November 30, 2024 • 42 mins
Often called "The Napoleon of the West", mainly by himself, Santa Anna was a legendary, larger-than-life politician, general and exile. While hundreds of stories have been told about this man, one in particular stood out to Ben and Noel: Santa Anna lost his leg not once, but twice to enemy forces. And, once upon a time, he held an elaborate funeral for his fallen leg. Learn more about this bizarre, true story in this week's Classic episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to our classic episode for this week, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Now,
Santa Anna was a lot of things to a lot
of people. Is larger than life. He was a legend,
a general in exile. He was also a guy who
was very bad at keeping his legs with him. I
stole Sanny Annie's leg.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I just looked at the hashtags are the keywords for
this episode, and King of the Hill is definitely on there,
so I know we talk about Cotton Hill and his
leg shenanigans in this episode.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
That's one of my favorite episodes of television.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Santa Anna, the real life guy not lost his leg
not just once, but twice. And then this classic episode.
We don't even want to spoil it. Let's just get
this wit a ride.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Uh huh. Right along with us, fellow ridiculous historians. Ridiculous
History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show,
(01:21):
Friends and neighbors. As you can tell from the background
music playing gently behind us, we are Texas bound. In
today's episode, I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Ben loping along on our ponies, get along, little dog,
all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I know, and we're riding on the range today. We
are we're riding around the great American West points North
and South. We are joined in spirit with our super
producer Casey Pegram, who is still away in France. Man,
I bet he's living it up, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
And no, I know he is, or at least doing
Casey's version of living it up, because I was texting
with him the other day and I was like, Man,
you having a blast?
Speaker 1 (02:06):
He goes, yeah, Man, I just saw a ten hour
film that does sound like him. Yeah. When I was
talking to him, I always have to check to see
if this is going to be the trip where he
decides to stay in France. So do us a favor,
write to him, let him know that he has to
come back at some voice, because it's just not the
(02:26):
same without him. Yeah, it's kind of like when a
band gets back together but they have a different lead singer.
Have you ever been to a concert like that? No,
but I do remember.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
The thing that always comes to mind is when Ozzie
left Black Sabbath and was replaced by Ronnie James Dio.
That just seemed that seemed like heresy, which I guess
is in character for a band called Black Sabbath.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Sure, and that's a good point. But before we go
too far off the rails of this. I gotta say
it's no dan On Doo nor On Osborne to say
that they they're just not comparable.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
No, I mean, Dio has rocked for a long long time,
but now it's time for him to pass the torch
back to Ozzie.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And both both of these performers are legends. And speaking
of fantastic segues, today's episode is about allegend.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
We got there, you did it man, a legend, allegedly allegedly,
allegedly a leggy legend. My girlfriend this morning called me
the the king of dad jokes.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
She did not mean it as a compliment. I don't
think there's anything wrong with doing.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It's a niche man, you know, one which we squarely occupied.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I'm proud of it. Most I think most people make
dad jokes. In fact, we're unfairly impinging upon dad's I agree,
dad bod dad joke. It's like a term of abuse.
It's a very weird anti Dade thing that goes on.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
You know what, though, being a dad is the only
thing that got us a producer in the studio today,
because today we are joined with our guest super producer,
Eden Brown, Okay, I.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
See where you're going with that, and thank you eating
for saving the show. So who's this alleged hero of
today's story. Yes, this allegedly leggie legend better known as
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. That is a mouthful, allegedly
leggy legend, A man we could do. We could do
(04:31):
another leg of that, I think big time. So this
guy say it to Anna. You may have heard of
him before. He was born on February twenty first, seventeen
ninety four, and he was a tremendously influential politician. In general.
We wouldn't call him a war lord, but he knew
(04:52):
his way around a battlefield. Over the course of his life,
he would rule Mexico eleven different times. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
World class legalomaniac. Yeah, you're gonna keep this rolling, Sure
we can, Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
He was often described as the Napoleon of the West
by himself.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yep, also a world class manufacturer of lore pertaining to
his favorite guy, General Santa Ana himself.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
He is probably most famous, at least in the United
States today, for his activity during the Texas Revolution from
eighteen thirty five to eighteen thirty six. Notorious sacker of
the Alamo.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Right, there were some Texan rebels because as we know,
Texas was ruled by Mexico, and Texas didn't want to
do that anymore. They wanted there to be their own thing,
and so this a very small group of Texan rebels
posted up at the Alamo, which was an old Franciscan monastery,
(05:52):
I believe, and they were able to fend off Santa
Anna and his armies for something like thirteen days, I want.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
To say, right, and they earned this defense with blood.
There were about one hundred Texans that were garrisoned at
the Alamo, and the Texas force grew a little bit
with the reinforcements led by commanders James Bowie and William Travis.
But wasn't Daniel Boone there too? Yeah, there were a
(06:20):
lot of It was like a Wu Tang clan posse track.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, but it was a war and apparently we're supposed
to remember it, and by gosh, we do.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Right, right, And that's why you'll hear the battle cry,
remember Goliad, remember the Alamo on I think it was
first recorded on the twenty first of April in eighteen
thirty six. During the Battle of the Alamo, Santa Ana's
forces killed one hundred and eighty nine Texans and then
(06:51):
later executed more than three hundred and forty prisoners. Yikes.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Not a popular fellow in Texas history, as we will
come to discover right there in this episode, right.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Right, not a popular fellow, but he got stuff done.
It's true. He is sort of remembered similarly to Napoleon
in that ultimately he ended up losing a lot of
the stuff that he gained through this kind of thirst
for conquest. Right Yeah, And there's an interesting part about
(07:22):
that that it'll come into play later. I'll remember to
bring it up before we end the episode. So before
we get to one of my favorite wars of this episode, Nol,
why don't you tell us a little bit about the
events that occurred after the album. Well, just briefly, all
those those Alamo centric atrocities you mentioned probably really got
the Texan rebels fired up, and they ultimately won their
(07:46):
independence when they defeated Santa Anna's forces during the Battle
of Sanja Sinto on April twenty first of eighteen thirty six.
Santa Anna and his forces were defeated and he signed
a treaty to give Texas their independence. From Mexico right
and again that is where famous the famous call to
(08:07):
arms or the famous rallying cry. I remember the Alamo originates.
Santa Ana was held captive in Texas and he eventually
managed to return to Mexico in eighteen thirty seven after
he met with US President Andrew Jackson. So he lived
(08:27):
in exile. He traveled back to Mexico a defeated man,
and he needed a win, nol. He needed something to
change the winds of fortune. In eighteen thirty eight, he
found a chance. But it was it was a very
strange thing. It's one of my favorite names in today's show.
He became involved in something called the Pastry War.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's right after he sort of was able to more
or less free himself from exile. He posted up in
a pretty cushy oacienda in Vera Cruz where he more
or less retired and he was kind of just kicking
it there, doing his thing, and then this thing called
the pastry War flared up. What's the pastry War?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Ben? That sounds delicious. I'm glad you asked. So there's
another geopolitical thing going on here. France is super unhappy
with the Mexican government at this time, because they have
unpaid debts that they had incurred during the Texas Revolution
of eighteen thirty six, and these were quite significant debts.
We're talking about six hundred thousand pesos. So when a
(09:35):
baker living near Mexico City, a little bit outside of it,
a French baker, a French baker, yes, when he claims
that the Mexican army ransacked his bakery, and he demands
compensation to the tune of what was it, sixty thousand pesos?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Sixty thousand, that's right, which was an exorbitant inflation of
what the bakery was valued at, which was more in
line with like a thousand pesos.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, actually a little bit us right. And the chef
whose name today we know him only as Remonteille, he
found some very sympathetic ears in the French government because
he took the case directly to the king of the time,
Louis Philippe, and Louis said, they gave this ultimatum with
(10:21):
this pretext for the conflict, for the pastry war. They
gave this ultimatum to Mexico and they said, all right,
give us six hundred thousand pesos that includes the sixty
thousand for this guy's pastry shop. The Mexican Congress said
their version of heck noo, are you crazy? And so
(10:42):
in the spring of eighteen thirty eight, the French Navy
began a blockade of seaports along the Gulf of Mexico,
all over up one French bakery. It must have been
a great bakery, maybe, Yeah, I guess it was just
kind of like the straw that broke the French ponies back.
