The Child Heroes and the American Invasion of Mexico

Called the Niños Héroes, these 6 teenage cadets gave their lives rather than surrender to Americans during the invasion of Mexico City in 1847.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Welcome to Mexico Unexplained, where we will explore the magic,
the mysteries and the miracles of Mexico. This series presents
information based partly on theory and conjecture. The podcaster's purpose
is to suggest some possible explanation, but not necessarily the
only ones to the subjects we will examine. Here is
your host, Robert T. Bitto.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Welcome and weaveying beneath those to episode number one hundred
and eleven of Mexico Unexplained, where we examined the magic,
the mysteries, and the miracles of Mexico. I'm your host,
Robert Biddo. It was another beautiful day in Mexico City.
The date was Tuesday, March fourth, nineteen forty seven. The

(01:17):
thirty third President of the United States, Missouri born Harry S. Truman,
who was on an official state visit to Mexico, penned
this in his handwritten diary. Tuesday morning, lay a wreath
on soldiers monument with lots and lots of ceremony. Then
the Foreign Minister and I drive to Chapul de Peck,

(01:39):
where I place a wreath on the monument to the
Ninos Eroes Cadets who stood up to old fuss and
feathers until all but one was killed. He wrapped the
Mexican flag around himself and jumped two hundred feet to
his death. The monument where he fell had all the
cadets lined up, and the Foreign Minister and the commandant

(02:01):
of the cadets wept, so did newsmen and photographers. I
almost did myself. It seems that tribute to those young
heroes really set off the visit they had it coming.
End quote. After the ceremony at Chapultepec, a reporter asked
very somber President Truman why he would place a wreath

(02:24):
at a memorial to those who fought against the United States.
Truman replied, quote, brave men don't belong to any one country.
I respect bravery wherever I see it. End quote. In Mexico,
every school child knows the story of the ninos EROIs.

(02:44):
There are streets named for the child heroes, also translated
into English as boy heroes or hero cadets. In the
late nineteen eighties, the five thousand PACEO bill had the
likenesses of the boys proudly displayed on the front of
the note. The rarely seen modern day fifty pays O
coin honors them. There are even subway stations in Mexico

(03:08):
City and Monterrey called ninos Aroes. Very few people north
of the border know anything about these six brave cadets
or the circumstances that led to their untimely deaths. The
setting for the tragic story of the ninos Eroes is
one of the most beautiful vantage points in all of
Mexico City. Chapultepec or Hill of the Grasshopper in the

(03:32):
Aztec language Nawat rises two hundred feet above Mexico's capital
city and is now the focal point of an expansive
wooded urban oasis in this metropolis of over twenty five
million people. In seventeen eighty five, the Spanish Viceroy Bernardo
de Galves decided that the top of the hill would

(03:54):
be the perfect place for a stately home, and construction
began on his new residence immediately. The viceroy would never
occupy what amounted to the castle built on top of
the Grasshopper Hill, However, he died right before construction ended.
The property remained unoccupied for decades, and in eighteen o six,

(04:16):
the municipality of Mexico City bought the estate on the hill,
but didn't know what to do with it. What later
became known as chapul Depec Castle lay abandoned until eighteen
thirty three, when it was converted to use as a
military academy. Over a dozen years later, the site would
play an important role in the Mexican American War, a

(04:38):
conflict that seems almost lost to many modern day Americans.
In eighteen forty six, in the wake of the American
annexation of the Republic of Texas the year before, hostilities
increased between the United States and Mexico. The Mexicans never
recognized the independence of Texas, and with the annexation came

(05:00):
border dispute. Both Mexico and the United States claimed the
land between the Nuess River and the Rio grand and
when an offer made to Mexico to purchase the disputed
land was rejected, the newly elected American President James Polk
sent Major General Zachary Taylor to occupy the disputed territory.

(05:21):
The Mexicans burned an American fort on the Rio Grande
only after they attacked Taylor's force, killing a dozen men
and capturing over fifty Two days after President Polk's message
to Congress calling for war with Mexico. The United States
Congress approved the declaration of war. The date was May

(05:41):
twenty third, eighteen forty six. The following year, the Americans
were on the verge of capturing Mexico City. General Winfield Scott,
whom President Truman referred to as old fuss and Feathers
in his diary a century later, approached topulta Peck Hill
and sought as a strategic prize and a key to

(06:03):
conquering Mexico City. Scott assembled a Council of War on
September eleventh, eighteen forty seven, and drew up plans to
attack the hill. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna commanded
the Mexican army charged with defending Mexico City against the
American invasion. Santa Ana knew the importance of holding the hill,

(06:26):
but could spare no more men to defend it than
the amount that was already there. General Nicolas Bravo was
in command of the forces attached to Chapultepec Hill, and
the amount of men under him ranged from four hundred
to one thousand, including two hundred cadets, some as young
as thirteen years Old. At first light on September twelfth,

(06:49):
eighteen forty seven, the Americans began firing artillery against Chapultepec,
pounding the fortification all day until dusk. The Mexicans suffered
a mans casualties. On the morning of September thirteenth, General
Scott ordered an infantry attack on the hill, comprised of
three assault columns. Some five hundred intermen and marines stormed

