Latest / Ridiculous History / How Santa Anna Lost His Leg Twice, and Held a Funeral for It

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How Santa Anna Lost His Leg Twice, and Held a Funeral for It · Ridiculous History

0:23
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, Friends and neighbors. As you can
0:26
Speaker 1: tell from the background music playing gently behind us, we
0:32
Speaker 1: are Texas bound in today's episode. I'm bed loping along
0:37
Speaker 1: on our our ponies, get along, little dog that stuff.
0:41
Speaker 1: I'm no um and we're riding on the range today.
0:45
Speaker 1: We are We're riding around the great American West points
0:51
Speaker 1: north and south. We are joined in spirit with our
0:55
Speaker 1: super producer, Casey Pegram, who is still away in France. Man,
1:01
Speaker 1: I bet he's living it up, you know. And I
1:04
Speaker 1: know I know he is, or at least doing Casey's
1:06
Speaker 1: version of living it up, because I was texting with
1:07
Speaker 1: him the other day and I was like, Man, you're
1:09
Speaker 1: having a blast. He goes, yeah, I man, I just
1:11
Speaker 1: saw a ten hour film that does sound like him. Yeah,
1:14
Speaker 1: when I was what I was talking to him. Uh,
1:18
Speaker 1: I always have to check to see if this is
1:21
Speaker 1: going to be the trip where he decides to stay
1:23
Speaker 1: in France. So do us a favor right to him,
1:26
Speaker 1: Let him know that he has to come back at
1:29
Speaker 1: some voy because it's just not the same without him. Yeah.
1:31
Speaker 1: It's kind of like when a band gets back together
1:33
Speaker 1: but they have a different lead singer. Have you ever
1:36
Speaker 1: been to a concert like that, No, but I do remember.
1:39
Speaker 1: The thing that always comes to mind is when um
1:41
Speaker 1: Ozzy left Black Sabbath and was replaced by Ronnie James Dio.
1:47
Speaker 1: That just seemed that seemed like heresy, which I guess
1:50
Speaker 1: is in character for a band called Black Sabbath. Sure,
1:53
Speaker 1: and that's a good point. But before we go too
1:57
Speaker 1: far off the rails of this, I gotta say it's
2:01
Speaker 1: no Dan Ondo nor On Osborne to say that they
2:06
Speaker 1: they're just not comparable. I mean, d o has rocked
2:09
Speaker 1: for a long long time, but now it's time for
2:11
Speaker 1: him to pass the torch back to Ozzie. And both
2:14
Speaker 1: both of these performers are legends. And speaking of fantastic segues,
2:20
Speaker 1: today's episode is about alleged we got there, you did
2:23
Speaker 1: it man, alleg gent allegedly, allegedly, allegedly a leggy legend.
2:33
Speaker 1: My girlfriend this morning called me the the King of
2:36
Speaker 1: dad jokes. She did not mean it as a compliment.
2:39
Speaker 1: I don't think there's anything wrong with doing dad. It's
2:42
Speaker 1: a niche, man, you know, one which uh we squarely occupy,
2:46
Speaker 1: and I'm proud of it. Most I think most people
2:49
Speaker 1: make dad jokes. In fact, we're unfairly impinging upon dad's
2:54
Speaker 1: I agree, Dad bod dad jokes. It's like a term
2:58
Speaker 1: of abuse. It's a very weird anti ad thing that
3:01
Speaker 1: goes on. You know what, though, being a dad is
3:03
Speaker 1: the only thing that got us a producer in the
3:04
Speaker 1: studio today, because today we are joined with our guest
3:07
Speaker 1: super producer Eden Brown. Okay, I see where you're going
3:14
Speaker 1: with that, and thank you eating for saving the show.
3:17
Speaker 1: So there's this alleged uh hero of today's story. Yes,
3:21
Speaker 1: this allegedly leggy legend better known as Antonio Lopez de
3:28
Speaker 1: Santa on A. That is a mouthful allegedly leggy legend. Man,
3:34
Speaker 1: we could do we could do another leg of that,
3:36
Speaker 1: I think big time. So this guy Santa Anna. You
3:40
Speaker 1: may have heard of him before. He was born on
3:42
Speaker 1: February one, seventeen ninety four, and he was a tremendously
3:49
Speaker 1: influential politician. In general, we wouldn't call him a war lord,
3:56
Speaker 1: but he knew his way around a battlefield. Over the
3:58
Speaker 1: course of his life, he would uh ruled Mexico eleven
4:02
Speaker 1: different times. Yeah, world class legoomaniac. Yeah, he's gonna keep
4:07
Speaker 1: this rolling. Sure we could uh. He was often described
4:12
Speaker 1: as the Napoleon of the West by himself, also a
4:15
Speaker 1: world class manufacturer of lore pertaining to his favorite guy,
4:20
Speaker 1: General Santa Ana himself. He is probably most famous, at
4:24
Speaker 1: least in the United States today for his activity during
4:28
Speaker 1: the Texas Revolution from eighteen thirty five to eighteen thirty six,
4:32
Speaker 1: notorious sacker of the Alamo. Right, there were some Texan
4:37
Speaker 1: rebels because as we know, Texas was ruled by Mexico,
4:42
Speaker 1: and Texas didn't want to do that anymore. They wanted
4:45
Speaker 1: there to be their own thing, and so, uh, this
4:48
Speaker 1: a very small group of Texan rebels posted up at
4:53
Speaker 1: the Alamo, which was an old Franciscan like monastery I believe,
4:57
Speaker 1: and they were able to fend off Santa Anna and
5:00
Speaker 1: his armies for something like thirteen days, I want to say, right,
5:04
Speaker 1: and they earned this defense with blood. There were about
5:08
Speaker 1: a hundred Texans that were garrisoned at the Alamo, and
5:11
Speaker 1: the Texas force grew a little bit with the reinforcements
5:16
Speaker 1: led by Commanders James Bowie and William Travis. But wasn't
5:22
Speaker 1: Daniel Boone there too? Yeah, there were there were a
5:24
Speaker 1: lot of It was like a wou Tang clan Posse track.