It was the use that they used. Yeah, it was
the the string that dropped the guillotine exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
It's very, very very interesting the way these kind of
powder kegs can be set off by a single event,
like the assassination of a single Archduke Frans Ferdinand, setting
off you know, all of the events that with multiple
players that led you know that were World War One.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
That were already seeding. Yeah, but that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
It's so interesting throughout history you see these little kind
of flashpoint moments that taken on their own, you wouldn't
think would be that big a deal, but they can
set off this chain reaction that becomes.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Quite a kerfuffle, right, And just like the case with
World War One and Frans Ferdinand. There's the question of
whether it had to be these specific flashpoint events or
would it have inevitably been something else Because France was
ready to go. It takes a while to get ships
across the Atlantic.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, they were steamed about that cash, you know, because
they're like, hey, we helped you out and you failed.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, ultimately in.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Your endeavor to you know, quash these rebels and now
pay up.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
And the US, by the way, also piled onto Mexico.
They sent a schooner to assist in the blockade. This
stalemate drags on and on until November twenty seventh, and
the French warships start bombarding island fortresses. Mexico officially declares
war on France, and within days French marines are raiding
(12:31):
the city and they captured nearly the entire Mexican navy.
Desperate to get these monsters out of their fair city
and out of their country, Mexico turned to Santa Anna.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
There's a great article on history dot com that goes
through some of the chronology of this and they refer
to Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna as being.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
A grizzled warrior.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I love that acause at this point, you know, he's
had his day, his heyday. He's already ruled like what
four times at this point, I don't know, I lose track.
He keeps going into retirement, coming out of retirement, going back,
they keep pulling him.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Back in, like in like the Godfather movies or whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, and so like me at a buffet, of course,
the buffet you want to like get your pill, ben people.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I don't think we as a species are emotionally equipped
to handle buffets. You gotta keep going back to the trough.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I mean, otherwise it's a it's a sunken cost kind
of situation.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Right, Yeah, So back to this great description by Christopher Kleine, Right,
they're writing there for history.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, Santa Anna was was quite a big fan of
Santa Anna and fancied himself sort of a ruler of
the people. So he was all too ready to jump
back into the fray. And you know, he really had
a thirst for like being the guy that was gonna
hop back in and save Mexico's.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
But and people were into it too, of course, so
he raises his own army. He comes out and says
something along the lines of I am Santa Anna. Help
me defend the city from these French savages exactly. And
they're all about it. So they're able to drive Santa
Anna's army that he forms are able to drive French
forces away from the city and at least back to
(14:15):
their ships. And picture this. This is one of those
flashpoint moments in history. Santa Anna is on horseback, he's
literally chasing these guys out of town when a cannon
fires and the shot from the cannon knocks his horse
out from under him and gets him in the leg.
(14:36):
It's like, what do they call it? Grape shot?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, which is kind of like when you think of
buckshot shotgun shells loaded with like these tiny little ball bearings.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I guess that just kind of like.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Spray everywhere, right, but probably larger if it's coming from
a cannon.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's a massive small metal I mean,
buckshot's a great description. It's not a good one, a
pleasant way to go and often bound in canvas. Oh okay,
so yeah, it's it's ugly.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
It would almost be like a pipe bomb going off,
you know, that's just spraying shrapnel everywhere.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
And it also stink. The timing of it stinks because
he pretty much won. Yeah, and there's that parting shot
sort of like in The Lord of the Rings where
spoiler alert, Gandolf manages to stop the bow rog and
then at the very end that that crazy lava whip
Yeap grabs him ye pulls him down into the abyss.
(15:33):
There you go, ganed off the Santa Anna of Lord
of the Rings. I like that also very into himself,
now that I think about it, it's true, but you know,
with good reason. He earned it, I think so too.
So what happens, what happens next? They got him out
of there, right, Yeah, they got him out. But you know,
we said his leg was wounded, but how how wounded
was it? Very?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
As it turns out, had they couldn't save the leg.
They could not save the leg ben it had to
come off.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeh. So he had his leg removed and he had
a prosthetic built. But he was still he was still
in the game. And this this is one of the
craziest parts of this story. This isn't the craziest craziest part,
but this is a strange one. So picture this. He
(16:23):
has he has driven the French out of town, but
he has not yet won the war. He's one leg down.
He has a prosthetic and he has his amputated leg
which has been with him through thick and thin. The
real leg when it was connected to his body, the
og leg got it. And pay attention to that leg
because that's going to come into play later. So right
(16:45):
now we have two legs. One is prosthetic, one is
his old original leg not attached to him. What happens
with the pastry war because he drives frants out, but
the conflict isn't resolved, and they I think they need
some help from British diplomat.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, they help out in broker an agreement in which
Mexican government has to pay that six hundred thousand pays
demand that the French insisted upon, including the cost of
the pastry shop in question.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Because that guy's still that's the thing that gets me.
That guy still lives there.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
He still lives there. Yeah, I don't know. It seems
like it would be a stretch. But the French forces
take off and everything for the most part goes back
to normal. But these guys are going to come to
heads again later down the line, Like I think in
the mid eighteen hundreds, there's another conflict that's a.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Story for another day.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Santa Ana has his og leg buried at his hacienda
in Vera Cruz.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
But there's more, Yes, there absolutely is. So now he's
a war hero again, and he is. You know, when
people first have a kid, every conversation inevitably turned into
something about their baby. The leg he lost in the
Pastry War is like this baby he just had, and
(18:06):
he's constantly reminding everyone in Mexico who will listen, that
he sacrificed his leg. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Apparently he would hold his prosthetic leg over his head
during military parades to remind people of the sacrifice that
he made for his beloved country. But so he essentially
returns back to retirement after this pastry War. He did
his duty, he came back out, fought the good fight,
(18:34):
lost a leg.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, so he would take it slow after this, Right,
most people would consider that a warning sign or you know,
a notification from the universe that perhaps your battle days
are done. In eighteen forty two, Santana is once again
the president of Mexico because, as we said, he comes
(18:56):
in and out several times.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well, yeah, according to his autobiography, Ana, his autobiography, which
is just rife with hyperbole. It's a lot of fun.
It's called the Eagle. It was only sixty two days
after he lost the leg that General Guadalupe Victoria asked
him at the behest of the government to come back
to the capitol and said that there was a revolution
(19:20):
brooding and that the government wanted him to take the
current president, Anastasio Bustamante's place as a temporary president during
this difficult time.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
And this quote just.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Really speaks to the megalomania of this gentleman. How well
the people knew me. They knew I would never desert
my principles and would always be on hand when my
country needed me. I was carried to the capital on
a litter, like one of those things with the sticks
in the chair. Right, is that what palaqui? Yeah, exactly,
(19:53):
like some sort of like returning Greek hero or something
like that. Right, carried to the capital on a litter.
Although my trip was made with extreme care, the hardships
of the journey and the change of climate weakened me. However,
despite my poor health, poor guy, I assumed the office
of president immediately.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, he assumed the office of president. He also there's
some speculation that we have to engage in here. Noel,
he also enjoys the uh, enjoys the pop culture status
he is acquiring in Mexico. Now he is not only
a lauded general, he's not only the president. He's also
(20:36):
a very much a celebrity. And so soon after Santa
Anna really leans into this celebrity status, he has his
original his physical leg. Dug up, just take it exhumed yeah,
from his estate. Uh huh and reburied, but this time
buried with full military honors. Wait for a yeah, just
(21:01):
the like, just the leg. Okay. But it was a
really classy event. No. They had they had orations, they
had you know, honor guards, they had cannons firing, and
they had poetry performed written exclusively for this event. In fact,
ridiculous historians. We have a couple of examples of this. Oh, man, Ben,
(21:21):
are you gonna do a dramatic reading?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I think you are too. All right, I'll play, I'll
play you go first. You wanna play these reindeer games?
