Yes, the San Patricios, they're honoured each year in the Cámara and there is a ceremony in the Zócalo ... each estado has at least one village named after them i think, and there are Calles and Avenidas San Patricio all over ... lots of long-term ties with Ireland, it is no coincidence that Salinas de Gortari hides out there ... speaking of O'Donuhues, the last virrey was clearly of irish blood, named O'Donojú, it was he who signed for Spain the treaties of Córdoba, one of the last steps to independence, he chose to stay and is honoured for it.
It works the other way too - in the last justifiable war of the Allies, México was very much onside ... look up Escuadron 201 some time ... most of her military action was homeguard, defending the Caribe, the Gulf and Baja California coasts, because of very limited means at the time ... this changed those areas radically, there was very little settlement in BCS or coastal Campeche or QR before that, no roads to those areas
It changed much more the position of the chicano in the occupied north - for a hundred years before the GI bill he could not begin to buy his own house nor obtain any sort of education, but after voluntarily enlisting in the US forces and then winning medals beyond his proportion of population, and for this getting relatively equal treatment following the war from the federal government, his status was elevated onto the road to the level playing field ... there were also many mexicano nationals in the US forces then, quite a number of them for instance trained as bomber crew at Brownsville, Texas ... i know a man who claims he was one of them, and he may have been, but he's been known to embellish a story [has three wives minimum, in different estados] [and avoids them all] [and speaks eight languages, i have seen him conversing in japanese with apparent ease, when the president of France or Japan comes to view the maya ruins, he's head of the escort crew ... so, ya never know, anything is possible] [but i digress]
'But if Britain had handled the Colonial unrest more adroitly, one can imagine an entirely different scenario where Canada and New England, together with British naval support, had combined to crush the southern slave-holding FOs much earlier in our history.'
Interesting idea, yes ... the same roots-up forces in support of the rights of man were simultaneously building in Britain and the colonies - all the british colonies, on every continent - and let us not forget, in Britain as well ... Thomas Paine for instance was fresh off the boat from the auld country, that didn't matter ... it was in 1776 that Smith of Kirkcaldy first published his Wealth of Nations, just one more facet of a great movement of human thought ... all english speakers pronounced at the time with what we might today call a british accent [except for yorkshiremen of course, but that's not really 'speaking', is it] ... it was largely accidental that the thirteen colonies first organised themselves, they had lucked out in landing on a fantastically rich part of the planet on which the indigenous had been conveniently decimated by european diseases since the days of Colón .... it was perhaps less of an accident that they chose violent means with which to do so, in lieu of the tendency to parliamentary processes of the mother country and the colonies remaining 'loyal', this trait seems to have developed early on and continues to this day, as evidenced by among other things the open access to firearms enjoyed by any nutcase who wants one .... But no question that Whitehall handled the situation poorly, of course the third George was a few logs short of a load, and had way too much influence on policy .... there come along in few years the Reform Act, then Victoria, then Disraeli, etc - had the thirteen chosen words and patience over blood and theft they could perhaps have influenced more positive change earlier, who's to know, but the 'what ifs' do make interesting speculation ... as for the northern of the thirteen being less bloody-minded than the southern, well i dunno, they did seem to be the firstest with the mostest in the war between the states, and those were northern republicans exacting extreme tribute from the south following their victory .... mmm, hard to say
Back to the irish - the loyalist in me is reminded of the fenians who tried to conquer and subjugate us to the US ... likely it is considered politically incorrect to use in these days the term 'black irish' so i won't, however these actions too are remembered, and quite vividly ... just goes to show, i guess eh .... well i mention logs above at least -g- .... cheers |
