Carlos María de Bustamante

Carlos María de Bustamante Merecilla
Portrait of Bustamante, circa 1836. Unknown artist.
Deputy of the Province of Mexico
In office 1813–1815
Personal details
Born	4 November 1774 Oaxaca, New Spain
Died	29 September 1848 Mexico City, Mexico
Occupation	Statesman, historian, journalist

Carlos María de Bustamante Merecilla (4 November 1774 – 29 September 1848) was a Mexican statesman, historian, journalist and a supporter of Mexican independence. His historical "work early initiated an important Mexican national tradition of searching out and publishing basic materials on the Indian past and its fate in the colonial period." His writings in the 1820s shifted "the antiquarian bias of creole patriotism...into the ideology of a national liberation movement."

Carlos María de Bustamante was born in the city of Oaxaca on 4 November 1774. In 1796 he took up the study of law, participated in the attempts to secure Mexico's independence from Spain, and, when that was finally achieved, opposed Agustín de Iturbide's designs to transform the newborn republic into a hereditary monarchy. Repeatedly imprisoned and banished, he was nevertheless appointed to important positions in the Government. The Mexican-American War of 1846-48 was a source of deep grief to him.

He founded the Mexican newspaper Diario de Mexico in 1805 in which he expressed their independence liberal ideas and because this, he went to jail many times. After the Cádiz constitution he founded the newspaper "El Juguetillo". In 1813 José María Morelos y Pavón named him as editor in the independence newspaper Correo Americano del Sur.

Carlos María de Bustamante become deputy for the Provincia de Mexico in the Congress of Chilpancingo where he wrote the inaugural speech for Morelos, which "declared that the insurgents were about to free Mexicans from the chains of serfdom imposed on them in 1521." Bustamante participated in the writing of first Mexican Constitution. He spend most of the time between 1815 and 1822 in jail. In 1822, after Mexican independence was achieved, Bustamente was elected deputy of Oaxaca.

His historical sketch of The Mexican-American War is a sad record of the decay and disintegration which afflicted Mexico at the time. He writes with the greatest frankness, and unsparingly, about the conduct of the war on the Mexican side. His autobiography Lo que se dice, y lo que se hace, 1833, published in 1833, is also valuable as a fragment of contemporary history.