Yorkinos

Yorkinos, the York rite Masonic lodges. As Mexican national politics became increasingly polarized in 1825, leading figures such as José Miguel Ramos Arizpe, Ignacio Esteva, Manuel Gómez Pedraza, Vicente Guerrero, and Lorenzo de Zavala formed Masonic lodges independent of the Scottish Escoceses. The U.S. minister Joel R. Poinsett agreed to obtain formal charters from the Grand Masonic Temple in New York, thus formally establishing the York rite lodges or yorkinos. Although the yorkinos eventually became the "populist" party, initially, the group included many moderates. Within a short time, radicals took control of the lodges, which spread rapidly throughout the nation. In 1827, the discovery of a conspiracy by the Franciscan Joaquín Arenas to return Spain to power resulted in the passage of laws expelling the Spaniards and to state and national electoral victories by radical yorkinos. This, in turn, led to an unsuccessful revolt by the escoceses and to riots in December 1828 which forced president-elect Gómez Pedraza to flee the country and elevated Guerrero to the presidency. After 1828 the lodges were banned; Mexican Masonry reorganized in 1830 as the Rito Nacional Mexicano, but intervened in politics less directly.

See alsoMasonic Orders .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Luis J. Zalce y Rodríguez, Apuntes para la historia de la masonería en México, 2 vols. (1950).

Virginia Guedea, "Las sociedades secretas durante el movi-miento de independencia," in The Independence of Mexico and the Creation of the New Nation, edited by Jaime E. Rodríguez O. (1989), pp 45-62.

Additional Bibliography

Anna, Timothy E. Forging Mexico: 1821–1835. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.

Solares Robles, Ma Laura. Una revolución pacífica: Biografía política de Manuel Gómez Pedraza, 1789–1851. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora: Acervo Diplomático de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, 1996.

Solís, Ruth and Carlos María de Bustamante. Las sociedades secretas en el primer gobierno republicano, 1824–1828: según el Diario Histórico de C.M. de Bustamente. Mexico City: ASBE, 1997.

                                   Jaime E. RodrÍguez O.