“Santa Anna’s Leg” – from James Michener’s Texas, p. 495-6.
(Ref. Mexican General Santa Anna of The Alamo fame)
Next
morning Santa Anna revealed why he had asked Garza to make the long ride .
. . to Benito’s surprise, it did not concern the
invasion of Tejas, or even the guerrilla warfare there; it was an imperial
concern which no visitor could have anticipated: ‘My dear and trusted friend, I seek a guard
of honor for a deed of honor. In
response to demands from the people of Mexico, and also its religious leaders,
I have consented with some reluctance, for I am essentially a modest man, to
have my right leg disinterred, borne to the capital, and buried in a pantheon
reserved for heroes.’
‘Your
leg,’ Benito asked.
‘Why
not?’ Santa Anna snapped. ‘It gave
itself in service to our nation, did it not?
What leg has meant so much to a nation?
Does it deserve the treatment we give other heroes?’
‘It
certainly does,’ Benito said hurriedly . . .
. . .
Garza
was still in the capital when a vast revulsion against the pomposity of Santa
Anna surfaced, and he watched in horror as a mob tore down a gilded statue of
the dictator .
. . rampaged through the streets, and cheered when
a crazy-eyed leader shouted: ‘Let’s get
that goddamned leg!’ From a safe
distance, Garza followed the frenzied rabble as they broke down the gates . . . destroyed the cenotaph honoring the leg, dug
up the bones, and dragged them ignominiously through
the very streets where they had a short
time before been paraded with such majesty.
He was aghast when the bones were separated, some going to one part of
the city, some to another, and all of them ending in rubbish piles.
James Michener, Texas, pp. 495-6.