5:28
Speaker 1: But it was, you know, a war, and apparently we're
5:31
Speaker 1: supposed to remember it, and by gosh, we do, right, right,
5:34
Speaker 1: And that's why you'll hear the battle cry remember Goliad
5:40
Speaker 1: Remember the Alamo on I think it was first recorded
5:44
Speaker 1: on the twenty one April in eighteen thirty six. During
5:48
Speaker 1: the Battle of the Alamo, Santa Anna's forces killed a
5:51
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty nine Texans and then later executed more
5:56
Speaker 1: than three prisoners. Not popular fellow in in Texas history,
6:02
Speaker 1: as we will come to discover right in this episode,
6:05
Speaker 1: right right, not a popular fellow, but he got stuff done.
6:09
Speaker 1: It's true. He is sort of remembered similarly to Napoleon
6:13
Speaker 1: in that ultimately he ended up losing a lot of
6:16
Speaker 1: the stuff that he gained through this kind of thirst
6:21
Speaker 1: for conquest. Right yeah, And there's an interesting part about that.
6:27
Speaker 1: It will come into play later. I'll remember to bring
6:29
Speaker 1: it up before we in the episode. So before we
6:33
Speaker 1: get to one of my favorite wars of this episode, well,
6:37
Speaker 1: why don't you tell us a little bit about the
6:39
Speaker 1: events that occurred after the album, which is briefly, all
6:42
Speaker 1: those those Alamo centric atrocities you mentioned probably really got
6:46
Speaker 1: the Texan rebels fired up, and they ultimately won their
6:50
Speaker 1: independence when they defeated Santa Anna's forces during the Battle
6:54
Speaker 1: of Sanya Sinto on April one, eighteen thirty six. Santa
6:58
Speaker 1: Anna and his forces were defeated, and he signed a
7:01
Speaker 1: treaty to give Texas their independence from Mexico. Right and again.
7:07
Speaker 1: That is where the famous the famous call to arms
7:11
Speaker 1: or the famous rallying cry remember the Alamo originates. Santa
7:15
Speaker 1: Anna was held captive in Texas and uh he eventually
7:22
Speaker 1: managed to return to Mexico in eighteen thirty seven after
7:26
Speaker 1: he met with US President Andrew Jackson. So he lived
7:31
Speaker 1: in exile. He traveled back to Mexico a defeated man,
7:34
Speaker 1: and he needed a winnel. He needed something to change
7:38
Speaker 1: the winds of fortune. In eighteen thirty eight, he found
7:43
Speaker 1: a chance. But it was it was a very strange thing.
7:46
Speaker 1: It's one of my is one of my favorite names
7:48
Speaker 1: in today's show. He became involved in something called the
7:52
Speaker 1: Pastry War. That's right after he sort of was able
7:56
Speaker 1: to more or less free himself from exile, he posted
8:00
Speaker 1: up in a pretty cushy hacienda in Vera Cruz, where
8:04
Speaker 1: he more or less retired and he was kind of
8:07
Speaker 1: just kicking it. They're doing his thing, and then this
8:09
Speaker 1: thing called the pastry war Uh flared up. What's the
8:12
Speaker 1: pastry war band? That sounds delicious. I'm delayed, you asked.
8:16
Speaker 1: So there's another geo political thing going on here. France
8:20
Speaker 1: is super unhappy with the Mexican government at this time
8:24
Speaker 1: because they have unpaid debts that they had incurred during
8:27
Speaker 1: the Texas Revolution of eighteen thirty six. And these were
8:31
Speaker 1: quite significant debts. We're talking about six hundred thousand pasos.
8:37
Speaker 1: So when a baker living near Mexico City, a little
8:41
Speaker 1: bit outside of it, when he a French baker, a
8:44
Speaker 1: French baker, yes, when he claims that the Mexican army
8:48
Speaker 1: ransacked his bakery and he demands compensation to the tune
8:52
Speaker 1: of what was it, sixty thousand pasos sixty that's right,
8:56
Speaker 1: which was an exorbitant inflation of what the bakery was
8:59
Speaker 1: valued at, which is more in line with like a
9:00
Speaker 1: thousand pasos Yeah, actually a little bit less right. And
9:05
Speaker 1: the chef whose name today we know him only as
9:08
Speaker 1: a Remontel, he found some very sympathetic ears in the
9:14
Speaker 1: French government because he took the case directly to the
9:18
Speaker 1: king of the time, Louis Philippe, and Louis said, they
9:23
Speaker 1: gave this ultimatum with this pretext for for the conflict,
9:28
Speaker 1: for the pastry war. They gave this ultimatum to Mexico
9:31
Speaker 1: and they said, all right, give us six hundred thousand
9:35
Speaker 1: pasos that includes the sixty thousand for this guy's pastry shop.