Of course? Here is the English translation of a poem
titled sonnet, and we'll just is it a sonnet or
a poem? The name of this piece is son. I
like it? Yeah, such complete triumph. What victory, admirable Santa Anna,
(21:47):
you have attained politics management, all has changed, Valiant liberal
for your glory, tremble Scottish rite and enter the dross.
Consume yourself where all you have lost. Do not dare
look upon the illustrious hero, be off, We want no
memory of you. Come, Holy liberty, Come and wrest from
your toils. What do you have to fear from the tyrants?
(22:10):
If the free man gives his life for you to God,
we have sworn his brothers that those that have oppressed you,
we Mexicans, must wake war upon him.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
All right, Ben, you've ticked the poetry box beautifully.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Might I add I'm going to give.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
You sort of a little soliloquy, I guess, kind of
just almost a oration a eulogy ode, yes, exactly, a
eulogy to the leg Why should anyone criticize if a
funeral performed for the foot, arm, or hair of an
illustrious general passions always tarnish merit with malevolence, and really
(22:45):
do not wish true merit celebrated. So answer quickly and
with confidence. Why should we not honor merit in the
lifeless limb of a great and heroic causio, which was
the Spanish word for a military hero or official. Why
should anyone criticize to make this fitting obloquy to a
sacrificed limb, not to the man, but to what he
(23:06):
has given fearlessly for the fatherland. It would be unjust, ungrateful, foolish,
and disloyal to claim it is not lawful or right
that a lone foot have a tomb or mausoleum, that
a funeral is performed. I'm gonna skip to the last line.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Well quick at rejection obliqui is a public criticism or
verbal abuse. So I' saying it's ridiculous for people to
say anything bad about this foot. Ah, why would you this?
I mean, he's obviously earned it. But I'm in this moment.
I'm gonna skip a little bit.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
The last line is what I think is really really
what sews it up. Did Artemisia not hide the ashes
of Masilus in her breast? Mausillus being a ruler in
the fourth century who basically created the notion of a
mausoleum or a giant or a tomb that he had
erected for himself, but I shall continue.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
And believe this the only remedy.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Here's where it gets good. She did her duty. So
today Mexico erects a tomb reaching to the sky, covering
with ardent hope, a jewel of history and giving glory
to the foot, arm or hair.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
We can go ahead and do the polite open mic
poetry slam fingerclap, which is just snapping your fingers. So, yes,
it's true. He buried his leg. It reburied it. Rather,
it was in a crystal vase, tremendously ornate event, and
people were into it. The thing about it being the
(24:43):
top dog, however, is that when you're in this king
of the Hills situation, you don't have a lot of stability.
In eighteen forty four, public opinion turned against the president.
People tore down the statues of him. They dug his
leg up again. Yeah, and then let drag it through
(25:03):
the streets chanting with the death to the cripple, Oh,
which is ugly.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
What did he do to.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Earn that kind of public iire? Well, it appears that
he ruled in a much more dictorial style. Imagine that, Yeah,
the Napoleon of the West. So they jailed dissidents to
suppress opposition. You know, there's not a free press. He
(25:33):
led some unpopular campaigns. He wasn't able to control the
elections of eighteen forty two, and a lot of the
folks who were elected at that time were vigorously against
the kind of policies he was pursuing. He also raised taxes.
It's always a dicey move if you were at the
(25:54):
levers of power. Several Mexican states just stopped dealing with
the central government. They declared themselves independent. So eventually he
tries to flee the country in December of eighteen forty four,
but he is unsuccessful. He is apprehended near Zeko Vera, Cruz,
(26:16):
and he is imprisoned. He is exiled to Cuba. When
is this It's January of eighteen forty five when he's caught.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Oh okay, So I think what happened was when the
tied public opinion turned against him. It was basically a
full rebellion, and he did his damnedas to squash this rebellion,
but it obviously did not work out for him, and
he ended up being exiled. Correct, Yeah, yeah, okay. But
during this time, there's a quote from his autobiography that
(26:44):
I just love, he says this. Speaking of criticism or
mockery of his fake leg, he says, stop, I don't
wish to hear any more, Almighty God, a member of
my body lost in the service of my country, dragged
from the funeral urn, broken into bits to be made
(27:05):
sport of in such a barbaric manner.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Boy, you're laying it on thick there. Yeah, that's the
benefit of writing from retrospect. And of course everybody is
the main character of their own story, right.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
So that's kind of where we lose track of the
real leg. But this is sort of just the beginning
of the story of the fake leg. This is the
that was the first leg of the episode. This is
the second leg of the episode. Ben, Yeah, thank you
for bringing it back.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Here we are. So he would die, one would imagine
in exile in Cuba. However, that is not what happened.
You see, the United States declared war against Mexico in
eighteen forty six, and this famous one legged general is
called back to serve his country in the Mexican American War.
(27:52):
It is keep pulling him back, yeah, And so during
the Battle of Cerro Gordo, in eighteen forty seven, another
leg related incident occurs, and Noel, you wanted to explore
this historical event through the use of a clip an
excerpt from a show that you say is very important
(28:14):
and personally close to you. That is King of the Hill. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
King of the Hill is my happy place show. I'm
really sad that it's not on any of the streaming
services anymore. But I was able to dig this up
from a DVD that I have of this particular season.
The episode is called the Final shin Salt and it
opens with Peggy Hill as a substitute teacher because as
we know, that's what Peggy Hill does of her son
Bobby's history class, Texas history. And they're doing a little
(28:40):
play that sums up this very event.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
So you just play it, right, Yeah, let's do it now.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
In preparation for our field trip, your classmates are going
to act out a little known episode of Mexican American history.
The year is eighteen forty seven.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
General Santa Anna I led the Mexican army at the
Almo where we defeated Texas. We are at the Battle
of Sarah Gordo eleven years later, and we are hungry sir,
I will hold your artificial leg while.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
You eat chicken.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Attack.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
Look out, it's the Illinois Volunteer Infantry up on.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
General.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I stole your fake leg.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Oh well, that was beautiful. That was just inspired.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
So yeah, I mean, need we say more? I guess not.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
So there's a little artistic license with that particular clip.
But the way I've read it is that Santa Ana
knew that the Illinois soldiers were approaching, and he hastily retreated,
leaving his carriage abandoned, complete with.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
His half eaten roasted chicken, about eighteen thousand dollars in
gold in gold, and one more thing, yep, his fake leg.
So this prosthetic leg becomes a trophy piece. People were
flocking to county fairs to pay a little bit of
money to get a peek at this relic, and eventually
(30:21):
it fell into the possession of the Illinois State Military Museum.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, because I guess they were the ones that the
soldiers from Illinois were the ones what got it. It
seems a little odd though, that it would end up
in Illinois, considering that Texas had much more of a
close connection with General Santa Anna and his memorabilia.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Right, right, and in the recent years, even unto the
modern day, this possession of Santa Anna's leg has become controversial.
So in Texas in the modern day, several groups of
people are petitioning Illinois to return the leg, the prosthetic
(31:05):
leg of Santa Ana to Texas. You can read about
this in the Chicago Tribune. You can read about this
in the museum site itself. But it does seem unusual,
doesn't it that it would end up in Illinois, of
all places, simply because the people who originally captured the
(31:25):
leg were themselves from Illinois. It's true, it's actually.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
This is a museum in Texas called the Sanya Sinto
Museum of History that has tons of Santa Ana memorabilia.
