Traitors or Defenders of the Patria Chica? The Contra-guerillas of Manuel Dominguez and the Mexican American War, 1847–48

Few figures in Mexican history have been more excoriated than Manuel Dominguez and his companeros in the Mexican Spy Company.  Emerging out of the chaos of the Mexican American War (1846-48), the Company was constituted by Dominguez, a well-known highwayman, and his associates, who were hired by the United States army to serve as spies, couriers, and guerilla fighters.  Mexicans at the time, and subsequently, regarded this group as bandits and traitors to the homeland, who pursued their own interests instead of the preservation of the patria--Mexico.  The members of The Spy Company have entered into Mexican history and the popular mind as the epitome of treason and abomination.  Virtually no histories have suggested an alternative, particularly that they were struggling for their patria chica--Puebla.

Despite recent studies that have established that the mid-nineteenth century in Mexico was rife with internal conflicts at the regional and local levels, as well as with interests in Mexico City, Manuel Dominguez and his contra-guerilleros continue to be seen simply as traitors motivated by greed and totally lacking in patriotism.  New historical evidence ferreted out of local and national archives, however, suggests that Dominguez and his men saw their participation in the Mexican-American war in a different light, namely as a struggle to secure basic economic security for themselves, and others like them, and reduce exploitation by local, regional, and national elites.  Drawing on the scholarship on banditry, as well as the literature on popular political participation in nineteenth century Latin America, this study analyzes individual cases of contra-guerilleros to demonstrate that, among other factors, long-term turbulent relations with Pueblan and Mexican authorities, together with the political position of rural Puebla in relation to regional and national economic interests, played a significant role in determining why Dominguez and others joined The Spy Company.