Italians in Mexico

The Italian presence is very old in Mexico and remains vibrant today, particularly in the arts and entertainment these days. Italian immigrants and Italo-Mexicans have impacted Mexican history from the very beginning from the Italian explorers and missionaries in the early period of Spanish America and the War of Mexican Independence from Spain which created modern Mexico as we know it today. Italo-Mexicans have served as soldiers, generals, presidents, business leaders, athletes, musicians and actors. One very famous early figure was Leona Vicario who was a great heroine of the Mexican War of Independence. Orphaned at a young age, she supported the independence movement by carrying messages, hiding revolutionary leaders from the Spanish authorities, raising money and delivering medicine to the rebel forces. During the course of events she married the rebel hero Andres Quintana Roo (who has a state named after him in southern Mexico), she was thrown in jail and kept under close watch until independence was achieved by Emperor Agustin I in 1821. She is the only woman to date to have been given a state funeral when she died in 1842 and a commission authorized by President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna named her the “Sweet Mother of the Fatherland”.



General Lombardini

In 1836, during the Texas War of Independence against Mexican President Santa Anna, the deputy-commander of the Mexican army in Texas was the Italian-born General Vicente Filisola, one of the most talented military commanders in Mexico at the time. One of the younger officers in that campaign was Colonel Manuel Maria Lombardini, a veteran of the Mexican War of Independence, the Pastry War with France and the Mexican-American War in which he won great fame for heroism. A staunch conservative, he was a leader in the Jalisco revolt against General Mariano Arista in 1853, supporting his old chief Santa Anna, and was President of Mexico for a few months before Santa Anna could return to take up the office again. He famously wrote a letter to the leading Mexican conservative (and staunch monarchist) Lucas Alaman, about the future of the conservative movement in Mexico and the return of Santa Anna to power. Afterwards he served as the Chief of Staff of the Mexican Army, Commander of the Army and commander of the Mexico City garrison before his death in 1853.

In 1909 an Italian immigrant to Mexico named Don Dante Cusi (from Brescia) founded the town of Nueva Italia (“New Italy”) in the state of Michoacan as a colony for Italian immigrants. Nueva Italia was an early success, developing the largest irrigation system in all of Latin America and becoming the leading producer of cotton, rice, melon and maize in Mexico. Dante Cusi also founded the town of Lombardia, which is today the seat of government of the municipality of Gabriel Zamora also in the state of Michoacan. Many of the Italian immigrants to these communities in Mexico came from northern Italy, many during the traumatic years of unification. Later Italian immigrants to Mexico in the late 19^th and 20^th Centuries would be more from the south. Most settled in central Mexico and in coastal areas. Some of the first groups came during the short-lived second Mexican Empire of Emperor Maximilian who had previously been the last Austrian Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia. Things were often difficult for the first to settle, but over time they prospered and today Italo-Mexicans enjoy a very high status in Mexican society.

Giuseppe Garibaldi II

Of course, because of his adventures in South America, Mexicans were very familiar with the name of Giuseppe Garibaldi during the unification of Italy but they would become even more familiar with his grandson. Giuseppe Garibaldi II (named for his grandfather) was born in Australia but fought alongside revolutionary forces all over the world. In 1897 he fought with the Greeks against the Ottoman Turks, then with the revolutionaries of Venezuela and other parts of Latin America and, in an ideological about-face, fought for the British Empire against the Boers in South Africa. He came to Mexico in 1910 when the Mexican Revolution broke out in struggle to bring down the long-time dictator Porfirio Diaz. Garibaldi had sufficient experience to become a lieutenant colonel in the revolutionary army of Francisco I. Madero and he fought in a number of victorious battles against the government forces. His greatest fame came for his actions at the battle of Nuevo Casas Grandes for which a square in Mexico City was named “Plaza Garibaldi” in his honor. Unfortunately for Garibaldi, he ran afoul of general/bandit Pancho Villa who dismissed him from the Mexican Army after the battle of Juarez in 1911. Garibaldi went back to Europe, fought in the Balkan War of 1912, joined the French army in World War I and later the Italian army when Italy entered the conflict (he and his men wearing red shirts under their uniforms to honor The Thousand). However, his deeds in Mexico were never forgotten and Plaza Garibaldi still bears his name in Mexico City.