9:41
Speaker 1: The Mexican Congress said their version of heck noo, are
9:44
Speaker 1: you crazy? And so in the spring of the French
9:48
Speaker 1: navy began a blockade of seaports along the Gulf of Mexico,
9:53
Speaker 1: all over one French bakery. It must have been a
9:56
Speaker 1: great bakery, maybe, Yeah, I guess it was just kind
9:58
Speaker 1: of like the straw that the French ponies back. There
10:03
Speaker 1: was the excuse that they used. Yeah, it was the uh,
10:07
Speaker 1: the string that dropped the guillotine exactly. It's very, very,
10:10
Speaker 1: very interesting the way these kind of powder kegs can
10:13
Speaker 1: be set off by a single event, like the assassination
10:15
Speaker 1: of a single Archduke Franz Ferdinand, setting off all of
10:20
Speaker 1: the events that with multiple players that that let you
10:23
Speaker 1: know that world World War One that we're already seething. Yeah,
10:25
Speaker 1: but that's the thing. It's so interesting throughout history you
10:27
Speaker 1: see these little kind of flashpoint moments that taken on
10:30
Speaker 1: their own, you wouldn't think would be that big a deal,
10:33
Speaker 1: but they can set off this chain reaction that becomes
10:36
Speaker 1: quite a kerfuffle. Right, And just like the case with
10:40
Speaker 1: World War One and transferred and in there's the question
10:43
Speaker 1: of whether it had to be these specific flashpoint events
10:48
Speaker 1: or would it have inevitably been something else. Because France
10:51
Speaker 1: was ready to go, it takes a while to get
10:54
Speaker 1: ships across the Atlantic. They were steamed about that cash,
10:58
Speaker 1: you know, because they're like, hey, we helped you out
11:01
Speaker 1: and you failed, ultimately in your endeavor um to uh,
11:06
Speaker 1: you know, quash these rebels, uh, and now pay up.
11:11
Speaker 1: And the US, by the way, also piled on into Mexico.
11:15
Speaker 1: They sent a schooner to assist in the blockade. This
11:18
Speaker 1: stalemate drags on and on until November and the French
11:24
Speaker 1: warships start bombarding island fortresses. Mexico officially declares war on France,
11:32
Speaker 1: and within days French marines are raiding the city and
11:36
Speaker 1: they captured nearly the entire Mexican navy. Desperate to get
11:42
Speaker 1: these monsters out of their fair city and out of
11:45
Speaker 1: their country, Mexico turned to Santa Anna. There's a great
11:51
Speaker 1: article on history dot com that goes through some of
11:54
Speaker 1: the chronology of this and they refer to Antonio Lopez
11:58
Speaker 1: de Santa Anna as being a grizzled warrior. I love
12:02
Speaker 1: that because at this point, you know, he's had his
12:04
Speaker 1: his day, his heyday. He's already ruled like what four
12:07
Speaker 1: times at this point, I don't know, I lose track.
12:10
Speaker 1: He keeps going into retirement, coming out of retirement, going back,
12:14
Speaker 1: they keep pulling him back in like in like the
12:17
Speaker 1: Godfather movies or whatever. And so like me at a buffet,
12:20
Speaker 1: of course, the buffet you want to like get your
12:23
Speaker 1: fill ben people. I don't think we as a species
12:26
Speaker 1: are emotionally equipped to handle buffets. He's gotta keep going
12:29
Speaker 1: back to the trough, I mean, otherwise it's a it's
12:32
Speaker 1: a it's a sunken cost kind of situation. Yeah. But
12:35
Speaker 1: so back to this Greek descripture by Christopher Clyde right
12:37
Speaker 1: there right in there for History, Yeah, Santa Anna was
12:40
Speaker 1: was quite a big fan of Santa Anna and fancied
12:44
Speaker 1: himself sort of a ruler of the people. So he
12:46
Speaker 1: was all too ready to jump back into the fray,
12:50
Speaker 1: and um, you know, he really had a thirst for
12:53
Speaker 1: like being the guy that was gonna hop back in
12:55
Speaker 1: and save Mexico's but and people were into it too,
13:00
Speaker 1: of course, so he raises his own army. He comes
13:03
Speaker 1: out and says something along the lines of I am
13:05
Speaker 1: Santa and helped me defend the city from these French
13:09
Speaker 1: savage exactly, And they're all about it. So they're able
13:13
Speaker 1: to drive Santa Ana's army that he forms are able
13:15
Speaker 1: to drive French forces away from the city and at
13:18
Speaker 1: least back to their ships. And picture this. This is
13:22
Speaker 1: one of those flashpoint moments in history. Santa Anna is
13:26
Speaker 1: on horseback, he's literally chasing these guys out of town
13:31
Speaker 1: when a cannon fires and the shot from the cannon
13:37
Speaker 1: knocks his horse out from under him and gets him
13:39
Speaker 1: in the leg. It's like what they call it grape shot, yeah,
13:43
Speaker 1: which is kind of like when you think of buckshot
13:46
Speaker 1: buckshot shotgun shells loaded with like these tiny little ball bearings.
13:50
Speaker 1: I guess that just kind of like spray everywhere, right,
13:54
Speaker 1: but probably larger if it's coming from a cannon. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
13:57
Speaker 1: it's a massive, small metal. I mean buckshots a great description.
14:01
Speaker 1: It's uh not not a good pleasant way to go
14:04
Speaker 1: and also often bound in canvas. Oh so yeah, it's
14:10
Speaker 1: it's ugly. It would almost be like a pipe bomb
14:12
Speaker 1: going off, you know, that's just spraying shrapnel everywhere. And
14:16
Speaker 1: it also still the timing of it stinks because he
14:19
Speaker 1: pretty much won, and there's that parting shot sort of
14:23
Speaker 1: like in the Lord of the Rings where spoiler alert,
14:26
Speaker 1: Gandalf manages to stop the bow rog and then at
14:30
Speaker 1: the very end that that crazy lava whip grabs him,
14:35
Speaker 1: pulls him down into the abyss. There you go. Gandalf,
14:38
Speaker 1: the Santa Anna of Lord of the Rings also very
14:41
Speaker 1: into himself, now that I think about it, it's true,
14:43
Speaker 1: but you know, with good reason. He earned it. So
14:45
Speaker 1: what happens? What happens next? They got him out of there, right, yeah,
14:48
Speaker 1: they got him out. But you know, we said his
14:52
Speaker 1: leg was wounded, but how how wounded? Was it? Very?
14:56
Speaker 1: As it turns out, had they couldn't save the leg,
15:02
Speaker 1: but could not save the leg ben um, it had
15:04
Speaker 1: to come off, yep. So he had his leg removed
15:09
Speaker 1: and he had a prosthetic built, but he was still
15:13
Speaker 1: he was still in the game. And this is this
15:18
Speaker 1: is one of the craziest parts of this story. This
15:20
Speaker 1: isn't the craziest craziest part, but this is a strange one.
