Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez (21 February 1794 – 21 June 1876), often known as Santa Anna, was a Mexican general, politician, and caudillo who served as the 8th president of Mexico on multiple occasions between 1833 and 1855. He also served as vice president of Mexico from 1837 to 1839. He was a controversial and pivotal figure in Mexican politics during the 19th century, to the point that he has been called an "uncrowned monarch", and historians often refer to the three decades after Mexican independence as the "Age of Santa Anna".
Santa was in charge of the garrison at Veracruz at the time Mexico won independence in 1821. He would go on to play a notable role in the fall of the First Mexican Empire, the fall of the First Mexican Republic, the promulgation of the Constitution of 1835, the establishment of the Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Texas Revolution, the Pastry War, the promulgation of the Constitution of 1843, and the Mexican–American War.