In recent decades the Italo-Mexican community has made a great name for themselves across a wide spectrum of industries. In 1976, with the election of President Jose Lopez Portillo (PRI) Mexico gained a First Lady of Italian descent, Carmen Romano, and in 1985 the first Mexican to travel in space was the Italo-Mexican astronaut Rodolfo Neri Vela who is also one of the leading research scientists in the country. Jared Borgetti, the holds the record for scoring the most goals ever in the Mexican national football team, is an Italo-Mexican and many of the leading artists, singers and actors in the entertainment industry today are Mexicans of Italian heritage. In recent years more Italian enclaves have sprung up in Mexico in coastal resort areas and in the hospitality industry as Italians have retired to Mexico (where the exchange rate allows a higher standard of living) or because of those simply looking for new opportunities. The vast majority of Italo-Mexicans no longer speak Italian, though the language survives in certain areas, and while all are adamantly patriotic Mexican citizens, as anywhere they remain proud of their Italian roots.

Vicente Filisola, Italian General in Mexico

A longtime figure in the early history of independent Mexico, General Vicente Filisola could always be counted on to be among the forces of the most conservative and loyalist faction. He was born in 1789 in Ravello, Italy but moved to Spain with his family when he was quite young. On March 17, 1804 he entered the Spanish army, starting what was to be a lifelong military career. He earned promotion to second lieutenant after six years of dedicated service and In 1811 was sent to New Spain (modern Mexico) to serve with the forces charged with suppressing the attempted revolution launched by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Filisola was a dedicated and loyal officer in the Spanish army and earned numerous promotions. His most important action, however, was becoming a close friend to his fellow officer Agustin de Iturbide.

Iturbide, also a leader in the Spanish army, had fought for the King of Spain against the revolutionaries but was the most prominent of a growing group of Mexican conservatives who believed that Spain was becoming too liberal, that Mexican independence was inevitable and that they could and should take the lead in the revolution to direct it to a more traditional and less radical conclusion. Filisola supported Iturbide in his "Plan of Iguala" which called for an independent Mexican monarchy, originally intended to remain part of the Spanish Empire, based on the guarantees of unity, independence and religion. Filisola was given command of the Army of the Three Guarantees and the rank of brigadier general. When Iturbide himself was persuaded to lead the independent Mexico as Emperor Agustin I, General Filisola was dispatched to the south to bring Central America into the new Mexican Empire.

Filisola succeeded in his assignment, taking control of Central America and ensuring that Imperial Mexico stretched all the way from northern California to Panama. However, when Emperor Agustin lost his throne as a result of the treachery of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the Central American nations broke away and Filisola returned to Mexico for a new assignment with the new republican government. Almost immediately, the new government faced the issue of immigration from the United States. Iturbide had been working out an agreement for the establishment of Anglo colonies in Texas and after a time the Mexican Republic continued the program. Invasions by Filibusters or land pirates had long been a problem, but the Anglo colonists were mostly loyal to the new Mexican constitution of 18124. However, the growing number of Anglo colonists alarmed many in Mexico and efforts were slowly put in place to halt immigration and increase the Mexican presence in Texas.