15:24
Speaker 1: So picture this. He has he has driven the French
15:29
Speaker 1: out of town, but he has not yet won the war.
15:33
Speaker 1: He's one leg down. He has a prosthetic and he
15:35
Speaker 1: has his amputated leg which has been with him through
15:38
Speaker 1: thick and thin. Real leg when it was connected to
15:41
Speaker 1: his body the o g leg got it, and pay
15:44
Speaker 1: attention to that leg because that's gonna come into play later.
15:48
Speaker 1: So right now we have two legs. One is prosthetic,
15:51
Speaker 1: one is his old original leg not attached to him.
15:55
Speaker 1: What what happens with the pastry war? Because he drives
15:58
Speaker 1: Frands out, but the confant isn't resolved and they I
16:01
Speaker 1: think they need some help from British diplomats. Yeah, they
16:04
Speaker 1: help out and broker an agreement in which Mexican government
16:09
Speaker 1: has to pay that six hundred thousand pay so demand
16:14
Speaker 1: that the French insisted upon, including the cost of the
16:18
Speaker 1: pastry shop in question. Because that guy is still That's
16:22
Speaker 1: the thing that gets me. That guy still lives there.
16:24
Speaker 1: He still lives there. Yeah, I don't know, it seems
16:26
Speaker 1: like it would be a stretch, but um, the French
16:29
Speaker 1: forces take off and everything for the most part goes
16:31
Speaker 1: back to normal. Um, but these guys are going to
16:34
Speaker 1: come to heads again later down the line, like I
16:37
Speaker 1: think in the mid eighteen hundreds, there's another conflict. But
16:40
Speaker 1: that's that's a story for another day. Santa Anna has
16:44
Speaker 1: his o g leg buried at his hacienda in Vera Cruz.
16:49
Speaker 1: But there's more, Yes, there absolutely is. So now he's
16:53
Speaker 1: a war hero again, and he is. You know, when
16:58
Speaker 1: people first have a kid, every conversation inevitably turns into
17:04
Speaker 1: something about their baby. The leg he lost in the
17:07
Speaker 1: Pastry War is like this baby he just had, and
17:10
Speaker 1: he's constantly reminding everyone in Mexico who will listen, that
17:15
Speaker 1: he sacrificed his leg. Yeah. Apparently he would hold his
17:18
Speaker 1: prosthetic leg over his head during military parades, um to
17:23
Speaker 1: remind people of the sacrifice that he made for his
17:26
Speaker 1: beloved country. Um. But so he he essentially returns back
17:30
Speaker 1: to retirement after this Pastry War. He did his duty.
17:35
Speaker 1: He came back out thought the good fight. Lost a leg. Yeah,
17:40
Speaker 1: so he would take it slow after this, right, most
17:42
Speaker 1: people would consider that a warning sign or you know, uh,
17:46
Speaker 1: a notification from the universe that perhaps your battle days
17:50
Speaker 1: are done. In eighteen forty two, Santana is once again
17:55
Speaker 1: the president of Mexico because, as we said, comes in
18:00
Speaker 1: and out several times. Well. Yeah, according to his autobiography,
18:03
Speaker 1: sent Anna's autobiography, which is just rife with hyperbole. Uh,
18:07
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun. It's called the Eagle. Um.
18:10
Speaker 1: It was only sixty two days after he lost the
18:13
Speaker 1: leg that General Guadalupe Victoria asked him at the behest
18:18
Speaker 1: of the government to come back to the capital and
18:22
Speaker 1: said that there was a revolution brooding and that the
18:25
Speaker 1: government wanted him to take the current president, Anastasio Busta
18:30
Speaker 1: Monte's place as a temporary president during this difficult time. Um.
18:36
Speaker 1: And this quote just really speaks to the megalomania of
18:40
Speaker 1: this gentleman. How well the people knew me. They knew
18:44
Speaker 1: I would never desert my principles and would always be
18:47
Speaker 1: on hand when my country needed me. I was carried
18:50
Speaker 1: to the capital on a litter like one of those
18:54
Speaker 1: things with the sticks in the chair, right, is that
18:56
Speaker 1: what hoquin? Yeah? Exactly, like some sort of like returning Uh,
19:00
Speaker 1: the hero or something like that. Right carried to the
19:02
Speaker 1: capital on a litter Although my trip was made with
19:05
Speaker 1: extreme care, the hardships of the journey and the change
19:08
Speaker 1: of climate weakened me. However, despite my poor health, poor
19:12
Speaker 1: guy I assumed the office of president immediately. Yeah, he
19:17
Speaker 1: assumed the office of president. He also there's there's some
19:21
Speaker 1: speculation that we have to engage in here, nol. He
19:24
Speaker 1: also enjoys the enjoys the pop culture status he is
19:32
Speaker 1: acquiring in Mexico. Now he is not only a lauded general,
19:36
Speaker 1: he's not only the president. He's also a very much
19:41
Speaker 1: a celebrity. And so soon after Santa Anna really leans
19:47
Speaker 1: into this celebrity status. He has his original his physical
19:51
Speaker 1: leg dug up, just take it, exhumed from his estate,
19:56
Speaker 1: uh huh, and reburied, but this time raid with full
20:01
Speaker 1: military honors for a leg. Yeah, just the leg, just
20:05
Speaker 1: the leg. But it was a really classy event. Noal,
20:08
Speaker 1: They had they had orations, they had um you know,
20:12
Speaker 1: honor guards, they had cannons firing, and they had poetry
20:17
Speaker 1: performed written exclusively for this event. In fact, ridiculous historians.
