The Empire of Yearning (29 page)

OAKLAND ROSS
is the author of the novel
The Dark Virgin
, the travel memoir
A Fire on the Mountains
, and
Guerrilla Beach
, a collection of stories that was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award. A features writer for the
Toronto Star
, he spent several years based in Jerusalem as the paper’s Middle East correspondent. Before that, he covered Latin America and then Africa as correspondent for
The Globe and Mail
, living in Mexico City and Zimbabwe. Ross is the winner of two National Newspaper Awards,a National Magazine Award, and the Roland Michener Award for meritorious public service in journalism. He lives in Toronto.

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T
HE BROAD STROKES
of this story are true, but most of the details are invented, and many are at odds with the historical record.

Maximiliano and Carlota were real, but most of their actions in these pages have been imagined.

Ángela Peralta—like many of the characters in this tale—is partly real, partly invented. She is also a conflation of more than one character, two in her case. A woman by her name did live in Mexico during the time this story is set and was a celebrated diva. But the historical Ángela Peralta did not bear a child by Agustín de Iturbide or suffer the particular torments described in these pages. Another woman did. Her name was Alice Green, an American, who was obliged to give up her offspring for adoption by Maximiliano and his wife. In the end, and contrary to the contents of this story, the boy was returned to his mother.

General Achille Bazaine was not the only Frenchman to have commanded Napoleon’s troops in Mexico during the period described in this book. But he carried out that role during most of Maximiliano’s rule.

Doktor Basch was not the only man to serve as Maximiliano’s physician in Mexico.

General Leonardo Márquez truly existed and was responsible for the assassination of Melchor Ocampo. But he did not shoot Ángela Peralta—nor did anyone else—and, in fact, he accepted his commission to serve as Maximiliano’s envoy to the Ottoman Empire. Later, he returned to Mexico and did indeed betray the emperor during the siege of Querétaro. It is said he fled to Havana and lived out his days as a pawnbroker there.

The Prince of Salm-Salm did exist, but he has been roundly misrepresented in these pages. The real Salm-Salm fought on the Union side in the American Civil War, not the Confederate side. His wife may have been from the Canadas or, just as likely, she could have been American: versions differ. The real Salm-Salm was among Maximiliano’s most faithful adherents and did not impersonate a priest named Father Fischer, a man who did actually exist and who wielded considerable influence over Maximiliano.

Baldemar Peralta is an invention, but his career in arms closely parallels the experience of many liberal adventurers who struggled against the French occupation of Mexico.

Diego Serrano is also an invention and bears little resemblance to José Blasio, a Mexican who served Maximiliano in the role of personal secretary and who possessed two complete arms.

As for Beatríz Sedano, she or someone like her may well have existed. Maximiliano is said to have conducted an amorous affair with an Indian woman—known as
la india bonita
—in Cuernavaca. He constructed a house for her that became known as La Casa del Olvido, the House of Forgetfulness, because it lacked a second bedroom. But the Beatríz described in this book is a different proposition altogether and should not be confused with the historical figure.

The tale of the emperor’s journey to the caves of Cacahuamilpa is an invention, although the Empress Carlota did make such a journey, albeit without her husband. For some elements of this episode, I am indebted
to Frances Calderón de la Barca, a vivacious Scottish woman who was the wife of the Spanish ambassador to Mexico in the 1840s. Her book,
Life in Mexico
, is a constant and compelling delight. Everyone should read it and can easily do so. You can find it online for free.

Many events in this book are completely invented, including the Empress Carlota’s attempted seduction of Diego in her carriage in Mexico City. That never happened.

Nor did Bazaine ever conduct a cannon attack on the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City. It is true, however, that the Frenchman did at one point threaten to blow open the doors of the cathedral if the archbishop, Monseñor Labastida, did not allow French officers to attend the celebration of mass. Labastida relented.

The actual Labastida was not fat, as he is portrayed here, but he was a committed misogynist.

O
AKLAND
R
OSS

T
ORONTO
, 2012

The Empire of Yearning
Copyright © 2013 by Oakland Ross.

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EPub Edition © MARCH 2013 ISBN: 978-1-443-41325-1

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FIRST EDITION

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