Mexico Culture: ex-Convento Churubusco - Part II Military Story

This post came about because of Reed's curiosity, research and photos. He remembers, for example, that Mexican streets, plazas and other public places are named after historic events and personages.

On a recent walk to the mercado just two blocks north of our apartment, the street name, Mártires Irlandeses, caught his attention. "Irish martyrs in Mexico?" he asked, looking at me quizzically.

The next street is Heroes de 47. Just a few blocks farther, the Metro Station at the corner of 20 de Agosto Street, is named General Anaya. At the other end of 20 de Agosto Street is the Museo de las Intervenciones (Museum of the Interventions). 

By now, my curiosity was piqued as well: What did these street names refer to? Irish martyrs in Mexico? 1847 is the year of the Mexican-American War, which Mexicans call the Intervention, but what is the significance of August 20th? Our visit to the Museum of the Interventions uncovered yet another many-layered Mexican story.

As we approached the Museum, this carved stone on the street corner caught our eye:

Captain John O'Reilly, Commander of Saint Patrick Battalion,  1847

The mystery deepens, but not for long. We soon discover that the Museum of the Interventions is housed in one wing of the ex-Convento de Churubusco, whose Spanish colonial architecture and gardens are described in an earlier post—Part I.

In a small plaza in front of the entrance, we come upon a monument that reads, in part,

"To the memory of the illustrious and brave Mexicans who fought in defense of their country and made the sacrifice of their lives in this very place, August 20, 1847." 

Mystery solved: The Convent is the site of the Battle of Churubusco during the Mexican-American War.

The convent (monastery) was founded in 1524, just three years after Cortés destroyed the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán. To all indigenous peoples of Mexico, Cortés made the same offer: Accept the Cross, or die by the Sword.  In practical terms: accept the Spanish king as the true king and representative of the One, True God, or face destruction.

The Spanish invasion of Mexico was a military campaign fought to gain total control of this new land, Nueva España, and its people on behalf of the Spanish king. As a military commander, Cortés sought to consolidate and protect his control of Mexico City, built atop the ruins of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán, on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco.

Causeway (straight, green line) built by Aztecs to gain land access from Tenochtitlán,
Aztec (or Mexica) capital situated on the large island (red-tinted shapes, center of the map) in middle of Lake Texcoco, runs straight to Huitzilopochco (orange-tinted shapes, southwest).

The map clarifies the strategic value of Huitzilopochco. Its location on the southern causeway enabled the town, established in the eleventh century A.D., to control access to the Aztec capital from the south. By constructing the Convento de Churubusco, Cortés, in turn, was able to control southern access to Mexico City. It is said that Churubusco is somehow the Spanish mispronunciation of Huitzilopochco.

As a point of interest, the curved, blue lines on the map represent dikes built by the Aztecs to keep brackish water from mingling with fresh, spring-fed waters surrounding their island capital. The dikes are another example of Mesoamerican engineering expertise.

Churubusco's strategic location proved to be important again some three hundred years after the Spanish Invasion and construction of the Convent in the town of Huitzilopochco.  

Battle of Churubusco, August 20, 1847

As part of U.S. President Polk's plan to take parts of Mexico by waging war, the U.S. invaded Veracruz, Mexico in March 1847. By August, U.S. forces were approaching Mexico City. On August 19, Mexican troops were defeated at Contreras, south of the city. They retreated to the convent in Churubusco to defend the main road—atop the ancient causeway!—that led straight to Mexico City, capital of the Republic of Mexico.

U.S. Battle Map for Churubusco

The settlement at the bottom of the map is Churubusco. Mexico City lies straight north, connected by a roadway that still follows the ancient Aztec causeway. In 1847, the road passed through the marshes that were all that remained of Lake Texcoco, after the Spanish had drained the lakes centuries earlier to prevent flooding and disease.

But the U.S. did not delay; instead, they pressed their attack against the Mexican troops the next day at the Convent of Churubusco and obtained their surrender.

Captain John O'Reilly commanded St. Patrick's Battalion,
composed mostly of Irish and other Catholic deserters
from U.S. Army opposed to the U.S. invasion of Mexico

After their defeat and capture, survivors of St. Patrick's Battalion were hung as traitors. Today they are honored in Mexico as Los Mártires Irlandeses de '47.

In plaza just outside convent,
statue honors General Pedro Maria Anaya
for his valient defense of Mexico during
the Battle of Churubusco.

Los Niños Heroes (The Boy Heroes)

Less than a month after the Battle of Churubusco, the U.S. attacked the Mexican military citadel, the Castle of Chapultepec, located on what were then the outskirts of Mexico City. Among Chapultepec's few defenders were teenage cadets who fought to the death. They are honored in Mexico as Los Niños Heroes.