They have like a glove, and they have like silverware
that he left behind during the Battle of Sanya Sinto, plates,
all kinds of things related to this historical figure. But
what they don't have and would very much like to have,
(31:51):
is that fake leg. But Illinois is not giving it
up anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
No, unfortunately for the people wish to see it returned.
The directors the management of both the museum and the
Illinois Department of Military Affairs are not budging. Colonel Brad Layton,
the public affairs director of the Illinois Department of Military
Affairs as recently as two thousand and sixteen, said when
(32:23):
asked if they would ever return this leg to Texas,
he said, the answer is no. We paid for that
leg with Illinois blood, and so Nola. There's another quote
that you found from the same King of the Hill episode,
the Final shin Salt, and in this clip we can see.
(32:45):
This clip's a little bit different because they're taking a
sort of an alternative universe approach, but we can see
how many people would react to the mention of Santa Anna's.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Leg, especially a grizzled Texas war hero like Grandpa Hill Cotton,
one of my favorite characters in the show.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Here we go, h Hank.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
That reminds me we need some chaperones for Bobby's class trip.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
We're kind of taking Bobby Vegas.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
There's a general and exhibit at the museum. We didn't
play about him in school, and I was one of
his privates.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Yeah, yeah, I know all about Santy Anny. We got
his walking law under glass. Neil Noise, I'm glad to.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Say, actually, Cotton, the leg is coming through Arlend America
is finally returning the leg to Mexico.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
What take it easy, Dad, Take it easy, you see, Bobby.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Your dadis generations giving away everything we fought them. Pennym
off the nail, Mexican legs. You people give back down
these papers that you have him.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
And while the real life prosthetic is not traveling to Mexico,
or at least not as we record this, the clip
does a decent job of depicting the emotions involved. And
now the Lake Storre means in Illinois and the people
who could return it to Texas are categorically against it,
(34:03):
so it looks set to stay there. Yeah. It's also
Mexico wants it back.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
All the while Santa Ana, even during his life, was
petitioning to get it back, and Mexico has continued to
ask for it back. You can kind of see why
Illinois would be so fond of the leg. They went
so far as to name one of their cities after
the Battle of Sarah Gordo, which took place in Mexico,
Sarah Gordo, which means fat hill.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Right. Yeah, and at this point I'm probably wondering what
happens to Santa Ana. After he has lost his leg
that he spends, you know, much of his later life
petitioning to have returned. From eighteen fifty five to eighteen
seventy four, he lived in exile in various parts of
(34:53):
the world, in Cuba, Columbia, the United States, the island
of Saint Thomas. A lot of Napoleon analogs here right right,
like Saint Helena and Elba. He had left. He being
Santa Ana, had left Mexico due to his unpopularity. After
his defeat in eighteen forty eight. He participated in different
(35:16):
gambling businesses and other industries, hoping that he would become rich.
Oh we didn't even talk about his marriages, did you
know what? He had a habit of marrying wealthy teenage
women for the for the financial benefits, like heiresses. Kind
of yeah. And one of the one of the legends
(35:37):
is that during one of his weddings, he didn't show
up to the ceremonies. What a piece of work. I
guess he was busy. He could work it. I mean,
you know, everybody knows scheduling is tough for anything. Well,
so one of the things he did in his later
(35:58):
life in the eighteen fifty he brought the first shipment
of chickle to New York. Chickley is Gum. Yeah, we
helped introduce chewing gum to the United States. He originally
intended it to be used in tires, which makes sense,
you know at the time. But he had hoped that
(36:21):
he could hang out with his friend, an inventor named
Thomas Adams, and create a rubber substitute, which a lot
of people were looking for in this day and age,
and unfortunately they could not use the chickle a in
that application. However, Adams figured out that if he added
flavorings and sweeteners to the plant, to the chickl he
(36:45):
could create quote rubber chewing gum, and the company that
Adams started would become one of the largest in the
United States, rivaled only by that of William Wrigley Junior
of Wrigley Gum. A good juicy fruit Yeah, oddly enough,
I don't know if we've mentioned it on this show,
but you know, juicy fruit is an entirely manufactured flavor.
(37:08):
It doesn't exist. Yeah. They made it up synthetically and
that's why it's not That's why it is not tied
to any specific fruit flavor.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, but it's still you know, it has the waft
of a fruit like flavor. Right, yeah, last thing only
because we we skipped it.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
We probably should have brought this up earlier.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Apparently the Illinois Infantry, the fourth Illinois Infantry, actually captured
as an additional Santa Ana leg.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
That's true. Yes, yeah, we should mention that.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yeah, because the one that people think about and get
all worked up about is you know, the full Monty
cork manufactured prosthetic. But that one would have been probably
a little more difficult to put on. So as a secondary,
as a backup, he also had something of a more
humble peg leg and apparently Lieutenant Abner double Day like
(38:00):
to use it as a baseball bat. And it's on
display right here in our town of Atlanta Decatur, in fact,
at the former governor's mansion, Oglesby Mansion.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
So we should check that out. We should do a
field trip, and we should also bid adieu to Antonio
Lopez de Santa Ana. What a winding and twisted story
this one was. Now there is a good dating, at
least on a personal level. In eighteen seventy four, under
the terms of a general amnesty, he was able to
(38:30):
return home to Mexico. His vision had deteriorated to a
extreme degree due to the development of cataracts. He was
largely dismissed or ignored by the government of the time,
and he hadn't been in politics since eighteen fifty five. Eventually,
(38:51):
he passed away at his home in Mexico City in
eighteen seventy six, at the age of eighty two. He
was buried in a glass coffin. That's cool, like snow white,
and imagine, you know, for someone who lives a such
a violent life and war, it's it's kind of like
winning the lottery to die in peace at your own home.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Not to mention at eighty two, Yeah, life expectancy back
in those days was was not not near that in
two have you know life expectancy for soldiers of course, yeah,
but just in general, right, I mean, you know, pretty
pretty impressive that he made it that far and had
gone through so much intense stuff.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
But yeah, that's not that's it's not a happy ending exactly,
but it's it's a little dignity for this mavericky, complex
peacock of a man. Yeah, it's it's bittersweet, but it
is peaceful and that's the you know, there's nothing wrong
with that. You can't be angry at that. However, however,
(39:51):
you can visit Illinois, you can visit Atlanta, and you
can see these legs in person if you would like
to check out, at least in the case of Illinois,
a relic that traveled the United States as a tourist attraction.
If you do happen to go there, please send us
some photos. I would like to see it, if you
(40:13):
could take a selfie in front of the leg. And
I know this brings us back to the earlier question
that we explored in the Corpses in the Diorama episode,
which is about ownership and ethics in museum collections. What
do you think quotes? Should Illinois retain possession of this leg?
(40:34):
Does it belong in Mexico? Does it belong in Texas?
Does it belong somewhere else? And if so, why let
us know. You can find us on Instagram, You can
find us on Twitter. You can check out our Facebook
page Ridiculous Historians, where you can meet your fellow listeners,
and you can also find myself. You can find cases.
(40:54):
You can find nol jumping in commenting on some threads lurk.
I still haven't posted. I still have and post a
response to his favorite historical jerk.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
And apparently we're going to get some glamour shots of
Casey during his lucrative child modeling career when he returns
from Fronts.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Which is a true story. I can't wait to see.
I can't wait to see who his fake dad is.
Oh that's right, Yeah, he's got a thing. He was
telling us about that off air. So thank you as
always very much for listening. Thank you to our super
producer Casey Pegrim. Thank you to our guest producer Eaton Brown.
Give me a high five. Yeah that we'll fix it
(41:37):
in posts now, that's good. That was the sound of camaraderie.
