Gabriel J. de Yermo

In 1808, to celebrate the saint day of his wife, 200 slaves belonging to the Hacienda de Temixco were freed.

[citation needed] News of the abdication of the Spanish king, Ferdinand VII, in favor of Napoleon was received in Mexico on July 14, 1808.

On July 19, 1808, members of the Cabildo (city council) of Mexico City Juan Francisco Azcárate y Ledesma and Francisco Primo de Verdad y Ramos presented a plan to form a junta—that is, a provisional, autonomous government—of New Spain, with Viceroy Iturrigaray at its head.

On September 1, 1808, Melchor de Talamantes, a Peruvian priest and the intellectual leader of the Criollo party, delivered two tracts to the Cabildo, in favor of separation from Spain and of the convoking of a Mexican congress.

Yermo was supported by the rich Spanish merchants, by the oidores Aguirre and Bataller, by the archbishop, and by the judges of the Inquisition.