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Santa Anna in Life and Legend

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Santa Anna in Life and Legend Santa Anna in Life and Legend Description The Benson Latin American Collection holds the handwritten memoirs of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. It also holds various other primary sources that add voices to Santa Anna’s questionable account of Mexico’s history. "Santa Anna in Life and Legend" presents a curated digital collection of such items. The exhibit includes a narrative that highlights a few of these collection items, in the context of four themes that recur in scholarship on Santa Anna. It also poses questions that invite viewers to contemplate his legacy, using the highlighted primary sources as a springboard for analysis. Through an interactive map component, viewers can browse all collection items in a temporal-geospatial context. The map presents each item at a relevant location and in connection to periods of Santa Anna's life. Date Range(s): 1808-1900 Country(ies): Mexico; United States of America; Cuba; Jamaica; Colombia Course Subject(s): Borderland Studies; Digital Scholarship; Latin American Studies; Mexican American & U.S. Latinx Studies; U.S. History: pre-1877; World Geography Studies; World History Studies Topic(s): Santa Anna, Antonio Lopé z de, 1794-1876; Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821); Texas Revolution (1835-1836); Mexican-American War (1846-1848); Pastry War (1838-1839) Document Type(s): Lithographs; Photographs; Maps; Drawings; Memoirs; Circulars; Letters; Juvenile Literature Language(s): English, Spanish Rights Statement Creator(s): Vanessa Garcia Hutchins, Digital Scholarship and Special Collections Intern (Fall 2020), LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections Date Created: 2020-12-04 Physical Repository: Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin The highlighted primary sources are in the public domain. Access to these materials is provided for educational and research use only. The exhibition text is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License ("Public License"). This license lets others share, remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as they credit the creators and license their new creations under the identical terms. Introduction Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (1794-1876) is a colossal figure in Mexico’s history. Mexicans remember him as a “vendepatria” (sellout) who lost over half of their nation’s territory to the United States.1 They condemned him after he became a brutally repressive dictator in the 1850s. 2 However, historians have noted that Santa Anna had a mixed reputation during a majority of his lifetime, and that he was “neither a diabolical dictator nor a benign selfless patriotic patriarch.”3 While scholarship on Santa Anna sheds light on his character in hindsight, what did his contemporaries make of him? Retrato Fotográfico de Antonio López de Santa Anna, Portrait Drawing of Antonio López de Santa Anna, circa 1840s. circa 1855. Santa Anna was arguably odd, and his public reception was multilayered.4 For example, he once held an extravagant funeral for his amputated leg. The ceremony reveals his eccentric character and also highlights how the public viewed him at different times in his career.5 Santa Anna lost his left leg when he put himself at the forefront of battle to defend Mexico against French intervention. Because of his military service and victories, several Mexicans admired him as a 1 Will Fowler, “Santa Anna and His Legacy,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Latin American History, (New York, NY: Oxford University Press USA, 2015): 1. 2 Samuel Manickam, “‘El Seductor De La Patria’: A Dialogic Response To The Historic Santa Anna,” Chasqui 39, no. 2 (November 1, 2010): 17-18. 3 Will Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), xxvi 4 Ibid 39. 5 Ibid 224. valorous patriot.6 However, at the time of the leg’s funeral, he had cult followers called “santanistas” that sycophantically humored him.7 His santanista following hints at Santa Anna’s corrupt, rather than valorous, nature; several Mexicans knew him “to repay those that backed him.”8 "Historical Vignettes of General Santa Anna. Part 2", Hesiquio Iriarte (lithographer), circa 1857. This print, entitled "Historical Vignettes of General Santa Anna. Part 2,” includes 20 scenes that illustrate a selection of events from Santa Anna’s life, including the 1842 ceremonial burial of his leg. The captions for each scene present declarative sentences or titles for the events. In what ways might this lithograph reveal the artist’s perspective on Santa Anna, in addition to facts? 6 Manickam, “‘El Seductor De La Patria’,” 17-18. 7 John Lynch, Caudillos in Spanish America, 1800-1850, (Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1992), 331. Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, 224. 