ABSTRACT
The criollos wanted their own privileged place in the order of things, but it seemed that more and more doors were being closed to them. It was these criollos, rather than the Amerindians, African Mexicans, and mestizos that the Crown should have watched out for but generally didn't. The criollos took it up and transformed it into a cultural institution, the Guadalupana, a Marianist cult of profound implications. The criollo advocates of radical change, inspired by the French Revolution and especially by the North American movement for independence, were nonetheless a mixed bag. The more radical criollos, who became the liberals after independence, followed Enlightenment ideals more closely. The criollos under Agustin de Iturbide previously of the Royal Army, struck a bargain with the remaining peasant revolutionaries. The criollos had inherited power with little or no experience in self-government. Military leaders exercised control however they desired.