20:21
Speaker 1: We have a couple of examples of this man Ben,
20:25
Speaker 1: Are you gonna do a dramatic reading? Yeah, I think
20:27
Speaker 1: you are too. All right, I'll play, I'll play you
20:30
Speaker 1: go first, you play these reindeer games. Here is the
20:34
Speaker 1: English translation of a poem titled sonnet and we'll just
20:39
Speaker 1: is it a sonnet or a poem? The name of
20:43
Speaker 1: this pieces? Sont I like it? Yeah? Such complete triumph.
20:48
Speaker 1: What victory, admirable Santa Anna, you have attained politics management
20:53
Speaker 1: all has changed, valiant liberal for your glory, tremble Scottish
20:58
Speaker 1: right and enter the draws. Consume yourself. We're all you
21:01
Speaker 1: have lost. Do not dare look upon the illustrious hero.
21:05
Speaker 1: Be off, We want no memory of you. Come, Holy liberty,
21:09
Speaker 1: Come and rest from your toils. What do you have
21:12
Speaker 1: to fear from the tyrants? If the freeman gives his
21:15
Speaker 1: life for you to God, we have sworn his brothers
21:18
Speaker 1: that those that have oppressed you, we Mexicans, must wake
21:22
Speaker 1: war upon him. All right, Ben, you've ticked the poetry
21:26
Speaker 1: box beautifully. Might I add, I'm gonna give you sort
21:29
Speaker 1: of a little soliloquy, I guess, kind of just almost
21:32
Speaker 1: a um oration ade, Yes, exactly, a eulogy to the
21:38
Speaker 1: leg Why should anyone criticize of a funeral performed for
21:42
Speaker 1: the foot, arm, or hair of an illustrious general. Passions
21:47
Speaker 1: always tarnished merit with malevolence, and really do not wish
21:50
Speaker 1: true merits celebrated. So answer quickly and with confidence. Why
21:53
Speaker 1: should we not honor merit in the lifeless limb of
21:56
Speaker 1: a great and heroic causio which was the Spanish word
22:00
Speaker 1: for a military hero or official. Why should anyone criticize
22:05
Speaker 1: to make this fitting obloquy to a sacrificed limb, not
22:08
Speaker 1: to the man, but to what he has given fearlessly
22:11
Speaker 1: for the fatherland. It would be unjust, ungrateful, foolish, and
22:15
Speaker 1: disloyal to claim it is not lawful or right that
22:18
Speaker 1: alone foot have a tomb or mausoleum, that a funeral
22:22
Speaker 1: is performed. I'm gonna skip to the last line, well
22:25
Speaker 1: quicker rejectually. Obloquy is public criticism, verbal abuse of saying.
22:30
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous for people to say anything bad about this
22:34
Speaker 1: foot man himself. Why would you this? I mean, he's
22:37
Speaker 1: he's obviously earned it. But I'm I'm gonna skip a
22:41
Speaker 1: little bit um. The last line is what I think
22:43
Speaker 1: is really really what shows it up, did Artemisia not
22:46
Speaker 1: hide the ashes of Mausolus in her breast? Mausolus being
22:50
Speaker 1: a ruler in the fourth century who basically created the
22:54
Speaker 1: notion of a mausoleum or a giant or anate tomb
22:57
Speaker 1: that he had erected for himself. Um, but I shall
23:00
Speaker 1: continue and believe this the only remedy. Here's where it
23:03
Speaker 1: gets good. She did her duty. So today Mexico erects
23:07
Speaker 1: a tomb reaching to the sky, covering with ardent hope,
23:11
Speaker 1: a jewel of history and giving glory to the foot,
23:15
Speaker 1: arm or hair. We can go ahead and do the
23:19
Speaker 1: polite open mic poetry slam finger clap, which is just
23:23
Speaker 1: snapping your fingers. So yes, it's true. He buried his leg.
23:30
Speaker 1: It reburied it rather was in a crystal vase. Was
23:34
Speaker 1: tremendously ornate event, and people were into it. The thing
23:45
Speaker 1: about being the top dog, however, is that when you're
23:49
Speaker 1: in this King of the Hills situation, you don't have
23:54
Speaker 1: a lot of stability in public opinion turned against the press,
24:00
Speaker 1: people tore down the statues of him. They dug his
24:04
Speaker 1: leg up again. Yeah, and then let drag it through
24:07
Speaker 1: the streets, chanting with the death of the Cripple, which
24:12
Speaker 1: is ugly. What do you what did you do to
24:14
Speaker 1: to to to earn that kind of public ire. Well
24:19
Speaker 1: appears that he ruled in a much more dictorial style.
24:24
Speaker 1: Imagine that, Yeah, the Napoleon of the West. So they
24:28
Speaker 1: jailed dissidents to suppress opposition. You know, there's not a
24:34
Speaker 1: free press. Uh. He led some unpopular campaigns. He wasn't
24:39
Speaker 1: able to control the elections of eighteen forty two, and
24:44
Speaker 1: a lot of the folks who were elected at that
24:47
Speaker 1: time were vigorously against the kind of policies he was pursuing.
24:53
Speaker 1: He also raised taxes. It's always a dicey move if
24:57
Speaker 1: you're at the levers of power. Se role. Mexican states
25:01
Speaker 1: just stopped dealing with the central government. They declared themselves independent.
25:07
Speaker 1: So eventually he tries to flee the country in December
25:11
Speaker 1: of eighteen forty four, but he is unsuccessful. He is
25:15
Speaker 1: apprehended near Zico Vera, Cruz, and he is imprisoned. He
25:22
Speaker 1: is exiled to Cuba. When is this It's January of
25:26
Speaker 1: eighteen forty five when he's gone. Okay, So I think
25:30
Speaker 1: what happened was when the tide of public opinion turned
25:33
Speaker 1: against him. It was basically a full rebellion, and he
25:36
Speaker 1: did his damnedest to squash this rebellion, but it obviously
25:39
Speaker 1: did not work out for him and he ended up
25:41
Speaker 1: being exiled. Correct, Yeah, yeah, okay, But during this time,
25:45
Speaker 1: there's a quote from his autobiography, Um that I just love.
