John Todd Jr., Vera Cruz resident, regional history buff , and part time tour guide and periodic correspondent with Texian Web site Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas forwarded a letter from Seor Fernando Grossman of Mexico City that contained the following excerpts:
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Fell in love with it [Vera Cruz area] back in 68 when I made a motorcycle trip there and been wanting to live there ever since. Especially interesting were Santa Annas haciendas. My father was a friend of Don Agustn de Castro y de Haro - great grandson of Santa Anna, who went to live (and died) in Argentina in the 60s. My father offered to store some of Santa Annas furniture and other belonging to him until he could take them to Argentina, but never did. In fact the belongings were valued by the Monte de Piedad in Mexico and my father bought them from Don Agustn.
Anyway, to cut a long tale short, my father died in 2001 (aged 99 years and 5 months) and left me some of Santa Annas belongings, among them a large portrait with bullet holes - supposedly from Yankee soldiers during the American Mex war. Personal letters to Don Antonio de Haro y Tamariz (hence don Agustn) who was a sort of administrator to his property, etc. Also a smaller portrait of doa Guadalupe Lopez de Santa Anna, one of the old Generals children - and her bed. I also have his funeral obituaries and other interesting stuff.
Only natural is my research into the old Generals life and am convinced he was not really a traitor - but, as is customary in Mexico, a scape goat.
..Im looking for somewhere to donate Santa Annas belongings - but preferably not to any government office, (maybe a University?)
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Correspondent Todd wrote---
I don't know of any place in Veracruz that would be a safe repository for Santa Anna's things, and was wondering if there might be a museum in Texas. A couple of years ago, I visited the San Jacinto museum and they had some nice things there. Saludos, John Todd, Jr.
Todd is the author of the website John Todd Jr. com, a virtual travelogue of the area with in depth reports on numerous site visits of interest including those related to the search for homes of General Santa Anna and Mexican Revolutionary hero and Texian Peter Ellis Bean.
A permanent home in the public domain in a respectable museum in Texas as the San Jacinto or even Alamo museum seems a fitting place for these artifacts and others like them. This seems appropriate given the impact of Santa Anna the man on Texas, Mexican and US history. This until Mexico decides to devote a special presidential museum to the man who was the embodiment of the composite 19th century Mexican character and culture from which todays Mexico evolved, whose political and military record is astounding with no equal relative to the period and impact on the region.
Don Guillermo
Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas
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Fell in love with it [Vera Cruz area] back in 68 when I made a motorcycle trip there and been wanting to live there ever since. Especially interesting were Santa Annas haciendas. My father was a friend of Don Agustn de Castro y de Haro - great grandson of Santa Anna, who went to live (and died) in Argentina in the 60s. My father offered to store some of Santa Annas furniture and other belonging to him until he could take them to Argentina, but never did. In fact the belongings were valued by the Monte de Piedad in Mexico and my father bought them from Don Agustn.
Anyway, to cut a long tale short, my father died in 2001 (aged 99 years and 5 months) and left me some of Santa Annas belongings, among them a large portrait with bullet holes - supposedly from Yankee soldiers during the American Mex war. Personal letters to Don Antonio de Haro y Tamariz (hence don Agustn) who was a sort of administrator to his property, etc. Also a smaller portrait of doa Guadalupe Lopez de Santa Anna, one of the old Generals children - and her bed. I also have his funeral obituaries and other interesting stuff.
Only natural is my research into the old Generals life and am convinced he was not really a traitor - but, as is customary in Mexico, a scape goat.
..Im looking for somewhere to donate Santa Annas belongings - but preferably not to any government office, (maybe a University?)
****************
Correspondent Todd wrote---
I don't know of any place in Veracruz that would be a safe repository for Santa Anna's things, and was wondering if there might be a museum in Texas. A couple of years ago, I visited the San Jacinto museum and they had some nice things there. Saludos, John Todd, Jr.
Todd is the author of the website John Todd Jr. com, a virtual travelogue of the area with in depth reports on numerous site visits of interest including those related to the search for homes of General Santa Anna and Mexican Revolutionary hero and Texian Peter Ellis Bean.
A permanent home in the public domain in a respectable museum in Texas as the San Jacinto or even Alamo museum seems a fitting place for these artifacts and others like them. This seems appropriate given the impact of Santa Anna the man on Texas, Mexican and US history. This until Mexico decides to devote a special presidential museum to the man who was the embodiment of the composite 19th century Mexican character and culture from which todays Mexico evolved, whose political and military record is astounding with no equal relative to the period and impact on the region.
Don Guillermo
Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas
