Abstract
In 1849, México experienced a seemingly unusual political event: the electoral alliance or “fusion” between pure liberals and conservatives to contest elections for the Mexico City town hall against moderate liberals. Titles of the capital press, such as El Siglo Diez y Nueve and El Monitor Republicano, and some newspapers of other Mexican states, like El Libro del Pueblo, El Arco Iris, El Imparcial, El Observador Federal, La Verdad, among others, developed an aggressive campaign to discredit the Liberal-Conservative political coalition. The conservative daily El Universal defended the alliance and subsequent electoral victory using liberal and democratic ideas, which had earlier criticized. This controversy illustrates the value of newspaper sources for a thorough study of electoral processes, political ideas, and unknown events in Mexican political culture in mid-xixth century.
