Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Catholic priest, launched the Mexican
War of Independence with the issuing of his Grito de Dolores, or
“Cry of Dolores.” The revolutionary tract, so-named because it
was publicly read by Hidalgo in the town of Dolores, called for the
end of 300 years of Spanish rule in Mexico, redistribution of land
and racial equality. Thousands of Indians and mestizos flocked to Hidalgo’s banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and soon the peasant
army was on the march to Mexico City.

Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla
y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811)