25:50
Speaker 1: He says this, speaking of criticism or mockery of his
25:56
Speaker 1: fake leg, he says, stop, I don't wish to hear
25:59
Speaker 1: any more, are, Almighty God, a member of my body
26:02
Speaker 1: lost in the service of my country, dragged from the
26:05
Speaker 1: funeral urn, broken into bits to be made sport of
26:09
Speaker 1: in such a barbaric manner. Boy, you're laying it on
26:13
Speaker 1: thick there. Yeah, that's the benefit of writing from retrospect.
26:17
Speaker 1: And of course everybody's the main character of their own story, right,
26:21
Speaker 1: So that's kind of where we lose track of the
26:22
Speaker 1: real leg. But this is sort of just the beginning
26:26
Speaker 1: of the story of the fake leg. This is the
26:29
Speaker 1: that that was the first leg of the episode. This
26:31
Speaker 1: is the second leg of the episode. Thank you for
26:34
Speaker 1: bringing it back. Here we are so he would die,
26:38
Speaker 1: one would imagine in exile in Cuba. However, that is
26:41
Speaker 1: not what happened to see. The United States declared war
26:46
Speaker 1: against Mexico in eighteen forty six, and this famous one
26:50
Speaker 1: legged general is called back to serve his country in
26:54
Speaker 1: the Mexican American War and just keep pulling him back. Yeah,
26:59
Speaker 1: and so during the Battle of Sarah Gordo in eighteen
27:03
Speaker 1: forty seven, another leg related incident occurs. And no, you
27:08
Speaker 1: wanted to explore this historical event through the use of
27:14
Speaker 1: a clip and excerpt from a show that you say
27:16
Speaker 1: is very important and personally close to you, that is
27:19
Speaker 1: King of the Hill. Yeah. King of the Hill is
27:21
Speaker 1: my happy place show. I'm really sad that it's not
27:24
Speaker 1: on any of the streaming services anymore. But I was
27:26
Speaker 1: able to dig this up from a DVD that I
27:28
Speaker 1: have of this particular season. The episode is called the
27:31
Speaker 1: Final shin salt Um and it opens with Peggy Hill
27:35
Speaker 1: as a substitute teacher because as we know, that's what
27:38
Speaker 1: Peggy Hill does um of her son Bobby's history class,
27:42
Speaker 1: Texas History. And they're doing a little play that sums
27:46
Speaker 1: up this this very event. So you just play it, right, Yeah,
27:50
Speaker 1: let's do it now. In preparation for our field trip.
27:52
Speaker 1: Your classmates are going to act out a little known
27:54
Speaker 1: episode of Mexican American history. The year is eighteen forty seven.
28:03
Speaker 1: In General Santa Anna, I led the Mexican army at
28:06
Speaker 1: the Elmo where we defeated Texas. We are at the
28:12
Speaker 1: Battle of Sarah Gordo eleven years later, and we are hungry. Sir,
28:17
Speaker 1: I will hold your artificial leg while you eat chicken. Mhmt.
28:26
Speaker 1: Look out, it's the Illinois Volunteer Infantry up on General.
28:33
Speaker 1: I stole your fake leg. Oh well, that was beautiful.
28:39
Speaker 1: That was just inspired. So yeah, I mean, need we
28:42
Speaker 1: say more? I guess not. So there's a little artistic
28:45
Speaker 1: license with that particular clip. But the way I've read
28:48
Speaker 1: it is that Santa Anna knew that the Illinois um
28:53
Speaker 1: soldiers were approaching, and he hastily retreated, leaving his carriage abandoned,
29:01
Speaker 1: complete with his half eaten roasted chicken, about eighteen thousand
29:05
Speaker 1: dollars in gold in gold, and one more thing, his
29:10
Speaker 1: fake leg. So this prosthetic leg becomes a trophy piece.
29:15
Speaker 1: People were flocking to county fairs to pay a little
29:19
Speaker 1: bit of money to get a peek at this relic,
29:23
Speaker 1: and eventually it fell into the possession of the Illinois
29:27
Speaker 1: State Military Museum. Yeah, because I guess they were the
29:31
Speaker 1: ones that the you know, the soldiers from Illinois were
29:33
Speaker 1: the ones. What what got it? It seems a little
29:37
Speaker 1: odd though, that it would end up in Illinois, considering
29:41
Speaker 1: that Texas um had much more of a close connection
29:45
Speaker 1: with with General Santa Anna and his memorabilia right right,
29:49
Speaker 1: And in the recent years, even unto the modern day,
29:55
Speaker 1: this possession of Santa Anna's leg has become controversial. So
30:01
Speaker 1: in Texas in the modern day, several groups of people
30:04
Speaker 1: are petitioning Illinois to return the leg, the prosthetic leg
30:10
Speaker 1: of Santa Ana to Texas. You can read about this
30:14
Speaker 1: in the Chicago Tribune. You can read about this in
30:18
Speaker 1: the museum site itself. But it does seem unusual, doesn't
30:23
Speaker 1: it that it would end up in Illinois, of all places,
30:26
Speaker 1: simply because the people who originally captured the leg where
30:30
Speaker 1: themselves from Illinois. It's true, Um, it's actually this. There's
30:33
Speaker 1: a museum in in Texas called the Sanya Sinto Museum
30:36
Speaker 1: of History that has tons of Santa Ana memorabilia. Um.
