Justo Sierra O'Reilly

Justo Sierra O'Reilly (Tixcacal-Tuyú; 1814–1861) was a Mexican novelist and historian, the father of Mexican author and political figure Justo Sierra Méndez.

In September of that year, he went to the United States as a negotiator on behalf of his father-in-law's government, to request U.S. military aid against the Maya rebels (who seemed, at that moment, poised to take over the peninsula), and to offer the possibility of U.S. annexation of Yucatán in exchange.

His attempts at diplomacy on behalf of the quasi-independent peninsula went nowhere, and by the time he returned home in 1848, Mexico had lost the northern half of its territory to the U.S. but had also solved its differences with Yucatán, and Sierra O'Reilly found himself with an unemployed father-in-law and no government position for himself.

The chapters of his popular melodramatic novel, La Hija del Judío, a historical novel in the style of Sir Walter Scott about the star-crossed love of the daughter of a Jewish merchant in colonial Mexico, were published in installments in El Fénix, a newspaper that he founded in Campeche.

Published years later in book form, the novel sold well all over Latin America.