8 Lynch, Caudillos in Spanish America, 331. Scholars argue that Santa Anna “was a puzzle to his contemporaries.”9 His legacy speaks to the timeless challenge of gauging our leaders’ intentions as we watch history in the making. This exhibit includes records that vary from praise to warnings about Santa Anna’s character, preceding the dictatorship that led almost all Mexicans to denounce him. It also addresses the complex history of Mexico’s first decades as an independent nation, which shapes how we understand Santa Anna today. Through a juxtaposition of primary sources and historical perspective, “Santa Anna in Life and Legend” invites the viewer to consider how the contexts of a given time can impact our perception of politics. 9 Ibid 335. Opportunism: Mexico’s Post-Colonial Politics Historians have argued that Santa Anna was loyal to himself above any political cause.10 During his lifetime, liberals sought egalitarianism,11 and recognition of Mexico’s indigenous past, while conservatives clinged to the classist legacy of Spanish rule. Yet there were more than two predominant ideologies within the chaotic first decades of Mexico’s independence. The nation faced a power vacuum once it was free of colonial leadership, and various factions emerged as Mexicans struggled to form a new governing system. Depending on which party was gaining power, Santa Anna was at different times a royalist, insurgent, monarchist, republican, federalist, centralist, liberal or conservative. He led six successful coups d'etat in the span of only 30 years, taking advantage of the reformist conflicts in his day.12 Mexico faced the challenge of developing a new order of power when it became free from Spanish colonial rule, after the War of Independence (1810-1821). Conflict over political systems would continue to present a challenge to Mexico for decades.13 This lithograph depicts one instance of domestic revolt from the year 1840. In opposition of centralism, Federalists occupied Mexico’s National Palace. Take a closer look at the groupings of soldiers and civilians in different areas of the palace. How does the scene show signs of chaos or control? What activities do you notice throughout the illustration? "Interior View of the National Palace of Mexico Occupied by the Federalists”, circa 1840s. Mexico’s War of Independence set the stage for Santa Anna’s “first step in his long odyssey of opportunism.”14 The war began shortly after a teenaged Santa Anna joined the royalist army in 1810. Having had little schooling and limited options, he became interested in military service 10 Lynch, Caudillos in Spanish America, 334. Manickam, “‘El Seductor De La Patria’,” 18. Joshua Simon, The Ideology of Creole Revolution: Imperialism and Independence in American and Latin American Political Thought, (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 148. 11Egalitarianism “favors equality of some sort: People should get the same, or be treated the same, or be treated as equals, in some respect.” “Egalitarianism,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, last modified Aprirl 24, 2013, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egalitarianism/ https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/. 12Will Fowler, “Dreams of Stability: Mexican Political Thought During the ‘Forgotten Years’. An Analysis of the Beliefs of the Creole Intelligentsia (1821-1853),” Bulletin of Latin American Research 14, no. 3 (September 1, 1995): 289-92. Simon, The Ideology of Creole Revolution, 148. 13 Ibid. 14 Lynch, Caudillos in Spanish America, 123. and rejected the commercial career that his parents wanted for him.15 Santa Anna was a criollo (Mexican-born Spaniard) and initially fought on the side of Spain against insurgents, who advocated for the welfare of indigenous peoples, mestizos, and other lower classes in Mexico.16 Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the insurgency leader, met opposition from a majority of criollos who feared his movement would delegitimize their wealth and status as land-owners. But Santa Anna and several other criollos switched sides in 1821, due to how Spain reinstated an absolute (rather than constitutional) monarchy that threatened their privileges.17 "Death of Priest Hidalgo and other Mexican Heroes in Chihuahua on July 3, 1811", Julio Michaud (lithographer) and Antoine Jean-Baptiste Thomas (lithographer), circa 1830s. This lithograph depicts the Spanish royalist army executing Miguel Hidalgo y Castillo, priest of the small town of Dolores and instigator of the independence movement, after capturing him at the Battle of Puente Calderon (1811).18 Several criollos served in the royalist army at the time and fought to quell the insurgents’ call for egalitarianism, in defense of their higher status and power.19 15 Ibid 316. 16 Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, 20-21. 17 Ibid 372. See also Simon, The Ideology of
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