And of course thank you to Alex Williams who can
post our track. Thank you to our awesome researcher Christopher Hasi.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Ortis, and thank you to you for being you and
being the best you that you could possibly be and
listening to ridiculous history. Join us next time where we
talk about a crime fighting gorilla in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
It's going to leave it right there, see you. Then
let's play out with some old home on the Range Music, A.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Home on the Range, where Lady and the Apples. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to our classic episode for this week, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Now,
Santa Anna was a lot of things to a lot
of people. Is larger than life. He was a legend,
a general in exile. He was also a guy who
was very bad at keeping his legs with him. I
stole Sanny Annie's leg.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I just looked at the hashtags are the keywords for
this episode, and King of the Hill is definitely on there,
so I know we talk about Cotton Hill and his
leg shenanigans in this episode.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
That's one of my favorite episodes of television.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Santa Anna, the real life guy not lost his leg
not just once, but twice. And then this classic episode.
We don't even want to spoil it. Let's just get
this wit a ride.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Uh huh. Right along with us, fellow ridiculous historians. Ridiculous
History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show,
(01:21):
Friends and neighbors. As you can tell from the background
music playing gently behind us, we are Texas bound. In
today's episode, I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Ben loping along on our ponies, get along, little dog,
all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I know, and we're riding on the range today. We
are we're riding around the great American West points North
and South. We are joined in spirit with our super
producer Casey Pegram, who is still away in France. Man,
I bet he's living it up, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
And no, I know he is, or at least doing
Casey's version of living it up, because I was texting
with him the other day and I was like, Man,
you having a blast?
Speaker 1 (02:06):
He goes, yeah, Man, I just saw a ten hour
film that does sound like him. Yeah. When I was
talking to him, I always have to check to see
if this is going to be the trip where he
decides to stay in France. So do us a favor,
write to him, let him know that he has to
come back at some voice, because it's just not the
(02:26):
same without him. Yeah, it's kind of like when a
band gets back together but they have a different lead singer.
Have you ever been to a concert like that? No,
but I do remember.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
The thing that always comes to mind is when Ozzie
left Black Sabbath and was replaced by Ronnie James Dio.
That just seemed that seemed like heresy, which I guess
is in character for a band called Black Sabbath.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Sure, and that's a good point. But before we go
too far off the rails of this. I gotta say
it's no dan On Doo nor On Osborne to say
that they they're just not comparable.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
No, I mean, Dio has rocked for a long long time,
but now it's time for him to pass the torch
back to Ozzie.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And both both of these performers are legends. And speaking
of fantastic segues, today's episode is about allegend.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
We got there, you did it man, a legend, allegedly allegedly,
allegedly a leggy legend. My girlfriend this morning called me
the the king of dad jokes.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
She did not mean it as a compliment. I don't
think there's anything wrong with doing.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It's a niche man, you know, one which we squarely occupied.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I'm proud of it. Most I think most people make
dad jokes. In fact, we're unfairly impinging upon dad's I agree,
dad bod dad joke. It's like a term of abuse.
It's a very weird anti Dade thing that goes on.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
You know what, though, being a dad is the only
thing that got us a producer in the studio today,
because today we are joined with our guest super producer,
Eden Brown, Okay, I.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
See where you're going with that, and thank you eating
for saving the show. So who's this alleged hero of
today's story. Yes, this allegedly leggie legend better known as
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. That is a mouthful, allegedly
leggy legend, A man we could do. We could do
(04:31):
another leg of that, I think big time. So this
guy say it to Anna. You may have heard of
him before. He was born on February twenty first, seventeen
ninety four, and he was a tremendously influential politician. In general.
We wouldn't call him a war lord, but he knew
(04:52):
his way around a battlefield. Over the course of his life,
he would rule Mexico eleven different times. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
World class legalomaniac. Yeah, you're gonna keep this rolling, Sure
we can, Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
He was often described as the Napoleon of the West
by himself.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yep, also a world class manufacturer of lore pertaining to
his favorite guy, General Santa Ana himself.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
He is probably most famous, at least in the United
States today, for his activity during the Texas Revolution from
eighteen thirty five to eighteen thirty six. Notorious sacker of
the Alamo.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Right, there were some Texan rebels because as we know,
Texas was ruled by Mexico, and Texas didn't want to
do that anymore. They wanted there to be their own thing,
and so this a very small group of Texan rebels
posted up at the Alamo, which was an old Franciscan monastery,
(05:52):
I believe, and they were able to fend off Santa
Anna and his armies for something like thirteen days, I want.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
To say, right, and they earned this defense with blood.
There were about one hundred Texans that were garrisoned at
the Alamo, and the Texas force grew a little bit
with the reinforcements led by commanders James Bowie and William Travis.
But wasn't Daniel Boone there too? Yeah, there were a
(06:20):
lot of It was like a Wu Tang clan posse track.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, but it was a war and apparently we're supposed
to remember it, and by gosh, we do.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Right, right, And that's why you'll hear the battle cry,
remember Goliad, remember the Alamo on I think it was
first recorded on the twenty first of April in eighteen
thirty six. During the Battle of the Alamo, Santa Ana's
forces killed one hundred and eighty nine Texans and then
(06:51):
later executed more than three hundred and forty prisoners. Yikes.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Not a popular fellow in Texas history, as we will
come to discover right there in this episode, right.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Right, not a popular fellow, but he got stuff done.
It's true. He is sort of remembered similarly to Napoleon
in that ultimately he ended up losing a lot of
the stuff that he gained through this kind of thirst
for conquest. Right Yeah, And there's an interesting part about
(07:22):
that that it'll come into play later. I'll remember to
bring it up before we end the episode. So before
we get to one of my favorite wars of this episode, Nol,
why don't you tell us a little bit about the
events that occurred after the album. Well, just briefly, all
those those Alamo centric atrocities you mentioned probably really got
the Texan rebels fired up, and they ultimately won their
(07:46):
independence when they defeated Santa Anna's forces during the Battle
of Sanja Sinto on April twenty first of eighteen thirty six.
Santa Anna and his forces were defeated and he signed
a treaty to give Texas their independence. From Mexico right
and again that is where famous the famous call to
(08:07):
arms or the famous rallying cry. I remember the Alamo originates.
Santa Ana was held captive in Texas and he eventually
managed to return to Mexico in eighteen thirty seven after
he met with US President Andrew Jackson. So he lived
(08:27):
in exile. He traveled back to Mexico a defeated man,
and he needed a win, nol. He needed something to
change the winds of fortune. In eighteen thirty eight, he
found a chance. But it was it was a very
strange thing. It's one of my favorite names in today's show.
He became involved in something called the Pastry War.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's right after he sort of was able to more
or less free himself from exile. He posted up in
a pretty cushy oacienda in Vera Cruz where he more
or less retired and he was kind of just kicking
it there, doing his thing, and then this thing called
the pastry War flared up. What's the pastry War?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Ben? That sounds delicious. I'm glad you asked. So there's
another geopolitical thing going on here. France is super unhappy
with the Mexican government at this time, because they have
unpaid debts that they had incurred during the Texas Revolution
of eighteen thirty six, and these were quite significant debts.
We're talking about six hundred thousand pesos. So when a
(09:35):
baker living near Mexico City, a little bit outside of it,
a French baker, a French baker, yes, when he claims
that the Mexican army ransacked his bakery, and he demands
compensation to the tune of what was it, sixty thousand pesos?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Sixty thousand, that's right, which was an exorbitant inflation of
what the bakery was valued at, which was more in
line with like a thousand pesos.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, actually a little bit us right. And the chef
whose name today we know him only as Remonteille, he
found some very sympathetic ears in the French government because
he took the case directly to the king of the time,
Louis Philippe, and Louis said, they gave this ultimatum with
(10:21):
this pretext for the conflict, for the pastry war. They
gave this ultimatum to Mexico and they said, all right,
give us six hundred thousand pesos that includes the sixty
thousand for this guy's pastry shop. The Mexican Congress said
their version of heck noo, are you crazy? And so
(10:42):
in the spring of eighteen thirty eight, the French Navy
began a blockade of seaports along the Gulf of Mexico,
all over up one French bakery. It must have been
a great bakery, maybe, Yeah, I guess it was just
kind of like the straw that broke the French ponies back.
