José María Morelos (Valladolid, September 30, 1765 - Ecatepec, December 22, 1815). He was a priest, Mexican insurgent, a patriot soldier and one of the protagonists of the second stage (1811-1815) of the Mexican war of Independence. -Member of the American National Supreme Board: August 19, 1811 - September 15, 1813. -Supreme Commander and Chief of Government of the Congress of Anáhuac: September 15, 1813 - October 24, 1814. -President of the Supreme Mexican Government: October 24, 1814 - November 5, 1815. He was a mestizo of a poor ancestry, cowboy and in 1790 entered in the San Nicolas College, thus controlled by Miguel Hidalgo (1753-1811), he ended the ecclesiastical career in 1795. In October 1810, once he was priest in Caracuaro, he joined Hidalgo in Indaparapeo, and was commissioned to carry the insurrection to the South of the country. From the very beginning, he showed his political and military capabilities and established the following measures in the territories that were occupied by him: the restitution of his lands to the peasants, exemption from the payment of taxes, slavery abolition and the return of the communal properties to indigenous peoples (October 1810). He organized a reduced army but disciplined formed by mestizos and mulattos peasants who were attracted by his program of social recognition. He defeated Francisco París (December, 1810 - January 1811) and took Chilpancingo (May 1811), Tixtla and Chilapa, and organized the province of Tecpan. On August 21, 1811 the Supreme National Board of America was created, whose members were: Ignacio López Rayón (1773-1832) (President) and José María Liceaga (1780-1818), José Sixto Verduzco (1770-1830) and José María Morelos. The greatest objection that Morelos put to this Junta, was the declared compliance of the authority of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII (1784-1833) (at that time, prisoner of Napoleon), obedience defended by Rayón as a measure of prudence and moderation. This was, therefore, the first nucleus of the insurgent Government, which attracted the sympathy of intellectuals and creoles who wished to establish a system of Juntas similar to the implanted in the provinces of Spain. At end of year, Morelos and his deputies, (Galeana, Ayala, Ávila, Trujano) owned part of Michoacán, Mexico, Oaxaca and Puebla, and kept the site of Acapulco, started in May. In 1812, he was besieged by Félix María Calleja (1753-1828) in Cuautla de Amilpas (February 18) and was able to elude the realist troops (May 2). He took Orizaba and Oaxaca (November, 1812) and in 1813, Acapulco (20 August), that is the reason why the insurgent movement obtained an important port with which communicated with the rest of America and European powers. In order to overcome the disagreements between the members of the Supreme Board of Zitacuaro, Morelos convened in Chilpancingo (September 14, 1813) a Congress, which gave him the executive power. He also made a provisional Constitution of independence. In the Congress, he presented his "Feeling of the Nation", in which summed up his political and social ideology. Later, the Congress declared the total independence of Mexico (November 6, 1813). At the same time, Morelos had deepened in his social programme, defending the dissolution of the latifundium (1813) that is why he was considered the first insurgent who formulated the statement of a liberal reform of the farming system. However, the military situation changed when he was named Viceroy Calleja, who was supported by the peninsula residents and creoles, fearful because of the revolutionary implications of the Morelos? movements. He was defeated in his attempt to take possession of Valladolid (December 23 ? 24, 1813), and later in Puruarán (January 5, 1814) he lost Oaxaca and Acapulco. He opted for reduce the defense of the Congress that proclaimed a Republican Constitution (October 22, 1814). Later, he was appointed head of the Government. In a shift from the Congress, he was captured by the royalists in Texmalaca (November 3, 1815). He was judged by a military court and by the Inquisition. Later, he was shot on December 22.