Jaime E. Rodríguez O. and the Constitution of Cádiz in Contemporary Historiography

Abstract

This article analyzes historiographical discussions relating to the reception and interpretation of the 1812 Spanish Constitution—the Constitution of Cádiz—in Spanish America, with a particular focus on the debates around the influence of Cádiz in Mexico after 1821. It argues that Jaime E. Rodríguez O. formed part of revisionist group of scholars who challenged early nationalist narratives surrounding independence and political ideologies in Mexico and Spanish America. This revisionist history argued that liberalism grew domestically in this region as part of the Spanish Enlightenment and exhibited more democratic sensibilities than its US or European counterparts. The article shows how this interpretation has been questioned by Latin American and postcolonial scholars in recent decades, who insist that nineteenth-century liberalism was undemocratic and exclusionary in all of its forms. It concludes by discussing the possible new paths that historiography could adopt in its study of political ideas in nineteenth-century Mexico.