Happy Publication Day! 03/15/2022

4.5/5

Combining fact and fiction, Reyna Grande’s A Ballad of Love and Glory is a beautifully penned novel set against the backdrop of the Mexican American War (1846-1848). The story begins in March 1846 with Ximena Salome Benitez y Catalan, standing at a port on the Gulf of Mexico watching as Yankee ships pass through the inlet and the cavalry of the Army of Occupation of the United States of America make an entrance.

After Texas becomes the twenty-eighth state of the Union, the US looked to expand their territories and a dispute arises around the ownership of the land around the Rio Grande. Joaquin, Ximena’s husband joins the guerilla fighters in defending their homeland and in a tragic turn of events is killed by the Texas Rangers and their home and property destroyed forcing Ximena and her Nana Hortencia to flee and seek shelter with family in Matamoros. She is a gifted healer, having learned at the hands of her grandmother and she eventually becomes a nurse to injured soldiers in the Mexican Army using her knowledge of herbal remedies to ease their pain and suffering even being requested to treat the injuries of the leader/President Mexican general/president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

On the other side of the war, we meet John Riley in Fort Texas on the Rio Grande, an Irishman serving the US Army. Originally from Galway, he has left his wife Nelly and young son back in Ireland in hopes of saving earning enough money for the safe passage of his family so that they could begin a better life. After initially enlisting in the British Army, he later moved to North America finally joining the US Army where he and his fellow countrymen are paid poorly and provided the bare minimum despite being promised much more. They also face nativist hostility and humiliation in the hands of the American soldiers and leaders not to mention being given the harshest punishments for minor offenses from being bound and gagged in the harshest of heat to having their skin branded with hot iron if found drunk/hungover. Many immigrant soldiers have defected and joined the Mexican Army who treat them with respect and provide fair compensation and living conditions as compared to their American counterpart. Initially, Riley remains loyal to the vows he took while enlisting for the sake of his honor and thoughts of his family back home in Ireland which is under British dominion with the countrymen suffering in the hands of the British government. Eventually though, after bearing witness to the inhuman treatment meted out to his fellow soldiers, he joins the Mexican Army. The plight of the Mexicans reminds him of that of his homeland which faces similar treatment at the hands of the British . His superiors taking note of his years of military experience encourage him to form The Saint Patrick’s Battalion - the artillery of foreign soldiers under Irish Leadership. Ximena and Riley meet when she rescues and nurses Riley’s friend /fellow countryman Jimmy Riley back to health after he is injured while attempting to cross the river over to the Mexican side with John. They gradually grow closer and become a pillar of support for one another amid the raging war.

As the war continues, we follow Ximena and Riley’s journey from Matamoros to Monterreythen on to San Luis Potosí, Mexico City, and Churubusco. The author delves deep into the volatile political landscape and atrocities of war. Grande’s description of the war marches and the devastation of the cities and the inhabitants are hard to take in.

“This is what conquerors do to the conquered,” Riley said.“They build their empires on the stones and ones of those they defeat.”

This is an extremely well-researched novel that sheds a light on a part of history that isn't much talked about. The author in her notes talks about the historical facts that inspired this work of fiction. John Riley and his battalion are based on the real Private John Riley who deserted the US Army on April 12, 1946 and joined the Mexican Army later forming the Saint Patrick's Battalion. Ximena, the character was based on Ximena a Mexican Woman who “tends to the wounded from both sides of the battlefield” mentioned in John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “The Angels of Buena Vista”.

Both Ximena and Riley and their love story will capture your heart as will the characters of Nana Hortencia, Jimmy Maloney and Patrick Dalton. This is a slow-paced but engaging read. The vivid imagery of the landscape, powerful narrative and brilliant characterization will hold you riveted. I enjoyed the historical angle immensely, not having much prior knowledge of the same. The hardships that the army and those accompanying their fighting men face – the hunger, fatigue, exposure to the harshest weather are heartbreaking. The author also sheds a light on the self-serving motives of the leaders who are responsible for the dire conditions and lack of basic amenities these brave men and women are facing and how personal ambition often overshadows concern for the greater good. The author takes special care to acknowledge the contribution and sacrifices of the “Mexican “soldaderas” —wives, mothers, daughters— who followed their men into battle to serve as cooks, laundresses, and nurses, and, when the need arose, even took up arms alongside their men.” This is a story about war and survival, love and sacrifice, faith and resilience. In A Ballad of Love and Glory, the author tells us a story not just about Ximena and Riley but about all the men and women (and their countries) whose lives and destinies are changed irrevocably on account of war and its aftermath.

“Along with the other soldaderas, Ximena remained on the ridge overlooking the battle grounds. As the cannons and muskets crashed and roared, and the crack of the rifles and the clanging hooves of the cavalry reverberated over the battlefield, she thought of the worst storms she’d witnessed in San Antonio de Béxar and the Río Bravo region, when the clapping thunder and vivid flashes of lightning seemed to be splitting the heavens above. She’d never imagined she would one day witness storms even worse than those—with gunpowder flashes and bombs exploding, with a hail of cannon balls falling upon the battlefield. This darkening storm was deadlier and more sinister than any created by nature. For this one was manmade, forged by greed, vanity, tyranny.”

Thanks to Ms. Grande for sending me a digital review copy of this heart-wrenchingly beautiful novel. All opinions expressed here are my own. ( )