Mordidas regularly celebrates Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17.
This Friday, March 17 (2017), we are having a corned beef and cabbage family-style dinner. We make the corned beef ourselves and this meal is 150 pesos.
For Americans of the generation that fought the Mexican–American War, the San Patricios were considered traitors. For Mexicans of that generation, and generations to come, the San Patricios were heroes who came to their aid in an hour of need.
Successive Mexican presidents have praised the San Patricios; Vicente Fox Quesada stated that “The affinities between Ireland and Mexico go back to the first years of our nation, when our country fought to preserve its national sovereignty… Then, a brave group of Irish soldiers… in a heroic gesture, decided to fight against the foreign ground invasion”, and Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo stated “Members of the St. Patrick’s Battalion were executed for following their consciences. They were martyred for adhering to the highest ideals … we honor their memory. In the name of the people of Mexico, I salute today the people of Ireland and express my eternal gratitude.”
Composed primarily of Catholic Irish and German immigrants, the San Patricio battalion also included Canadians, English, French, Italians, Poles, Scots, Spaniards, Swiss, and Mexican people, many of whom were members of the Catholic Church. Disenfranchised Americans were in the ranks, including escaped slaves from the Southern United States.