It was the use that they used. Yeah, it was
the the string that dropped the guillotine exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
It's very, very very interesting the way these kind of
powder kegs can be set off by a single event,
like the assassination of a single Archduke Frans Ferdinand, setting
off you know, all of the events that with multiple
players that led you know that were World War One.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
That were already seeding. Yeah, but that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
It's so interesting throughout history you see these little kind
of flashpoint moments that taken on their own, you wouldn't
think would be that big a deal, but they can
set off this chain reaction that becomes.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Quite a kerfuffle, right, And just like the case with
World War One and Frans Ferdinand. There's the question of
whether it had to be these specific flashpoint events or
would it have inevitably been something else Because France was
ready to go. It takes a while to get ships
across the Atlantic.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, they were steamed about that cash, you know, because
they're like, hey, we helped you out and you failed.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, ultimately in.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Your endeavor to you know, quash these rebels and now
pay up.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
And the US, by the way, also piled onto Mexico.
They sent a schooner to assist in the blockade. This
stalemate drags on and on until November twenty seventh, and
the French warships start bombarding island fortresses. Mexico officially declares
war on France, and within days French marines are raiding
(12:31):
the city and they captured nearly the entire Mexican navy.
Desperate to get these monsters out of their fair city
and out of their country, Mexico turned to Santa Anna.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
There's a great article on history dot com that goes
through some of the chronology of this and they refer
to Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna as being.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
A grizzled warrior.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I love that acause at this point, you know, he's
had his day, his heyday. He's already ruled like what
four times at this point, I don't know, I lose track.
He keeps going into retirement, coming out of retirement, going back,
they keep pulling him.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Back in, like in like the Godfather movies or whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, and so like me at a buffet, of course,
the buffet you want to like get your pill, ben people.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I don't think we as a species are emotionally equipped
to handle buffets. You gotta keep going back to the trough.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I mean, otherwise it's a it's a sunken cost kind
of situation.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Right, Yeah, So back to this great description by Christopher Kleine, Right,
they're writing there for history.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, Santa Anna was was quite a big fan of
Santa Anna and fancied himself sort of a ruler of
the people. So he was all too ready to jump
back into the fray. And you know, he really had
a thirst for like being the guy that was gonna
hop back in and save Mexico's.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
But and people were into it too, of course, so
he raises his own army. He comes out and says
something along the lines of I am Santa Anna. Help
me defend the city from these French savages exactly. And
they're all about it. So they're able to drive Santa
Anna's army that he forms are able to drive French
forces away from the city and at least back to
(14:15):
their ships. And picture this. This is one of those
flashpoint moments in history. Santa Anna is on horseback, he's
literally chasing these guys out of town when a cannon
fires and the shot from the cannon knocks his horse
out from under him and gets him in the leg.
(14:36):
It's like, what do they call it? Grape shot?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, which is kind of like when you think of
buckshot shotgun shells loaded with like these tiny little ball bearings.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I guess that just kind of like.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Spray everywhere, right, but probably larger if it's coming from
a cannon.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's a massive small metal I mean,
buckshot's a great description. It's not a good one, a
pleasant way to go and often bound in canvas. Oh okay,
so yeah, it's it's ugly.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
It would almost be like a pipe bomb going off,
you know, that's just spraying shrapnel everywhere.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
And it also stink. The timing of it stinks because
he pretty much won. Yeah, and there's that parting shot
sort of like in The Lord of the Rings where
spoiler alert, Gandolf manages to stop the bow rog and
then at the very end that that crazy lava whip
Yeap grabs him ye pulls him down into the abyss.
(15:33):
There you go, ganed off the Santa Anna of Lord
of the Rings. I like that also very into himself,
now that I think about it, it's true, but you know,
with good reason. He earned it, I think so too.
So what happens, what happens next? They got him out
of there, right, Yeah, they got him out. But you know,
we said his leg was wounded, but how how wounded
was it? Very?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
As it turns out, had they couldn't save the leg.
They could not save the leg ben it had to
come off.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeh. So he had his leg removed and he had
a prosthetic built. But he was still he was still
in the game. And this this is one of the
craziest parts of this story. This isn't the craziest craziest part,
but this is a strange one. So picture this. He
(16:23):
has he has driven the French out of town, but
he has not yet won the war. He's one leg down.
He has a prosthetic and he has his amputated leg
which has been with him through thick and thin. The
real leg when it was connected to his body, the
og leg got it. And pay attention to that leg
because that's going to come into play later. So right
(16:45):
now we have two legs. One is prosthetic, one is
his old original leg not attached to him. What happens
with the pastry war because he drives frants out, but
the conflict isn't resolved, and they I think they need
some help from British diplomat.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, they help out in broker an agreement in which
Mexican government has to pay that six hundred thousand pays
demand that the French insisted upon, including the cost of
the pastry shop in question.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Because that guy's still that's the thing that gets me.
That guy still lives there.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
He still lives there. Yeah, I don't know. It seems
like it would be a stretch. But the French forces
take off and everything for the most part goes back
to normal. But these guys are going to come to
heads again later down the line, Like I think in
the mid eighteen hundreds, there's another conflict that's a.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Story for another day.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Santa Ana has his og leg buried at his hacienda
in Vera Cruz.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
But there's more, Yes, there absolutely is. So now he's
a war hero again, and he is. You know, when
people first have a kid, every conversation inevitably turned into
something about their baby. The leg he lost in the
Pastry War is like this baby he just had, and
(18:06):
he's constantly reminding everyone in Mexico who will listen, that
he sacrificed his leg. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Apparently he would hold his prosthetic leg over his head
during military parades to remind people of the sacrifice that
he made for his beloved country. But so he essentially
returns back to retirement after this pastry War. He did
his duty, he came back out, fought the good fight,
(18:34):
lost a leg.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, so he would take it slow after this, Right,
most people would consider that a warning sign or you know,
a notification from the universe that perhaps your battle days
are done. In eighteen forty two, Santana is once again
the president of Mexico because, as we said, he comes
(18:56):
in and out several times.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well, yeah, according to his autobiography, Ana, his autobiography, which
is just rife with hyperbole. It's a lot of fun.
It's called the Eagle. It was only sixty two days
after he lost the leg that General Guadalupe Victoria asked
him at the behest of the government to come back
to the capitol and said that there was a revolution
(19:20):
brooding and that the government wanted him to take the
current president, Anastasio Bustamante's place as a temporary president during
this difficult time.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
And this quote just.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Really speaks to the megalomania of this gentleman. How well
the people knew me. They knew I would never desert
my principles and would always be on hand when my
country needed me. I was carried to the capital on
a litter, like one of those things with the sticks
in the chair. Right, is that what palaqui? Yeah, exactly,
(19:53):
like some sort of like returning Greek hero or something
like that. Right, carried to the capital on a litter.
Although my trip was made with extreme care, the hardships
of the journey and the change of climate weakened me. However,
despite my poor health, poor guy, I assumed the office
of president immediately.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, he assumed the office of president. He also there's
some speculation that we have to engage in here. Noel,
he also enjoys the uh, enjoys the pop culture status
he is acquiring in Mexico. Now he is not only
a lauded general, he's not only the president. He's also
(20:36):
a very much a celebrity. And so soon after Santa
Anna really leans into this celebrity status, he has his
original his physical leg. Dug up, just take it exhumed yeah,
from his estate. Uh huh and reburied, but this time
buried with full military honors. Wait for a yeah, just
(21:01):
the like, just the leg. Okay. But it was a
really classy event. No. They had they had orations, they
had you know, honor guards, they had cannons firing, and
they had poetry performed written exclusively for this event. In fact,
ridiculous historians. We have a couple of examples of this. Oh, man, Ben,
(21:21):
are you gonna do a dramatic reading?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I think you are too. All right, I'll play, I'll
play you go first. You wanna play these reindeer games?
