Editing Freemasonry (section)

===Latin America===
{{Further information|Freemasonry in Latin America}}
The Spanish government outlawed Freemasonry in its overseas empire in the mid-18th century, and energetically enforced the ban. Nevertheless, many Freemasons were active in planning and plotting for independence.<ref>Miriam Erickson, "Don José Rossi y Rubí and Spanish Freemasonry in the Revolutionary Atlantic, 1785–1798." ''Latin Americanist'' 63.1 (2019): 25–47.</ref> Leaders with Freemason membership included Grand Master [[Francisco de Miranda]], [[José de San Martin]], [[Simón Bolivar]], [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], and many others.<ref>Karen Racine, "Freemasonry" in Michael S. Werner, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society, and Culture'' (Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997)  1:538–540.</ref> The movement was important after independence was achieved in the 1820s.<ref>Bogdan and Snoek, eds., ''Handbook of Freemasonry'' (2014) pp. 439–440.</ref> In [[Freemasonry in Brazil|Brazil]], many prominent men were Freemasons, and they played a leading role in the abolition of slavery.<ref>Renata Ribeiro Francisco, "Os heróis maçônicos na historiografia da abolição em São Paulo" [Masonic heroes in the historiography of abolition in São Paulo] ''História da Historiografia'' (2020), 13#34 pp. 271–302.</ref>

====Mexico====
Freemasons were leaders in liberalism and anti-clericalism in 19th and 20th-century Mexico. Members included numerous top leaders.<ref>Karen Racine, "Freemasonry" in Michael S. Werner, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Mexico'' (1997) 1:538–540.</ref> The Freemasons were divided regarding relations with the United States, with a pro-U.S. faction supported by the American ambassador [[Joel Poinsett]] known as the "Yorkinos".<ref>Lillian Estelle Fisher, "Early Masonry in Mexico (1806–1828)." ''Southwestern Historical Quarterly'' 42.3 (1939): 198–214. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30235836 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307181615/https://www.jstor.org/stable/30235836 |date=7 March 2023 }}</ref><ref>Watson Smith, "Influences from the United States on the Mexican Constitution of 1824." ''Arizona and the West'' 4.2 (1962): 113–126.</ref> According to historian Karen Racine, Freemasons in [[List of heads of state of Mexico|the presidency of Mexico]] included: [[Guadalupe Victoria]], [[Valentín Gómez Farías]], [[Antonio López de Santa Anna]], [[Benito Juárez]], [[Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada]], [[Porfirio Díaz]], [[Francisco I. Madero]], [[Venustiano Carranza]], [[Plutarco Elías Calles]], [[Lázaro Cárdenas]], [[Emilio Portes Gil]], [[Pascual Ortiz Rubio]], [[Abelardo L. Rodríguez]], and [[Miguel Alemán Valdés]].<ref>Racine, p. 1:540.</ref>