30:40
Speaker 1: They have like a glove, uh, and they have like
30:43
Speaker 1: silverware that he left behind during the Battle of Santa
30:46
Speaker 1: sinto um plates all kinds of things related to this
30:50
Speaker 1: historical figure. But what they don't have, uh and would
30:54
Speaker 1: very much like to have, is that fake leg. But
30:58
Speaker 1: Illinois is not giving it up anytime soon. No. Unfortunately
31:02
Speaker 1: for the people who wish to see it returned, the
31:07
Speaker 1: directors the management of both the museum and the Illinois
31:10
Speaker 1: Department of Military Affairs are not budgeting. Colonel Brad Layton,
31:16
Speaker 1: the public affairs director of the Illinois Department of Military
31:19
Speaker 1: Affairs as recently as two thousand and sixteen, said when
31:26
Speaker 1: asked if they would ever return this leg to Texas,
31:30
Speaker 1: he said, the answer is no. We paid for that
31:32
Speaker 1: leg with Illinois blood and so Nold, there's another quote
31:37
Speaker 1: that you found from the same King of the Hill episode,
31:42
Speaker 1: the Final shin Sult and in this clip we can
31:47
Speaker 1: see this clip is a little bit different because they're
31:50
Speaker 1: taking a sort of an alternative universe approach, but we
31:54
Speaker 1: can see how many people would react to the mention
31:58
Speaker 1: of Santa Anna's leg, especially a grizzled Texas war hero
32:03
Speaker 1: like Grandpa hill Cotton, one of my favorite characters in
32:06
Speaker 1: the show Here we Go, Hank. That reminds me we
32:10
Speaker 1: need some chaperons for Bobby's class trip. What kind of
32:12
Speaker 1: trip by Vegas? There's a general and exhibit the museum.
32:16
Speaker 1: We did at play about him in school and I
32:18
Speaker 1: was one of his province. Yeah, yeah, I know all
32:20
Speaker 1: about Santy Anny. We got his walking laud under glass.
32:23
Speaker 1: Neil Noise, I'm glad to say, actually, Cotton, the leg
32:26
Speaker 1: is coming through Arland. America is finally returning the leg, Tomco.
32:29
Speaker 1: What take it easy, Dad? Take it easy? You see Bobby,
32:34
Speaker 1: your daddy's generations giving away everything we fought for, pant
32:37
Speaker 1: him off the now Mexican leg people give back down
32:41
Speaker 1: to his backers that you had him. And while the
32:45
Speaker 1: real life press that A is not traveling to Mexico,
32:48
Speaker 1: or at least not as we record this. Uh. The
32:51
Speaker 1: clip does a decent job of depicting the emotions involved.
32:57
Speaker 1: And now the leg store means in Illinois and the
33:01
Speaker 1: people who could return it to Texas are categorically against it,
33:06
Speaker 1: so it looks set to stay there. Yeah, it's also
33:09
Speaker 1: Mexico wants it back all the while. Um sant Ana,
33:12
Speaker 1: even during his life, was was petitioning to get it
33:14
Speaker 1: back in Mexico has continued to ask for it back.
33:17
Speaker 1: You can kind of see why Illinois would be so
33:21
Speaker 1: fond of the leg um. They went so far as
33:24
Speaker 1: to name one of their cities after the Battle of
33:28
Speaker 1: Sarah Gordo, which took place in Mexico, Um sarah Gordo,
33:31
Speaker 1: which means fat hill. Right. Yeah, And at this point
33:37
Speaker 1: I'm probably wondering what happens to Santa Anna after he
33:42
Speaker 1: has lost his leg that he spends you know, much
33:45
Speaker 1: of his later life petitioning to have returned. From eighteen
33:51
Speaker 1: fifty five to eighteen seventy four, he lived in exile
33:55
Speaker 1: in various parts of the world, in Cuba, Columbia, the
33:59
Speaker 1: United States, the Island of St. Thomas. A lot of
34:02
Speaker 1: Napoleon analogs here right right, like Saint Helena and Elba.
34:08
Speaker 1: He had left. He being Santa Anna, had left Mexico
34:12
Speaker 1: due to his unpopularity after his defeat in a participated
34:19
Speaker 1: in different gambling businesses and other industries, hoping that he
34:25
Speaker 1: would become rich. Oh, we didn't even talk about his marriages.
34:28
Speaker 1: Did you know what he He had a habit of
34:30
Speaker 1: marrying wealthy teenage women for the for the financial benefits.
34:36
Speaker 1: Ariss is kind of yeah, and one of the one
34:40
Speaker 1: of the legends is that during one of his weddings,
34:44
Speaker 1: he didn't show up to the ceremonies. What a piece
34:47
Speaker 1: of work. I guess he was busy. He could work
34:50
Speaker 1: at it. I mean, you know, everybody knows scheduling is
34:52
Speaker 1: tough or anything. So one of the things he did
35:00
Speaker 1: in his later life in the eighteen fifties, he brought
35:04
Speaker 1: the first shipment of chick la to New York. Yeah,
35:10
Speaker 1: he helped introduce chewing gum to the United States. He
35:15
Speaker 1: originally intended it to be used in tires, which makes sense,
35:20
Speaker 1: you know at the time. But he had hoped that
35:25
Speaker 1: he could hang out with his friend inventor named Thomas
35:29
Speaker 1: Adams and create a rubber substitute, which a lot of
35:32
Speaker 1: people were looking for in this day and age, and unfortunately,
35:37
Speaker 1: they could not use the chick la in that In
35:40
Speaker 1: that application. However, Adams figured out that if he added
35:45
Speaker 1: flavorings and sweeteners to the plant to the chick la,
35:49
Speaker 1: he could create quote rubber chewing gum, and the company
35:53
Speaker 1: that Adams started would become one of the largest in
35:56
Speaker 1: the United States, rivaled only by that of William Wrigley Jr.