Of course? Here is the English translation of a poem
titled sonnet, and we'll just is it a sonnet or
a poem? The name of this piece is son. I
like it? Yeah, such complete triumph. What victory, admirable Santa Anna,
(21:47):
you have attained politics management, all has changed, Valiant liberal
for your glory, tremble Scottish rite and enter the dross.
Consume yourself where all you have lost. Do not dare
look upon the illustrious hero, be off, We want no
memory of you. Come, Holy liberty, Come and wrest from
your toils. What do you have to fear from the tyrants?
(22:10):
If the free man gives his life for you to God,
we have sworn his brothers that those that have oppressed you,
we Mexicans, must wake war upon him.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
All right, Ben, you've ticked the poetry box beautifully.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Might I add I'm going to give.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
You sort of a little soliloquy, I guess, kind of
just almost a oration a eulogy ode, yes, exactly, a
eulogy to the leg Why should anyone criticize if a
funeral performed for the foot, arm, or hair of an
illustrious general passions always tarnish merit with malevolence, and really
(22:45):
do not wish true merit celebrated. So answer quickly and
with confidence. Why should we not honor merit in the
lifeless limb of a great and heroic causio, which was
the Spanish word for a military hero or official. Why
should anyone criticize to make this fitting obloquy to a
sacrificed limb, not to the man, but to what he
(23:06):
has given fearlessly for the fatherland. It would be unjust, ungrateful, foolish,
and disloyal to claim it is not lawful or right
that a lone foot have a tomb or mausoleum, that
a funeral is performed. I'm gonna skip to the last line.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Well quick at rejection obliqui is a public criticism or
verbal abuse. So I' saying it's ridiculous for people to
say anything bad about this foot. Ah, why would you this?
I mean, he's obviously earned it. But I'm in this moment.
I'm gonna skip a little bit.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
The last line is what I think is really really
what sews it up. Did Artemisia not hide the ashes
of Masilus in her breast? Mausillus being a ruler in
the fourth century who basically created the notion of a
mausoleum or a giant or a tomb that he had
erected for himself, but I shall continue.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
And believe this the only remedy.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Here's where it gets good. She did her duty. So
today Mexico erects a tomb reaching to the sky, covering
with ardent hope, a jewel of history and giving glory
to the foot, arm or hair.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
We can go ahead and do the polite open mic
poetry slam fingerclap, which is just snapping your fingers. So, yes,
it's true. He buried his leg. It reburied it. Rather,
it was in a crystal vase, tremendously ornate event, and
people were into it. The thing about it being the
(24:43):
top dog, however, is that when you're in this king
of the Hills situation, you don't have a lot of stability.
In eighteen forty four, public opinion turned against the president.
People tore down the statues of him. They dug his
leg up again. Yeah, and then let drag it through
(25:03):
the streets chanting with the death to the cripple, Oh,
which is ugly.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
What did he do to.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Earn that kind of public iire? Well, it appears that
he ruled in a much more dictorial style. Imagine that, Yeah,
the Napoleon of the West. So they jailed dissidents to
suppress opposition. You know, there's not a free press. He
(25:33):
led some unpopular campaigns. He wasn't able to control the
elections of eighteen forty two, and a lot of the
folks who were elected at that time were vigorously against
the kind of policies he was pursuing. He also raised taxes.
It's always a dicey move if you were at the
(25:54):
levers of power. Several Mexican states just stopped dealing with
the central government. They declared themselves independent. So eventually he
tries to flee the country in December of eighteen forty four,
but he is unsuccessful. He is apprehended near Zeko Vera, Cruz,
(26:16):
and he is imprisoned. He is exiled to Cuba. When
is this It's January of eighteen forty five when he's caught.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Oh okay, So I think what happened was when the
tied public opinion turned against him. It was basically a
full rebellion, and he did his damnedas to squash this rebellion,
but it obviously did not work out for him, and
he ended up being exiled. Correct, Yeah, yeah, okay. But
during this time, there's a quote from his autobiography that
(26:44):
I just love, he says this. Speaking of criticism or
mockery of his fake leg, he says, stop, I don't
wish to hear any more, Almighty God, a member of
my body lost in the service of my country, dragged
from the funeral urn, broken into bits to be made
(27:05):
sport of in such a barbaric manner.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Boy, you're laying it on thick there. Yeah, that's the
benefit of writing from retrospect. And of course everybody is
the main character of their own story, right.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
So that's kind of where we lose track of the
real leg. But this is sort of just the beginning
of the story of the fake leg. This is the
that was the first leg of the episode. This is
the second leg of the episode. Ben, Yeah, thank you
for bringing it back.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Here we are. So he would die, one would imagine
in exile in Cuba. However, that is not what happened.
You see, the United States declared war against Mexico in
eighteen forty six, and this famous one legged general is
called back to serve his country in the Mexican American War.
(27:52):
It is keep pulling him back, yeah, And so during
the Battle of Cerro Gordo, in eighteen forty seven, another
leg related incident occurs, and Noel, you wanted to explore
this historical event through the use of a clip an
excerpt from a show that you say is very important
(28:14):
and personally close to you. That is King of the Hill. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
King of the Hill is my happy place show. I'm
really sad that it's not on any of the streaming
services anymore. But I was able to dig this up
from a DVD that I have of this particular season.
The episode is called the Final shin Salt and it
opens with Peggy Hill as a substitute teacher because as
we know, that's what Peggy Hill does of her son
Bobby's history class, Texas history. And they're doing a little
(28:40):
play that sums up this very event.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
So you just play it, right, Yeah, let's do it now.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
In preparation for our field trip, your classmates are going
to act out a little known episode of Mexican American history.
The year is eighteen forty seven.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
General Santa Anna I led the Mexican army at the
Almo where we defeated Texas. We are at the Battle
of Sarah Gordo eleven years later, and we are hungry sir,
I will hold your artificial leg while.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
You eat chicken.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Attack.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
Look out, it's the Illinois Volunteer Infantry up on.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
General.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I stole your fake leg.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Oh well, that was beautiful. That was just inspired.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
So yeah, I mean, need we say more? I guess not.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
So there's a little artistic license with that particular clip.
But the way I've read it is that Santa Ana
knew that the Illinois soldiers were approaching, and he hastily retreated,
leaving his carriage abandoned, complete with.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
His half eaten roasted chicken, about eighteen thousand dollars in
gold in gold, and one more thing, yep, his fake leg.
So this prosthetic leg becomes a trophy piece. People were
flocking to county fairs to pay a little bit of
money to get a peek at this relic, and eventually
(30:21):
it fell into the possession of the Illinois State Military Museum.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, because I guess they were the ones that the
soldiers from Illinois were the ones what got it. It
seems a little odd though, that it would end up
in Illinois, considering that Texas had much more of a
close connection with General Santa Anna and his memorabilia.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Right, right, and in the recent years, even unto the
modern day, this possession of Santa Anna's leg has become controversial.
So in Texas in the modern day, several groups of
people are petitioning Illinois to return the leg, the prosthetic
(31:05):
leg of Santa Ana to Texas. You can read about
this in the Chicago Tribune. You can read about this
in the museum site itself. But it does seem unusual,
doesn't it that it would end up in Illinois, of
all places, simply because the people who originally captured the
(31:25):
leg were themselves from Illinois. It's true, it's actually.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
This is a museum in Texas called the Sanya Sinto
Museum of History that has tons of Santa Ana memorabilia.
They have like a glove, and they have like silverware
that he left behind during the Battle of Sanya Sinto, plates,
all kinds of things related to this historical figure. But
what they don't have and would very much like to have,
(31:51):
is that fake leg. But Illinois is not giving it
up anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
No, unfortunately for the people wish to see it returned.
