Fiestas santanistas: la celebración de Santa Anna en la villa de Xalapa, 1821-1855

This article offers a detailed study of the parties given to Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna in his native city of Xalapa, within an analytical frame that takes into account: 1)A typology of Hispanoamerican leadership in the first half of the 19th century, and 2) From an anthropological perspective, the importance such parties had in order to maintain in leaders powers. The article focuses on the people's ready disposition to encourage and celebrate powerful leaders as Santa Anna within a context of breakdown and agitation, such as that of 1808. It also shows the ways by which leaders were able to keep their privileged positions, and highlights the political and cultural reverberations of the ritual. The study of the multiple Santa Anna parties celebrated in Xalapa depicts how Santa Anna was able to become, in his native town and in the light of his countrymen, the nation's saviour.