1812-2012. ¡VIVA LA PEPA! BICENTENNIAL OF THE SPANISH CONSTITUTION

The promulgation of the Constitution of 1812, oil painting by Salvador Viniegra (Museo de las Cortes de Cádiz).

The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly (Cortes Generales "General Courts") of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War. This constitution, one of the most liberal of its time, was effectively Spain's first (see Constitutions of Spain), given that the Bayonne Statute issued in 1808 under Joseph Bonaparte never went into effect. The 1812 Constitution established the principles of universal male suffrage, national sovereignty, constitutional monarchy and freedom of the press, and supported land reform and free enterprise.

Viva la Pepa! is the cry with which from the March 19, 1812 (Feast of St. Joseph) Spanish liberals proclaimed their adherence to the Constitution of Cadiz (proclaimed that day, and popularly known as La Pepa).

The great popularity that was the cry, its roundness and its ease of dissemination even in circumstances of political repression as those who arrived between 1814 and 1820 (absolute restoration of Ferdinand VII), and between 1823 and 1833 (reestablishment) made it perhaps the first political slogan of the contemporary age. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Constitution_of_1812