Lucas Alamán, Mexican politician and historian (d. 1853)
Lucas Ignacio Alamán y Escalada (Guanajuato, New Spain, October 18, 1792 – Mexico City, Mexico, June 2, 1853) was a Mexican scientist, conservative politician, historian, and writer. He came from an elite family and was well-traveled and highly educated. His personal experience in Guanajuato in 1810 of the violent attack on the granary (alhóndiga) by the followers of insurgent priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla dark-skinned followers was an incident that informed his already conservative and antidemocratic thought. He has been called the "arch-reactionary of the epoch...who sought to create a strong central government based on a close alliance of the army, the Church and the landed classes." Alamán was "undoubtedly the major political and intellectual figure of independent Mexico until his death in 1853 ... the guiding force of several administrations and an active promoter of economic development." However, his involvement in the judicial murder of insurgent general and Mexican President Vicente Guerrero "blackened his reputation to the end of his life and beyond."