Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna and Pérez de Lebrón He was born in Mexico on February 21, 1794. A young captain of the Spanish army fights on the viceregal side and supports Iturbide once he seizes power and proclaims independence. He leads the uprising that ends the monarchical regime of Iturbide and opens the process that turns Mexico into a federal Republic. Antonio López becomes a strong representative of the country for about forty years. However, his presence in front of the power was quite irregular. He manages to reject an expedition sent by Spain with the intention of imposing a colonial regime.
Overthrow established governments and personally take over presidency of the Republic. He was a populist demagogue, who ruled with the anticlerical federalists but later joined the conservatives, centralists and Catholics with whom he shared affinities. Suppress the federal regime by unleashing the Texas rebellion with an extreme presence of Anglo-Saxon settlers. He attacked Texas with his army and faced the United States supporting the rebels but was imprisoned in San Jacinto and released after speaking with President Jackson. He loses his popularity but redeems himself by rejecting the invader in Veracruz. He stands as a dictator but is forced to leave the government due to his disastrous management. He returned from exile the following year after a conflict broke out between Mexico and the United States and, despite his inferiority, invades the Americans in Veracruz, Jalapa and Puebla. Sign the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo by which it loses half of its territory.
He goes back into exile but returns in 1853 to establish a conservative dictatorial politics overthrown by Juárez in 1855. He returns to Mexico without any political power on two occasions, the first as a result of the French occupation and the Empire of Maximilian and the last after the death of Juarez, to spend his last years poor, blind and forgotten by all citizens for its mismanagement and bellicose character. His last home in Mexico City was on Vergara Street, at number 14, he died on Thursday night of June 21, 1876 and was buried in the Panteón del Tepeyac, in Villa de Guadalupe-Hidalgo.