Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, the friar who translated Rousseau’s The Social Contract, was one of the most important members of the Latin American Enlightenment. His sermons linking St. Thomas with the Mexican legend of Quetzalcoatl, and the Virgin of Guadalupe with Tonantzin, attempted to ground the religion of New Spain in indigenous polytheism and led to his expulsion. Eventually returning to Mexico, he was elected to its first congress. Along with writer/politicians Domingo Sarmiento and Andrés Bello, de Mier is noted not only for his fresh intellectual perspectives, but also for his role as founding father of the new Mexican political structure after its independence from Spain. This program traces his life through excerpts from his writings. (Spanish with English subtitles, 26 minutes)