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81 4 Creating Heroes MEXICO, 1867–1920  On an August evening in 1871 nine men gathered at the famous Concordia restaurant in Mexico City. As officers in Mexico’s army, some of these gentlemen had helped free their nation from French occupation in 1867. More important, these veteran soldiers were distinguished alumni of the Military College and, twenty-four years earlier, had defended their school at Chapultepec Castle against a North American assault. Defying an evacuation order, approximately fifty cadets fought a desperate battle on the heights above the Mexican capital that left a handful of their comrades dead. Now some of the survivors proposed they form the Asociación del Colegio Militar to reunite fellow students who had served during the war with the United States. Like North American veterans, they pledged to support charitable activities and also committed to organizing a commemoration of their doomed defense at the Battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. Finally, they drafted a petition to President Benito Juárez asking him to make the anniversaries of the two battles national holidays.1 Early attempts to remember Mexico’s loss in the War of North American Intervention had intermittent support from the government and an ambiguous reception from the public. Continued political instability during the 1850s, coupled with a humiliating French occupation the following decade, forced the war further into the recesses of Mexico’s collective memory. In 1867, however, Mexican republicans overthrew Emperor Maximilian and drove his French regime from the country. A new wave of nationalism swept the country as citizens once again enjoyed a period of reform and progress. Mexicans were ready to revisit their war with the United States and find new meaning and symbolism in their heroic defeat. After considering the association ’s proposal to declare the two patriotic holidays, President Juárez compromised and made September 13, the anniversary of the Battle of Chapultepec , an official day of mourning in the republic. While not creating a second 82 Chapter 4 holiday to commemorate the Battle of Molino del Rey, Juárez nonetheless promised to support personally any ceremony the association would hold on that date.2 The five decades following the French Intervention witnessed a profound change in how Mexicans remembered their war with the United States. After years of suppression and neglect, veterans revived the memory of the conflict by staging commemorations honoring battle anniversaries. Politicians took note of the renewed public interest in the war and adopted these military ceremonies to promote the civic virtues of obedience and self-sacrifice. They also blended the religious and secular fervor of the people to create civic rites which challenged the power of the Catholic Church. During the years between 1867 and 1920 Mexico’s rulers enlisted memory in the service of building their modern nation-state.3 In spite of Mexico’s profound anguish over losing the war, memory found some early expressions. Immediately after the North American occupation of Mexico City in 1847 local authorities declared August 20 a day of remembrance for the Battle of Churubusco. The annual tribute to the fallen members of the National Guard at the convent was so threatening to Antonio López de Santa Anna that he outlawed it upon his return to power in 1853. Mexicans revived the tradition in 1856, although its status during the French Intervention remains unclear. With the restoration of the republic in 1867 Mexicans were again eager to remember the martyrs of the battle. While the early commemorations of Churubusco had been a battleground between radical and moderate factions in the postwar government, subsequent celebrations promoted a nonideological nationalism built on love of country and obedience to authority.4 The ceremonies at Churubusco also reflected the growing secularization of Mexican society. Before being utilized by the military as a fortress, Churubusco had been a colonial-era convent. The annual commemorations, however , transformed the religious complex into a civic shrine where the martyrs of the war replaced the revered saints of the church. When the government secularized many Roman Catholic holdings during the reform movement of the 1850s and 1860s, land speculators made two attempts to confiscate properties belonging to the convent. In both cases Presidents Juárez and Sebasti án Lerdo de Tejada exempted the building in order to preserve this important relic of Mexican history. Churubusco thus superseded the spiritual world and become a monument of civic devotion. The appropriation of ritual authority challenged the power of the Catholic clergy and helped Mexico...

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