Francisco Javier Mina was born in
Otao,
Navarre, to Juan Mina, a wealthy
farmer, and Maria Larrea. Mina studied Latin, mathematics, and humanities at the local
seminary while living in
Pamplona with his uncle and aunt, Clemente and Simona Espoz. At the age of 18, he left Otago to continue his education in
Zaragoza, where he began studying law at the university. During the
Peninsular War in early 1808, Spain was under occupation by French troops, prompting Mina to flee to the hills and forests of his native region. There he formed a
guerrilla force of ten men. Under his leadership, the force grew to over 200 men. Mina launched
raids on the French and succeeded in capturing arms, ammunition, and horses. These additional resources allowed Mina to expand his small army to over 1,200 men and 150 mounted cavalries. He began to engage in full-scale military actions to find new strength in these numbers. Mina was captured in March 1810 and sent to
Vincennes prison in France. He was finally released in April 1814, concurrent with the collapse of
Napoleon's government. On returning to Spain he was made a
colonel of the Navarre
Hussars by King
Ferdinand VII. However, Mina did not sympathize with the king, because he had abolished the democratic government created under the
Constitution of 1812. After a planned
coup d'état against the king failed, Mina fled to France; from
Bayona he traveled to England where he met Servando Teresa de Mier.
Servando Teresa de Mier recruited him to fight the
absolute monarchy of Ferdinand VII in his colonies. [The article about de Mier says that Mina was the one doing the convincing.] A few English lords made Mina's voyage to America possible. In May 1816, 20
Spanish officers and an
Italian and
English crew left
Liverpool. After arriving in Baltimore in the United States, Mina met with a group of Spanish American agents there to organize the expedition.
Manuel Torres, Miguel Santamaria and
José Rafael Revenga helped organize funding from a group of Baltimore merchants, while
Pedro Gual acted as his press agent. In September Mina sailed on two ships. First, Mina and his crew sailed from Baltimore to
Puerto Principe,
Haiti, and from Puerto Principe to
Galveston,
New Spain, where they arrived November 24. He then moved to what is now the nation of Mexico. In April 1817, Mina took a force of about 250 men southward in ships provided by the French privateer,
Louis-Michel Aury. They arrived at
Soto la Marina,
Tamaulipas. He planned to join the southern Mexican revolutionaries led by
Guadalupe Victoria and others. Mina fully engaged in the
struggle for Mexican independence. On May 24, 1817, Mina left his base with 300 men, moving to several villages on his way to Fuerte del Sombrero, a fortification defended by
Pedro Moreno. Mina published a letter stating that he was fighting the King's tyranny, not the
Spanish Empire. On August 1, Field Marshal Pascual Liñán arrived with a powerful army at the fort. Mina escaped to Fuerte de Los Remedios to help José Antonio Torres. In October 1817, Mina was captured and
Pedro Moreno was killed, at
El Venadito ranch. The prisoner was presented to Colonel Francisco de Orrantia, who took him to
Silao. Eventually, Mina was sent to the Liñán. On November 11, 1817, Mina was executed by a firing squad on a hill close to the Fuerte de Los Remedios region of the Sierra de Pénjamo, by the Zaragoza Battalion. He was 28 years old. ==Legacy==