Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire

Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire
Original copy of the Declaration
Ratified	September 28, 1821
Location	National Archives
Author(s)	Juan José Espinosa de los Monteros
Signatories	33 members of the board and Agustín de Iturbide
Purpose	To declare independence from Spanish Empire

The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire (Spanish: Acta de Independencia del Imperio Mexicano), is the document by which the Mexican Empire declared independence from the Spanish Empire. The founding document of the Mexican nation was drafted in the National Palace in Mexico City on September 28, 1821, by Juan José Espinosa de los Monteros, secretary of the Provisional Governmental Board.

Three copies of the act were drafted. One copy remained in the Chamber of Deputies until it was destroyed in the fire of the Chamber in 1909. The other copy was stolen and sold in 1830. That copy was recovered by Maximilian I of Mexico and after his execution it was taken out of the country by Agustín Fischer, confessor of the former emperor.

Later, the Spanish antiquarian Gabriel Sánchez sold the act to the historian Joaquín García Icazbalceta who retained it and subsequently bequeathed it to his son Luis García Pimentel. García Pimentel sold the act to Florencio Gavito and he stipulated in his will that after his death, the act should be given to the president Adolfo López Mateos. On November 14, 1961, the result of two opinions were given to the president by which it was found that the act is one of the two originals drafted in 1821. On November 21, Florencio Gavito Jáuregui gave the document to President López Mateos.

The third copy was owned by the Ruiz de Velasco family for 128 years. This document was passed down through generations from Nicolás Bravo. On August 22, 1987, Pedro Ruiz de Velasco gave the document as a gift to Mexico. José Francisco Ruiz Massieu accepted this gift and secured this historical document in the Museo Historico de Acapulco Fuerte de San Diego in Acapulco in the State of Guerrero.

The document, 20½ inches wide and 28¾ high, is currently kept at the General Archive of the Nation.