(07:13):
the hill. Among the Americans present were a young captain,
Robert E. Lee, and a young General Franklin Pierce. The
Mexicans defended the hill valiantly, but a mere hour into
the infantry attack, General Bravo, assessing the situation as hopeless,
ordered a retreat. All soldiers and cadets ceased fighting and

(07:36):
evacuated their positions, except for six young cadets who would
rather fight to the death than surrender. Mexican history remembers
their names Juan de la Barrera, Francisco Marquees, Augustine Mehlgar,
Fernando Montesteoca, Vicente Suarez, and Juan Escutia, oldest of the

(07:59):
six at age nineteen. Juan de la Barrera was born
in Mexico City in eighteen twenty eight. The son of
an army general. He became a cadet at Chapultepec when
he was twelve years old, and at the time of
the Battle of chapul Depec he was a lieutenant in
the Military Engineers and a part time instructor at the

(08:20):
military Academy. He was defending the gun battery when the
Americans attacked from Guadalajara. Jalisco Francisco Marques was the youngest
of the ninos Eros. At age thirteen. Francisco became interested
in the military when his mother remarried a cavalry captain
named Francisco Ortis. Francisco Marques had entered the academy in

(08:44):
January of eighteen forty seven at the age of twelve
and belonged to the first company of cadets. He defended
the east flank of the hill. Augustine Mehlgar hailed from
Chihuahua City, the capital of the northern Mexican state of
the same same name, and was the son of Esteban Melgar,
a lieutenant colonel in the Mexican Army. As both his

(09:06):
parents died when he was very young, Augustine was raised
by his older sister until he entered the military academy
in November of eighteen forty six. Alone, he defended the
north side of the castle. Fernando Montesteoca was fifteen years
old at the time of the battle and was born
in the town of Ascapozalco, which was located just north

(09:30):
of Mexico City and is now considered one of the
boroughs of the Distrito Ferral. He had entered the academy
in January of eighteen forty seven and was the only
cadet left inside the castle to defend it. The last
of the child heroes, and perhaps the most famous, was
Juan Escutia, born in Tippek, the capital of the state

(09:52):
of Nyirite, some time between eighteen twenty eight and eighteen
thirty two. He was admitted to the academy as a
cadet just four days before the Battle of Chapultepec. He
is often portrayed as being a second lieutenant in an
artillery company, but his records, like most of those belonging
to the cadets, were lost in the battle and subsequent

(10:14):
US takeover of Chapultepec. All six of the ninos erost
died of gunshot wounds while defending their positions, except for
the last one mentioned here, Juan Escotia, as the last
one left alive on the hill, and with the Americans
moments away from his position, yng Juan pulled the Mexican

(10:35):
flag off the academy's flagpole, wrapped himself in it, and
jumped off the hill rather than surrender to the enemy forces.
His body was found on the eastern part of Chapultepec,
alongside that of his friend Francisco Marques. Like all historical events,
the story of the child heroes of Chapultepec Hill is

(10:59):
not without controversy. The story of the six cadets who
would rather fight to the death than surrender to the
invaders has morphed over time and has taken on an
almost religious significance in Mexican history. The ninos Eroes are
almost regarded as saints in the national pantheon. Since the

(11:19):
Battle of Chapultepec, and since the story spread throughout the country,
the cadets have been put under the microscope and examined.
Emotions run high in the defense of the story even
to this day, as evidenced by flame wars existing on
the Internet discussing whether the story is myth or history.
The first serious examination by historians began in the late

(11:43):
nineteen forties. Soon after President Truman's visit, the bodies of
six adolescent males were discovered in a shallow grave on
the south side of Chapultpec Hill. Without any forensic testing,
the government declared that it had discovered the bodies of
the child heroes. The famous Mexican historian and archaeologist Ulalio

(12:06):
Gusman Baron examined the remains and concluded that they were
of young men attached to the San Blas or Saint
Patricio regiments and not cadets from the military academy. The
government at the time did not like her conclusions, and
to take the focus off of this case, officials sent
Gusman to investigate claims that the remains of the last

(12:29):
Aztec emperor, Cuautemok had been discovered. The Queutemok distraction, not surprisingly,
was a wild goose chase, and Gusman never returned to
investigating the ninos Eros. In the years since Ulalia Gusman's investigations,
others have tried to prove or disprove the story of

(12:50):
the Brave Cadets, with mixed results. Some claimed that the
story was started by General Santana to incite the Mexicans
to fight more or fiercely against the Americans. The Six
Cadets have certainly been used for political purposes by many
Mexican politicians across time. During the dictatorship of President Porfiriodias

(13:13):
at the end of the eighteen hundreds, Dias used the
Ninos to reinforce a sense of national pride, and it
was during this time when the country went into a
naming frenzy and started to call streets and schools after
the child heroes. Records of these famous six are spotty
at best, but much was lost during the battle, and

(13:35):
much of the documentation on all the cadets at the
military academy does not exist, whether real or myth, or
combining bits or pieces of both. A trip to Mexico
City is not complete without a visit to Chapultepec Castle
and to stop at the glistening white six pillared monument
to honour the fallen Cadets. It's a solemn place that

(13:59):
still evoked tears for Mexicans and Americans alike, and perhaps
for good reason. Thank you once again for listening to
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(14:22):
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Once again, until next time, Thank you and gracias.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Thank you, but listening to another episode of Mexico Unexplained
with host Robert Bitto. For show summary, relevant links, and commentary.
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