José María de Tornel y Mendívil (1795–1853) was a 19th-century creole (Mexican Spanish descent) Mexican army general and politician who greatly influenced Mexico’s political stage and the career of President Antonio López de Santa Anna.

Birth

José Maria Tornel y Mendívil was born March 1, 1795, in the town of Orizaba, Veracruz, New Spain to Julian Tornel, a prominent local businessman, and Manuela Jacinta Bernarda Mendívil Vidal.

Career

Tornel was prominent among the "santanistas" a group of politicians and officials who helped Santa Anna return to power frequently, despite defeats in the 1836 Texas Revolution and the 1846–48 Mexican–American War. Tornel advocated a federalist agenda in the 1820s. During that time, Tornel y Mendivil became Mexico's first president Guadalupe Victoria's right arm. 1813 was the year Tornel joined the insurgency. During the War of Independence he was taken prisoner and sentenced to demise. President Guadelupe Victoria (1824-1829) and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (1821) were soon to acquire Tornel as their private secretary. President Victoria named Tornel the Mexican ambassador to the United States in 1830. His mission was to inform Victoria on Americans' ambitions to take Texas. Tornel was a bitter enemy of American policies. He complained to the Jackson administration about its failure to honor Mexico’s laws prohibiting further migration of Americans to Texas. He also tried and failed to secure a firm boundary along the Sabine River. Thanks his reports, Victoria's government came victorious in the Fredonian Rebellion. Although Tornel supported federalism during the Victoria presidency, he changed his political views to support Santa Anna's reactionary dictatorship in the 1850s. Tornel helped orchestrate the Plan of Cuernavaca revolt in 1834. Tornel served as Minister of War, and helped plan the campaign that led to the Battle of the Alamo. He was the President of the Chamber of Deputies in 1828 and 1841. General Tornel’s descendants continue to live in Mexico City. A street is named after him in the San Miguel Chapultepec borough in Mexico City.

Works