The directors the management of both the museum and the
Illinois Department of Military Affairs are not budging. Colonel Brad Layton,
the public affairs director of the Illinois Department of Military
Affairs as recently as two thousand and sixteen, said when
(32:23):
asked if they would ever return this leg to Texas,
he said, the answer is no. We paid for that
leg with Illinois blood, and so Nola. There's another quote
that you found from the same King of the Hill episode,
the Final shin Salt, and in this clip we can see.
(32:45):
This clip's a little bit different because they're taking a
sort of an alternative universe approach, but we can see
how many people would react to the mention of Santa Anna's.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Leg, especially a grizzled Texas war hero like Grandpa Hill Cotton,
one of my favorite characters in the show.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Here we go, h Hank.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
That reminds me we need some chaperones for Bobby's class trip.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
We're kind of taking Bobby Vegas.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
There's a general and exhibit at the museum. We didn't
play about him in school, and I was one of
his privates.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Yeah, yeah, I know all about Santy Anny. We got
his walking law under glass. Neil Noise, I'm glad to.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Say, actually, Cotton, the leg is coming through Arlend America
is finally returning the leg to Mexico.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
What take it easy, Dad, Take it easy, you see, Bobby.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Your dadis generations giving away everything we fought them. Pennym
off the nail, Mexican legs. You people give back down
these papers that you have him.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
And while the real life prosthetic is not traveling to Mexico,
or at least not as we record this, the clip
does a decent job of depicting the emotions involved. And
now the Lake Storre means in Illinois and the people
who could return it to Texas are categorically against it,
(34:03):
so it looks set to stay there. Yeah. It's also
Mexico wants it back.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
All the while Santa Ana, even during his life, was
petitioning to get it back, and Mexico has continued to
ask for it back. You can kind of see why
Illinois would be so fond of the leg. They went
so far as to name one of their cities after
the Battle of Sarah Gordo, which took place in Mexico,
Sarah Gordo, which means fat hill.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Right. Yeah, and at this point I'm probably wondering what
happens to Santa Ana. After he has lost his leg
that he spends, you know, much of his later life
petitioning to have returned. From eighteen fifty five to eighteen
seventy four, he lived in exile in various parts of
(34:53):
the world, in Cuba, Columbia, the United States, the island
of Saint Thomas. A lot of Napoleon analogs here right right,
like Saint Helena and Elba. He had left. He being
Santa Ana, had left Mexico due to his unpopularity. After
his defeat in eighteen forty eight. He participated in different
(35:16):
gambling businesses and other industries, hoping that he would become rich.
Oh we didn't even talk about his marriages, did you
know what? He had a habit of marrying wealthy teenage
women for the for the financial benefits, like heiresses. Kind
of yeah. And one of the one of the legends
(35:37):
is that during one of his weddings, he didn't show
up to the ceremonies. What a piece of work. I
guess he was busy. He could work it. I mean,
you know, everybody knows scheduling is tough for anything. Well,
so one of the things he did in his later
(35:58):
life in the eighteen fifty he brought the first shipment
of chickle to New York. Chickley is Gum. Yeah, we
helped introduce chewing gum to the United States. He originally
intended it to be used in tires, which makes sense,
you know at the time. But he had hoped that
(36:21):
he could hang out with his friend, an inventor named
Thomas Adams, and create a rubber substitute, which a lot
of people were looking for in this day and age,
and unfortunately they could not use the chickle a in
that application. However, Adams figured out that if he added
flavorings and sweeteners to the plant, to the chickl he
(36:45):
could create quote rubber chewing gum, and the company that
Adams started would become one of the largest in the
United States, rivaled only by that of William Wrigley Junior
of Wrigley Gum. A good juicy fruit Yeah, oddly enough,
I don't know if we've mentioned it on this show,
but you know, juicy fruit is an entirely manufactured flavor.
(37:08):
It doesn't exist. Yeah. They made it up synthetically and
that's why it's not That's why it is not tied
to any specific fruit flavor.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, but it's still you know, it has the waft
of a fruit like flavor. Right, yeah, last thing only
because we we skipped it.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
We probably should have brought this up earlier.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Apparently the Illinois Infantry, the fourth Illinois Infantry, actually captured
as an additional Santa Ana leg.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
That's true. Yes, yeah, we should mention that.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yeah, because the one that people think about and get
all worked up about is you know, the full Monty
cork manufactured prosthetic. But that one would have been probably
a little more difficult to put on. So as a secondary,
as a backup, he also had something of a more
humble peg leg and apparently Lieutenant Abner double Day like
(38:00):
to use it as a baseball bat. And it's on
display right here in our town of Atlanta Decatur, in fact,
at the former governor's mansion, Oglesby Mansion.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
So we should check that out. We should do a
field trip, and we should also bid adieu to Antonio
Lopez de Santa Ana. What a winding and twisted story
this one was. Now there is a good dating, at
least on a personal level. In eighteen seventy four, under
the terms of a general amnesty, he was able to
(38:30):
return home to Mexico. His vision had deteriorated to a
extreme degree due to the development of cataracts. He was
largely dismissed or ignored by the government of the time,
and he hadn't been in politics since eighteen fifty five. Eventually,
(38:51):
he passed away at his home in Mexico City in
eighteen seventy six, at the age of eighty two. He
was buried in a glass coffin. That's cool, like snow white,
and imagine, you know, for someone who lives a such
a violent life and war, it's it's kind of like
winning the lottery to die in peace at your own home.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Not to mention at eighty two, Yeah, life expectancy back
in those days was was not not near that in
two have you know life expectancy for soldiers of course, yeah,
but just in general, right, I mean, you know, pretty
pretty impressive that he made it that far and had
gone through so much intense stuff.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
But yeah, that's not that's it's not a happy ending exactly,
but it's it's a little dignity for this mavericky, complex
peacock of a man. Yeah, it's it's bittersweet, but it
is peaceful and that's the you know, there's nothing wrong
with that. You can't be angry at that. However, however,
(39:51):
you can visit Illinois, you can visit Atlanta, and you
can see these legs in person if you would like
to check out, at least in the case of Illinois,
a relic that traveled the United States as a tourist attraction.
If you do happen to go there, please send us
some photos. I would like to see it, if you
(40:13):
could take a selfie in front of the leg. And
I know this brings us back to the earlier question
that we explored in the Corpses in the Diorama episode,
which is about ownership and ethics in museum collections. What
do you think quotes? Should Illinois retain possession of this leg?
(40:34):
Does it belong in Mexico? Does it belong in Texas?
Does it belong somewhere else? And if so, why let
us know. You can find us on Instagram, You can
find us on Twitter. You can check out our Facebook
page Ridiculous Historians, where you can meet your fellow listeners,
and you can also find myself. You can find cases.
(40:54):
You can find nol jumping in commenting on some threads lurk.
I still haven't posted. I still have and post a
response to his favorite historical jerk.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
And apparently we're going to get some glamour shots of
Casey during his lucrative child modeling career when he returns
from Fronts.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Which is a true story. I can't wait to see.
I can't wait to see who his fake dad is.
Oh that's right, Yeah, he's got a thing. He was
telling us about that off air. So thank you as
always very much for listening. Thank you to our super
producer Casey Pegrim. Thank you to our guest producer Eaton Brown.
Give me a high five. Yeah that we'll fix it
(41:37):
in posts now, that's good. That was the sound of camaraderie.
And of course thank you to Alex Williams who can
post our track. Thank you to our awesome researcher Christopher Hasi.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Ortis, and thank you to you for being you and
being the best you that you could possibly be and
listening to ridiculous history. Join us next time where we
talk about a crime fighting gorilla in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
It's going to leave it right there, see you. Then
let's play out with some old home on the Range Music, A.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Home on the Range, where Lady and the Apples. For
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