36:02
Speaker 1: Wrigley Gum. Yeah, I like a good juicy fruit. Yeah,
36:05
Speaker 1: oddly enough. I don't know if we've mentioned it on
36:07
Speaker 1: this show, but you know, juicy fruit is an entirely
36:10
Speaker 1: manufactured flavorage doesn't exist. They made it up synthetically, and
36:16
Speaker 1: that's why it's not that's why it is not tied
36:20
Speaker 1: to any specific fruit flavor. But it's still you know,
36:24
Speaker 1: it has the waft of a fruit like flavor. Right. Yeah,
36:29
Speaker 1: last thing only because we we skipped it. We probably
36:31
Speaker 1: should have brought this up earlier. Apparently the Illinois Infantry,
36:34
Speaker 1: the fourth Illinois Infantry, actually captured as an additional um
36:39
Speaker 1: Santa Ana leg that's true. Yes, yeah, we should mention
36:42
Speaker 1: because the one that people think about and get all
36:44
Speaker 1: worked up about is, you know, the full Monty cork
36:49
Speaker 1: manufactured prosthetic. But that one would have been probably a
36:53
Speaker 1: little more difficult to put on. So as a secondary,
36:56
Speaker 1: as a backup, he also had something of a more
36:58
Speaker 1: humble peg let egg uh and apparently Lieutenant Abner double
37:03
Speaker 1: Day like to use it as a baseball bat. And
37:06
Speaker 1: it's on display right here in our town of Atlanta, Decatur,
37:10
Speaker 1: in fact um, at the former governor's mansion, Oglesby Mansion.
37:14
Speaker 1: So we should check that out, we should do a
37:15
Speaker 1: field trip, and we should also bid a due to
37:20
Speaker 1: Antonio Lopez de Santa Ano. What a winding and twisted
37:24
Speaker 1: story this one was. Now there is a good There
37:27
Speaker 1: is a good ending, at least on a personal level.
37:29
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy four, under the terms of a general amnesty,
37:33
Speaker 1: he was able to return home to Mexico. His vision
37:37
Speaker 1: had deteriorated to a extreme degree due to the development
37:42
Speaker 1: of cataracts. He was largely dismissed or ignored by the
37:48
Speaker 1: government of the time, and he hadn't been in politics
37:51
Speaker 1: since eighteen fifty five. Eventually, he passed away at his
37:56
Speaker 1: home in Mexico City in eighteen seventy six, at the
38:00
Speaker 1: age of eighty two. He was buried in a glass coffin.
38:04
Speaker 1: That's cool, like snow white. And imagine, you know, for
38:08
Speaker 1: someone who lives a such a violent life in war,
38:12
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of like winning the lottery to die
38:15
Speaker 1: in peace at your own home. Not to mention at
38:17
Speaker 1: eight two, life expectancy back in those days was was
38:21
Speaker 1: not not near that. And to have, you know, life
38:24
Speaker 1: expectancy for soldiers of course, yeah, but just in general, right,
38:27
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it pretty pretty impressive that he
38:30
Speaker 1: that he made it that far and had gone through
38:32
Speaker 1: so much intense stuff. Um, but yeah, that's not that's
38:36
Speaker 1: that's not a happy ending exactly, but it's it's a
38:38
Speaker 1: little dignity for this mavericky, complex peacock of a man. Yeah,
38:44
Speaker 1: it's it's bitter sweet, but it is peaceful and that's
38:48
Speaker 1: you know, there's nothing wrong with that. You can't be
38:51
Speaker 1: angry at that. However, however, you can visit Illinois, you
38:57
Speaker 1: can visit Atlanta, and you can see these legs in
39:00
Speaker 1: person if you would like to check out, at least
39:04
Speaker 1: in the case of Illinois, a relic that traveled the
39:06
Speaker 1: Udinean States as a tourist attraction. If you do happen
39:11
Speaker 1: to go there, please send us some photos. I would
39:15
Speaker 1: like to see it if you if you could take
39:17
Speaker 1: a selfie in front of the leg and I you know,
39:21
Speaker 1: this brings us back to the earlier question that we
39:24
Speaker 1: explored in the Corpses in the Diorama episode, which is
39:28
Speaker 1: about ownership and ethics in museum collections. What do you think, folks,
39:34
Speaker 1: should Illinois retain possession of this leg? Does it belong
39:39
Speaker 1: in Mexico? Does it belong in Texas? Does it belong
39:42
Speaker 1: somewhere else? And if so, why let us know. You
39:45
Speaker 1: can find us on Instagram, you can find us on Twitter.
39:47
Speaker 1: You can check out our Facebook page Ridiculous Historians, where
39:51
Speaker 1: you can meet your fellow listeners, and you can also
39:55
Speaker 1: find uh myself. You can find case you can find
39:58
Speaker 1: Nolu jump and in commented on some threads. I still
40:02
Speaker 1: haven't posted, uh, I still haven't posted a response to
40:06
Speaker 1: his favorite historical jerk. And apparently we're going to get
40:10
Speaker 1: some glamour shots of Casey during his lucrative child modeling
40:14
Speaker 1: career when he returns from France, which is a true story.
40:19
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see. I can't wait to see
40:21
Speaker 1: who his fake dad is. That's right. Yeah, he's gonna
40:24
Speaker 1: think he was telling us about that off air. So
40:28
Speaker 1: thank you as always very much for listening. Thank you
40:31
Speaker 1: to our super producer, Casey Pegram. Thank you to our
40:35
Speaker 1: guest producer Eaton Brown. Give me a high five. Yeah,
40:40
Speaker 1: we'll fix itative posts. No, that's good. That was the
40:42
Speaker 1: sound of camaraderie. And of course thank you to Alex
40:46
Speaker 1: Williams who can post our track. Thank you to our
40:48
Speaker 1: awesome researcher Christopher Hascotis, and thank you to you for
40:52
Speaker 1: being you and being the best to you that you
40:53
Speaker 1: can possibly be. In listening to Ridiculous History, UM, join
40:56
Speaker 1: us next time where we talk about a crime fighting
40:59
Speaker 1: guerrilla UH in Johannesburg, South Africa. It's going to leave
41:02
Speaker 1: it right there, see that. Let's play out with some
41:06
Speaker 1: old Home on the Range music. Oh, Home on the
41:19
Speaker 1: Range where the de