Heroes
The cartoonist Sergio Aragonés is probably best known for the often-hilarious doodles in the margins of Mad magazine, which he’s been doing since the mid 1960s. But behind his simple style, Aragonés is an accomplished storyteller (as evidenced in his long-running barbarian humor strip, Groo, with writer Mark Evanier). He’s also a man with something to say.
DC Comics recently devoted an issue of its Solo series to the work of Aragonés. About halfway through is a story called “Heroes,” a really remarkable piece of work. Aragonés, who was born and raised in Mexico, compares the historical heroes he was taught about in school with those his kids are learning about here in El Norté.
If you live in the US, chances are you never heard of the St. Patrick Battalion – a group of Irish immigrants who were recruited right off the boat into the American army to fight in the Mexican-American War of 1848. When the soldiers arrived at the front, they quickly realized that not only did this war have nothing to do with them, but it involved fighting on behalf of a brutal and atrocious, mostly Protestant force (the Texas Rangers) against fellow Catholics in Mexico. Consequently, under their officer Riley, a large number of them switched sides and joined the Mexicans. After several battles, Riley and his men were captured by the Americans, imprisoned, and hung as traitors.
The Batallón de San Patricio are national heroes in Mexico. According to Aragonés, “it takes two holidays in Mexico to honor them – monuments, ceremonies…” Here in the US, the entire war of 1848 gets probably a day or two in 8th grade history (unless you live in Texas, where one can only imagine how it must be taught). The account in Aragonés’s daughter’s history text read, in its entirety, “During the Mexican-American war, a battalion called St. Patrick made up of drunken Irish deserters bought by Santa Ana fought for Mexico. They surrendered and were summarily executed.”
Mexico and the US are neighbors, with a shared history and a growing social, economic and political interdependence. Yet, on both sides of the border, the relationship seems driven almost entirely by mythology, ignorance and stereotypes. Aragonés, in a simple four page story, presents one eye-opening example that seem to stand for a whole raft of misunderstandings – the correction of which rests on coming to a common perspective on our shared history. This strikes me as an incredibly powerful insight which is rarely expressed without bitterness or didacticism. Yet a cartoonist with the simplest, least threatening style imaginable is able to bring it across with complete clarity. We need more heroes like that.
9:59:39 AM 
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