U.S. General Winfield Scott (mounted on white horse)
enters the Zócalo, Mexico City's major plaza.
U.S. flag flies over Mexico's National Palace.

In mid-September, General Winfield Scott entered Mexico City and took control of the government.

Metro train departing General Anaya station

Today the ancient Aztec causeway, dominated by the Spanish Convent of Churubusco in the sixteenth century and captured three centuries later by U.S. forces in 1847, is the eight-lane Calzada de Tlapan, which runs not far from our home. As did its predecessors, it takes modern-day Mexicans to and from the heart of Mexico City. 

General Anaya Metrobus Station is a block from the ex-Convent of Churubusco, its gardens of paradise and its battlefield.

Museum of the Interventions 

Housed at the ex-Convent of Churubusco, the Museum of the Interventions relates the histories of Mexico's four major interventions.

The Pastry War (December 1838-March 1839): A French Pastry Chef claimed 600,000 pesos for damages to his shop ten years earlier—a claim that might have been ignored, except that Mexico had also defaulted on its debt to France, which predisposed the French king to send a fleet to blockade Mexican ports and seize Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. sent a schooner to assist the French with their blockade, which was lifted when the Mexicans promised to pay their debts, which they did in a timely manner.

Mexican-American War (1846-1848): President James Polk was determined to acquire California in order to assure U.S. access to seaports and trade on both oceans. Polk first sent an emissary to Mexico City to offer to buy the territory. When the Mexican government refused to sell, Polk determined to take the land by force.

Mexico had never accepted Texas independence after Texas's Rebellion against Mexico in 1836; thus, Mexicans were infuriated when in 1845 the U.S. annexed Texas. Using this unresolved dispute with Mexico as a pretext, Polk sent troops to the Rio Grande—disputed territory. When Mexico retaliated for this incursion, the U.S. declared war and invaded Mexico on three fronts:

• Northern Mexico was invaded from the North, by U.S. troops crossing the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo to Mexicans), 
• The Mexican Territory of Alta California was invaded from the East by troops arriving overland through New Mexico; and from the West by the U.S. Navy, which had been sent to the Pacific for this express purpose;
• Mexico was invaded from the East by Marines landing in Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico; subsequently, the U.S. Army under General Winfred Scott invaded Mexico through the port of Veracruz. The Battle of Churubusco occurred as part of this military campaign.

In the subsequent Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico was to lose 55% of its territory to the United States: all of the present-day states of California, Nevada and Utah; plus parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. 

French Intervention (1862-1868): Passage of the liberal Constitution of 1857 provoked a rebellion by conservative forces that led to the civil war known as the War of Reform. When the liberals won, conservative monarchists turned to Europe for assistance in reestablishing a monarchy in Mexico. Initially, Napoleon II, Emperor of France, sent a force to invade Mexico; subsequently, he sent the Hapsburg prince Maximilian to be installed as Emperor of Mexico. Under the leadership of Benito Juarez and others, the liberals eventually captured and executed Maximilian by firing squad.

Mexican Revolution (1910-1917): The U.S. intervened twice. In 1914 the U.S. sent a fleet to blockade the port of Veracruz to prevent delivery of German arms to the Mexican president. In 1916, in retaliation for a raid by Pancho Villa on Columbus, New Mexico, President Wilson sent Gen. John J. Pershing with 5,000 troops into Northern Mexico to capture Villa, who successfully evaded capture.

Grand Old ahuehuete Tree,
National Tree of Mexico

In the same plaza, not far from the monuments commemorating the Battle of Churubosco, stands this ahuehuete tree, a Montezuma cypress, sacred to the Mesoamericans and now the National Tree of Mexico. This grand, old tree stands tall against the elements—an encouraging and reassuring presence. 

Mesoamerican Culture: The Human Bond with Nature

Waking at sunrise one morning, I walked into the front room to check on the volcanoes Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatéptl. Checking the volcanoes has become my new morning ritual — akin to checking to see whether Mt. Rainier was 'out' when I lived in Seattle. On this day my curiosity was rewarded by seeing their outlines etched against the early morning sky.

Iztaccíhuatl (Sleeping Woman) reclines at the left. Her head nearly touches the left margin. A dip under her chin is followed by her breasts and folded arms, then her knees and finally her feet sticking up. Beyond her feet is a long, low ridge linking her to her warrior-suitor Popocatéptl (Smoking Mountain) at the right. At 17,167 ft. Iztaccíhuatl is the third highest mountain in Mexico. Popocatéptl's Sulphur plume is colored pink against the early morning light.

