The Mexican-American War gets little respect on either side of
the border, but two Mexican history buffs want to use a major battle
to teach important lessons.
On the grassy, windswept hill where soldiers from north and south
fought one of the most important battles of the Mexican-American
War, the crunch and grind of a sand and gravel mine drown out any
attempt at contemplation.
Some wars get no respect. And this one, which Ulysses S. Grant
called the most "wicked war" ever waged, has never been held in
particularly high esteem. How many Arizonans condemning illegal
border crossers want to recall that their homes sit on former
Mexican territory? How many Mexicans want to remember the lost
battle here, which they should have won?
And yet, there are lessons here in these hills -- for Mexico and
the United States -- that two Mexican history buffs are determined
to teach. They have spent years collecting artifacts and are now
pushing to preserve the site as historic, though not many seem to
care. Their three-room museum in nearby Saltillo, opened in 2006, is
usually as lonely as a funeral home between wakes, a tangible
reminder of the complicated past many Americans and Mexicans have
"People don't know what happened here," said Reinaldo Rodriguez,
68, a retired government planner as tall and thin as a torch,
pointing to a diorama of the battle in the museum, which sits behind
the Saltillo cathedral. "People don't know that this was the place
where the Irish died alongside the Mexicans."
The San Patricios, or St. Patrick's Brigade, they called
themselves. They were all recent immigrants to the United States who
had joined the American Army, then defected to fight with Mexico.
Most were in fact Irish. Some came from Germany or England, and
historians say they fled in disgust, fed up with one of the United
States' ugliest flaws: prejudice.
"One reason why so many people deserted was that they were
Catholic and they felt like they were being mistreated by their
Protestant officers," said Amy S. Greenberg, a historian at
Pennsylvania State University.
At the time, in the 1840s, many Americans saw Roman Catholics as
an invading horde and a threat to American values. Hatred and
discrimination were widespread, and in the military, historians
note, rank reinforced bigotry: A majority of the full-time Army
regulars were poor immigrants and Catholics, while officers and part-
time volunteers were overwhelmingly wealthier white Protestants.
The Mexican-American War also had little to do with principle --
historians on both sides of the border describe it as little more
than a land grab -- and desertion was a problem even before the
conflict started. As troops massed on the American side of the Rio
Grande in 1845, scores of soldiers, including many immigrants,
disappeared across the border.
The San Patricios, whose numbers grew into the hundreds, became
the most famous deserters. They made their first appearance as a
unit in September 1846 at the Battle of Monterrey. "No one had ever
seen people from another country, especially Europeans, come and
help the Mexican Army," Mr. Rodriguez said. And they were tough,
"They became the most effective fighting force that Mexico had,
largely because they knew how to use the armaments of the U.S.
Army," said Professor Greenberg, author of "A Wicked War: Polk,
Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico." They had a
special talent for capturing American cannons, she added, "and for
using them against the Americans incredibly effectively."
Here at the battle of La Angostura, which the Americans call the
Battle of Buena Vista, the San Patricios occupied a spot near the
base of the hillside, just below where the gravel mine can now be