© Provided by Agencia EFE
Mexico City, March 7 (EFE).- Despite the fact that official history condemns him for helping to sustain the empire of Maximilian of Habsburg (1863-1867), Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, son of one of the heroes of the country, José María Morelos y Pavón is a character full of chiaroscuro in the history of Mexico, the writer Mario Heredia, author of a book regarding this controversial figure, told Efe.
With Nepomuceno Almonte as the central character, Heredia (Orizaba, Veracruz, 1961) has written a historical novel in which the famous son of Morelos takes stock of his life: regarding what he believes regarding himself, what others and true facts, which resulted in the book “Hijo de tigre” (2021), Claustro de Sor Juana / Grijalbo Historical Novel Award 2021.
“I do not believe in the official history in which there are heroes and traitors and my intention was to fill his life and humanize him. Nepomuceno Almonte is a character full of chiaroscuro and very rich in history for everything he lived through,” Heredia said in an interview with Efe. .
“I have always wondered regarding the lives of the children of these ‘monsters’ and in this case the responsibility of being the son of the Servant of the Nation, as Morelos is known, and what I worked on was precisely that, the weight of being the son of Morelos,” he added.
Regarding the episode a few weeks ago in which the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, thanked God that his children had not come out like Nepomuceno Almonte, Heredia believes that “he took it from the side of official history, which I respect But I don’t agree with her.”
SON OF TIGER, PINTITO.
In Mexico it is common to hear the saying “Son of a tiger, pintito”, with which the resemblance that children have with their parents is pointed out, but this comparison, which generates pride in the father, sometimes does not favor the son, precisely Heredia says that Nepomuceno Almonte “didn’t come out so neat because that’s how history has put it.”
“According to the official history, Morelos was the hero, but he had a treacherous son, what an irony, right?” Heredia questioned.
With a military career that began alongside his father as a child, Nepomuceno Almonte was appointed Brigadier General by Morelos when he was just 12 years old.
In addition, he accompanied him in some combats during the Mexican War of Independence, including the Siege of Cuautla, and in 1814 he was sent to New Orleans, United States, where he received the news of his father’s execution on December 22, 1815.
Heredia recalled that Morelos “did not recognize him and did not give him his name, because he was a priest”, but in a letter that Morelos begins with the phrase: “My dear son Juan” and in which he points out that “dying is nothing, when the country is dying”, and that he signs with the words “Receive my blessing (…) Your father, José María Morelos”, ended up accepting it.
HISTORY AND FICTION.
In his book, Heredia, also a poet, narrator and plastic artist, recounted that due to the little information there was on Nepomuceno Almonte, he investigated the character and filled in some gaps in his life with documents, diaries and letters, some real and others apocryphal.
“I was putting historical parts of where and when he was, but everything that is the development of the character as such is fiction. That is the wonder of the historical novel, although history is already an interpretation of the facts, in the novel we we have the luxury of inventing more things,” he said.
“For example, very little is known regarding his life in Paris, where he arrived in 1867, and so I make him walk through the streets of the city and talk with people he met to humanize him,” he said.
Heredia said that the guide of the story is led by a young writer, known to Nepomuceno Almonte, to whom he tells his life, the events of his past, the meaning of being the son of the Servant of the Nation, his participation in some battles for the independence of Mexico when he was a child, his stay in New Orleans, the milestones of his military and political career and his relationship with Santa Anna, Juárez, Maximiliano and Carlota.
(c) EFE Agency