Here's a close up of Popocatéptl, don Gregorio, don Goyo.  

Standing guard over Iztaccihuatl is her unrequited lover, snow-capped Popocatéptl (Smoking Mountain) in all his glory! At 17,800 ft., Popocatéptl is the second highest mountain in Mexico and rises about 10,000 ft. above the Valley of Mexico (altitude: 7,000 ft.).  Photo courtesy of Reed

Like other agricultural peoples around the world, Mesoamerican culture regarded man as inextricably linked to the land, Mother Earth, and to the naturaleza (natural world). The geography of Mexico is such that early peoples were subjected to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes from the East (Caribbean) and cyclones from the West (Pacific Ocean), floods and drought.

It is little wonder, then, that vulnerability to the vicissitudes of nature gave rise to and reinforced a profound dependency on the seasonal arrival of las lluvias (the rains) to assure the corn crop. A widely-repeated dicho (saying) captures this traditional wisdom:

Sin maís no hay país (Without corn there is no country).

A short walk around the corner from our apartment yielded yet another discovery. Growing in a protected space in the middle of Escocia [Scotland] Street is a specimen of the national tree of Mexico, the Montezuma Cypress (Taxodium mucronatum).

This Montezuma Cypress grows practically in front of our neighborhood Tiendita de Abarrotes (Grocery Store).

The Montezuma Cypress occupies a unique place in Mexican cultural consciousness. These words, written recently to introduce a paper discussing Mexico's national tree, capture not only its symbolism, but its emotional power as well:

"Old Man of the Water...what would our country and our culture be without you; endearingly Mexican [emphasis in the original], you bury your roots in the depths of the soil in order to extract from it the vital essence that gives you life." 

The phrase 'vital essence' refers to the Mesoamerican concept of the Life-Force, believed to give life's energy not only to the natural world but to the seres humanos (human beings) who are its inhabitants. It is believed that water carries this Life-Force, as epitomized in this traditional dicho (saying):

El agua es vida  (Water is life).

In Mesoamerican culture, work was traditionally regarded with pleasure, even considered to be a privilege, because it enabled human beings to maintain a harmonious relationship with the land and with the natural world. A Purhépecha friend, relating stories of her childhood spent helping her father in their fields, expressed this pleasure when she observed,

"Those days in the fields were fiesta days; we were always exploring something."

Today, the Montezuma Cypress is harvested and used for wood beams and furniture, among other uses. Based on the testimony of my friend, it is reasonable to believe that today's artisan woodworkers maintain this ancient connection. Contemporary legends about how artisans approach their work support this view.

Water was sacred in the Mesoamerican cosmology; it was believed to carry the Life-Force to the natural world — plants, animals and man. Cypress trees generally require a lot of water; many times they grow in swamps.  But because of its adaptability to many of Mexico's different ecosystems, the Montezuma Cypress is found throughout Mexico — from sea level in Montemorelos, Nuevo León, to Mexico City at 7,000 ft.

The sacred role of water in the Mesoamerican cosmology draws our attention to the writer's use of the nahuatl (language of the Aztecs) word ahuehuete, which translates as 'Old Man of the Water'. It is probably not too much of a stretch to imagine that 'Old Man' is a veiled reference to the ancient water god. In any event, the writer's reference to it demonstrates the value accorded to the ancient meaning by contemporary Mexican cultural sensibility.

The Tule Tree is named for the town where it grows, Santa Maria de Tule, Oaxaca; it is probably the most famous Montezuma Cypress. Scientists estimate that it is more than 2,000 years old. With a diameter of 37.5 ft, 35 people holding hands can barely encircle it. It is said that five hundred people can be sheltered in the shade provided by the canopy of the Tule Tree.

Here is the classic photograph of the Tule Tree. With a 14-meter diameter and a circumference of more than 45 meters, encircling the leafy juniper requires more than 30 people holding hands, as shown in the image.

With the sacred ceiba tree (Tree of Life in Maya cosmology), the ahuehuete is an element of the natural world inextricably linked to Mexican culture stretching from prehispanic to modern times.

To the Aztecs, the combined shade of an āhuēhuētl (Montezuma Cypress) and a pōchōtl (Ceiba pentandra) metaphorically represented a ruler's authority. As a demonstration of the power and presence of government, the Aztecs planted Montezuma Cypress trees along important avenues traveled by their kings.

These magnificent trees are not uncommon in our new neighborhood of Coyoacán (Mexico City). Whenever we come upon one, we smile at each other — mutual recognition of the irrepressible vitality of the Life-Force.