"An anti-national disorder" : Antonio Canales and northeastern Mexico, 1836-1852

This study explores regionalism in northeastern Mexico from 1836 to 1852. During the years of the early Republic, Tamaulipas and its neighboring departments sought to resist control by the central government and preserve local autonomy. This program culminated in a separatist revolt from 1838 to 1840 known as the "Republic of the Rio Grande," which proposed that a confederation of northeastern states secede from Mexico and ally with Texas. Antonio Canales, a cacique from the northreastern Mexican frontier who led the uprising, exemplified many of the ambivalent attitudes in the northeast toward the Mexico City administration during this period. Seeking to protect the interests of the northeastern frontier, Canales, at one time, headed the "Rio Grande" separatist revolt, and, later, led the guerrilla resistance to the United States' invasion of the northeast (1846-48). The experience of invasion augured a new era in the northeast, in which the idea of parochial separatism was abandoned, and a greater sense of national identity took holdLatin American Studie