The album 'San Patricio' by Ry Cooder and the Chieftains has been (ahem) instrumental in my understanding of colonialism and standover tactics all over the world. But this particular song is 'sideways' and also a more direct explanation of what happened in America's invasion of 1840's Mexico ...
Goes to show what goes down when you chuck a few Irishmen into the international diaspora. In West Australia it was the Fenians and the Catalpa incident. In America, it was the San Patricios.
"Heroes of Conscience."
ReplyDeleteA beautiful and yet terrible story that, I am ashamed to say, I knew nothing about until just now. Thanks Sarah.
It's a beauty, hey? It's a story that has been quieted for such a long time. Try to get hold of the album that I mentioned Cathy. Imagine an Irish/Mexican knees up. Lotsa lotsa dancing!
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Davis_Bradburn this guy was on the side of right, naturally pilloried, married a Contessa though.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Irish fighting here, most interesting, this blog http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/
Thanks Merc, I'll have a look.
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