interest in letters and theater and, decades later, the pandemic. Amid books and notes, Sheffield dedicated himself to writing a book he had wished to write throughout his life. The author takes the audience to Mexico a little over 200 years ago, a country that was not yet a country. In a particular way, he describes the time and its characters. He tells of Miguel Hidalgo, who continues to be a controversial figure with his marked successes and failures: a man of arms and letters, yet also a priest and liberal bohemian, but undoubtedly a hero of the country.
Ricardo Sheffield is the current Federal Consumer Attorney.
