translated from Spanish: The Child Heroes

No child hero took the homeland and threw himself with it from the heights of the castle of Chapultepec to safeguard it against the troops of the invader. It is true that on September 13, 1847 some fifty cadets of the Military College remained in the Castle of Chapultepec, its headquarters, to participate in the last battle of defense of Mexico City, and that some, perhaps four, died; but most of the 1,200 defenders were regular soldiers, including about 400 members of the San Blas battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Felipe Santiago Xicoténcatl, to which Juan Escutia belonged. Yes, Juan Escutia was not a cadet, nor was he a child. When he died riddled with bullets on the slopes of the hill of Chapultepec, apparently while trying to flee to the Botanical Garden, he was a young soldier of 20 years. The flag of Mexico flew over the castle until it was lowered by American troops and given to General Winfield Scott, who brought it to his country as a war trophy. It is also false – or, at least, questionable – that human remains found in 1947 in the foothills of Chapultepec were of the cadets. It was established, without serious study, by a decree of President Miguel Alemán Valdés, endorsed by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, which no one dared to deny. The remains were deposited in the Altar of the Fatherland, better known as the monument to the Children Heroes, whose construction was ordered by the president in 1947 and completed in 1952. There were also deposited the remains of Lieutenant Colonel Xicoténcatl.No we know what was the physical appearance of the cadets who died in Chapultepec. The faces of the school stamps, imitation of those made of the saints, were imagined years later by artists who did not know them. They are romantic, idealized images. Much of what we are told happened in the battle of Chapultepec arises from oral histories that were embellished to forge the heroic story of the children who died for the homeland. One of the child heroes who did exist was Miguel Miramón, who was 15 years old and was taken prisoner in battle. On November 11, 1847, while still a prisoner, he was awarded the medal of honor to the defenders of Chapultepec. Today their acts of bravery have been erased for political reasons. In 1859, at the age of 27, Miramón was named president of Mexico, the youngest in history; but as did the conservatives, who fought the liberals of Benito Juárez, the appointment and all its distinctions have been erased by official history. It is remembered, however, that he was shot with Emperor Maximilian on June 19, 1867.La reason why it was necessary to beautify the war between Mexico and the United States is because our country suffered a resounding defeat. U.S. troops invaded Mexico in May 1846 and by September 1847 had ended all resistance. In the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo of February 2, 1848, the United States forced Mexico to cede more than half of its territory. Better to invent a heroic defense than to acknowledge the bad government and internal divisions that facilitated the defeat of our country. Tlali. Efforts to manipulate history are not over. The expulsion of the columbus monument from the Paseo de la Reforma, to put the statue of a woman with negroid features to whom the name of Tlali has been invented, in commemoration of “500 years of indigenous resistance”, is one more example that today’s politicians are no different from those of the past. As renewals whose dressings an icy wind withered in bloom, so fell the child heroes before the bullets of the invader» Beloved Nervo



Original source in Spanish