General Filisola, on October 12, 1831, was given a grant to settle 600 families in East Texas who could be anyone except Anglo-Americans. However, this was land which the government had promised to the Cherokee Indians in 1823 and Filisola was never able to establish his colony and his short term as an empresario came to nothing. Nonetheless throughout the 1820's and early 1830's General Filisola held a number of important commands in the Mexican army, including holding command of the eastern internal provinces which he was given in January of 1833. However, it was in 1835 that Filisola received what was to be his most important appointment. It was in 1835 that the province of Texas had risen up, captured all of the important posts in Texas and after a long hard battle in San Antonio had expelled the Mexican garrison commanded by General Martin Perfecto de Cos, the brother-in-law of the Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

General Santa Anna immediately began raising an army to retake Texas and crush or expel the entire Anglo population. General Vicente Filisola was made deputy commander of this force, named the Army of Operations in Texas, and was second only to Santa Anna himself. Santa Anna marched first on San Antonio where less than 200 Texans had barricaded themselves in the old Spanish mission known as the Alamo. The battle was a victory for Mexico, albeit an extremely costly one. General Filisola arrived with his troops three days after the Alamo had fallen since the massive size of the Mexican army meant that the main body was stretched out with units several days march apart. Later, General Filisola wrote down many observations about the campaign, commenting on the determined bravery of the Mexican soldier and the vanity of Santa Anna who would listen to nothing that was not in agreement with the ideas of Napoleon Bonaparte. Filisola also considered the assault on the Alamo a costly and unnecessary waste of manpower, pointing out that if Santa Anna had only waited for his heavy artillery to arrive they could have shelled the crumbling mission to rubble without risking the life of a single Mexican soldier.

After the battle, Santa Anna pushed his army relentlessly forward in pursuit of Texas General Sam Houston who was retreating north. Overconfident, Santa Anna was oblivious to the strategic danger he placed himself in and took a smaller part of his army ahead in the hope of capturing Houston personally. At San Jacinto, Houston cut Santa Anna off from General Filisola and the main army and launched a surprise attack on the sleeping Mexicans. Santa Anna suffered a stunning defeat and was himself captured and forced to order his army back to Mexico and recognize the independence of Texas. General Santa Anna sent orders to General Filisola to withdraw the army back to San Antonio. General Filisola ordered the retreat, but not simply to San Antonio, but all the way across the Rio Grande to Mexico. Because of this, General Filisola earned the total wrath of many of his subordinates and in time his retreat from Texas became the single most remembered action of his life.

General Filisola would spend much of the rest of his life explaining and answering for taking the army out of Texas. Santa Anna, it was argued, had given the order under duress and so Filisola was not bound to obey it. However, General Filisola said he would have ordered the retreat even without an order from Santa Anna because the military situation left him no other option. General Santa Anna had taken huge losses at the Alamo and San Jacinto, and deep in enemy country and could expect no reinforcements while the atrocities committed by Santa Anna continued to draw outraged volunteers from the United States to aid the Texans. The Mexican army had been pushed to exhaustion pursuing Houston, their supply lines had broken down and huge numbers were down with dysentery. Filisola, who had a higher regard for his soldiers than anyone, said that nature had left them no option but to withdraw or risk losing the rest of the army.

No instructions reached Filisola from Mexico City until he had crossed the Nueces River when he was ordered to hold what territory had been retaken. He offered to march back north, but it was clearly apparent that the army could not bear the task. They were weak, malnourished, poorly equipped and their morale was sapped. Filisola continued on to Matamoros and on June 12, 1863 command of the army was given to General Jose Urrea, the most victorious officer of the campaign, and Filisola resigned his post of deputy commander, turning the position over to General Juan Jose Andrade. He retired to Saltillo but was able to answer the charges other officers had made against him, accusing him of cowardice and treason for ordering the retreat, when he was court-martialed by the Mexican government. General Filisola presented the facts, gave his side of the story and was properly exonerated in June of 1841. He also wrote extensively, detailing what had happened on the failed Texas campaign and explaining his own actions. When the Mexican-American War broke out General Filisola was recalled to service and commanded one of the three divisions in the Mexican army. He died not long after the war on July 23, 1850 during a cholera epidemic in Mexico City.