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Mexican museum chronicles repeated invasions of nation

Chris Hawley
Republic Mexico City Bureau
Sept. 16, 2006 12:00 AM


MEXICO CITY - Most countries have museums to remember their victories in war. But in a little-visited corner of this city, tucked away in a former monastery, Mexico has a museum about its defeats.

It's called the National Museum of the Interventions, a polite word for all the invasions, occupations and other indignities that Mexico has suffered at the hands of France, Spain, Great Britain and the United States. As Mexico celebrates Independence Day today, the museum stands as a monument to how fragile that independence has been.

"This museum was created with the clear purpose of fomenting the Mexican identity," Director Alfredo Murillo Hernández said. "People who come here . . . get to see how Mexicans defended their sovereignty and fought back against the abuses of other countries."

The museum is packed with battle maps, war medals, weapons and even the death mask of Emperor Maximilian, the Austrian prince who briefly ruled Mexico.

The museum is frank about Mexico's weaknesses, such as the corrupt institutions and lack of national unity that made the country a tempting target for invasion during the 19th century.

"We have to know what has happened to our country so that these things don't happen again," museum visitor Angela Villanueva said.

For Americans, the museum offers a dramatically different view of U.S history.

Explorers Lewis and Clark are painted as illegal trespassers on Spanish territory. President James Polk is described as an imperialist who plotted the invasion of Mexico from the minute he took office. One display alleges American war hero Winfield Scott knowingly bombed Mexican civilians after refusing to allow women and children to leave the city of Veracruz in 1847.

But the museum is equally blunt about Mexico's French and Spanish enemies. It also notes the cruelty of Mexican dictator Porfirio Diáz, the political chaos that led to many foreign incursions, and the failure of Mexico to colonize its northern territories and defend against U.S. expansionism.

"I think people find this museum a little uncomfortable," said María Elena Rivero Reyes, 70, as she roamed the displays with her grandson. "No one wants to see the ugly side of their history."

The museum occupies the former Churubusco Monastery, a complex of several buildings and gardens where Mexican forces held 6,000 American troops at bay until finally running out of ammunition during the U.S.-Mexican War in August 1847.

When the American commander ordered the captured Mexicans to hand over their weapons and ammunition, Gen. Pedro Anaya reportedly growled, "If there were any ammunition, you wouldn't be here."

Mexico City fell on Sept. 13, 1847, ending the war and forcing Mexico to eventually cede present-day California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and parts of Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. It also gave up any claims over Texas.

Present-day Arizona appears in the museum as part of Mexico's Alta California and New Mexico Territories. One map labeled "The Mutilation of the Territory" explains the 1853 Gadsden Purchase, in which Mexico was forced to sell the southern strip of Arizona to the United States.

The museum gets about 115,000 visitors a year, and fewer than 1 percent of them are foreigners, Murillo said. Mexico City's famous anthropology museum sees about 1.6 million visitors a year.

But on a recent weekday, Mexicans visiting the museum said they were inspired by room after room filled with proof of their country's resilience in the face of repeated invasions.

"We had some victories, too," said 12-year-old Mario García Ronzón. "It's our history, and we shouldn't be ashamed of it."