By Luis Felipe Rodríguez
After El Pípila’s heroic actions at the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in 1810, possibly carried out to protect his family from reprisals by the Spaniards, he and his family moved to San Miguel el Grande (now San Miguel de Allende). There, he bought a small house and some land.
Shortly thereafter, in the courtyard of the San Pedro barracks, Father Miguel Hidalgo appointed El Pípila a captain in consideration of the services he had rendered in the insurgents’ cause. Without his intervention in burning down the door to the Alhóndiga in Guanajuato, the fortress could not have been taken so quickly. El Pípila was assigned to the Fourth Infantry Company, Hidalgo’s personal escort battalion.
On October 10 of 1810, Hidalgo and his army, including El Pípila, left Guanajuato. They passed through many towns, and finally reached Valladolid (now Morelia) on October 17, where the residents welcomed them with open arms. The insurgents continued on toward Mexico City. At Monte de las Cruces, on October 30, they encountered the Royalists and engaged in battle, which they won. Then they headed for Querétaro, and once again engaged in battle with the Royalists at Aculco, but they were defeated. In Guadalajara they again suffered a defeat at the Calderón Bridge. At this point, Ignacio López Rayón was appointed head of the revolution, while the main leaders continued north towards the United States to acquire war supplies.
Regarding the death of El Pípila, the records are confusing and conflicting. One narrative claims that he remained with Rayón, and when the insurgent army was defeated near Aguascalientes, on May 3, 1811, El Pípila was killed.
However, this account could be wrong. The civil registry of San Miguel de Allende portrays a different story. In Book 3, page 274, record number 622 reads: “Martínez Juan José. In the city of Allende, on Sunday, July 26, 1863, Miguel Martínez stated that yesterday Juan José Martínez, eighty-one years old, died of colic pain. He was the son of Pedro Martínez and María Rufina Amaro, deceased. The deceased was the one who set fire to the door of the castle of Granaditas de Guanajuato in the year of Independence 1810, and was called “El Pípila.”
Who knows? Perhaps this individual simply shared the same name, or had appropriated it, and was posing as the hero of the Alhóndiga.
(Taken from: “El Pípila, Popular Independence Hero”, by Isauro Rionda Arreguín.)
