Francisco Gonzalez Bocanegra Biography
Francisco Gonzalez Bocanegra. Poet and composer of the Mexican National Anthem. He was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. In 1827, the González family moved to the port of Cádiz, Spain.
In 1836, they returned to San Luis Potosí, Mexico, where Francisco spent time working in his father’s trading business.
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In 1846 he moved to Mexico City, began to publish his first poems, and became a member of the Lateran Academy.
Bocanegra also worked as a theater censor and was appointed director of the official newspaper. In 1850 he founded and served as president of the Hidalgo Grammar School.
In 1853, the president of Mexico, Antonio Lopez de Santa Annaheld a contest to compose the Mexican national anthem.
As the deadline for the submission approached, Bocanegra found that he was not motivated to participate.
While at the home of his cousin/girlfriend, Guadalupe González de Pino y Villalpando, Bocanegra found himself locked in a room with nothing more than a desk, paper, and pen.
His fiancée sternly informed him that she would not open the door until the poem was complete.
Bocanegra, suddenly inspired, completed the poem «Mexicanos, al Grito de Guerra» approximately 4 hours later and slipped it under the door.
His presentation was unanimously selected by the contest judges and Jaime Nunó’s musical composition titled «Dios y Libertad» was chosen to accompany Bocanegra’s lyrics.
National anthem
The complete song was called «Himno Nacional Mexicano» and was played for the first time on September 15, 1854 at the Santa Anna Theater, known as the National Theater.
The original poem consisted of 10 lines, but after the country’s defeat in the Mexican-American War, stanza IV was banned because it referred to Antonio López de Santa Anna, blamed for the defeat, and stanza VII referred to the first mexican emperor Agustin de Iturbidewho was exiled and executed.
Today only the chorus is sung at the beginning, between verses I, V, VI and X and at the end. Bocanegra married Guadalupe and had four daughters: Elisa, Guadalupe, Ángela, and María de la Luz.
A public employee until he was persecuted by the enemies of the administration he served in 1861, he had to take refuge at a friend’s house.
He died there and his remains were originally buried in the San Fernando Vault. In 1901 they were transferred to the Dolores Vault; in September 1932, they were placed for the first time in the Rotunda of Illustrious Men and, finally, in 1942 they were placed next to those of the composer Jaime Nunó.
BIRTH January 8, 1824, San Luis Potosí, Mexico DEATH: April 11, 1861 (at age 37), Mexico City, Cuauhtémoc District, Federal District, Mexico BURIAL. Dolores Civil Pantheon, Mexico City, Cuauhtémoc Delegation, Federal District, Mexico Cause of death: Typhus.
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