A Ballad of Love and Glory(120)
In any story about war, there are losses. Was there one death in the book that was particularly hard to write?
All of them were difficult—Sullivan, Maloney, Joaquín, Patrick Dalton and the other San Patricios hanged at the gallows…but the one that was deeply personal to me was Nana Hortencia’s death. She is based on my own grandmother, Jacinta Benítez Catalán, who was a healer. She died quite suddenly after being stung by a scorpion. I got to Mexico three hours after my grandma died, so I never got to say goodbye. This is why I write so much about her. In fact, my grandma has appeared in every single one of my books in different versions. Every time I wrote a scene with Ximena and her grandmother, it felt real to me, as if I could hear my grandma speaking to me through Nana Hortencia.
Do you have a next project in mind? And, if so, what is it?
In between writing A Ballad of Love and Glory I coedited an anthology by and about undocumented Americans. Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings is due out June 2022 from HarperVia, and includes forty-three contributors who are or were undocumented like me. As an immigrant, my goal is to continue to write stories about immigration but also to create opportunities for others to tell their stories as well.
Enhance Your Book Club
A portion of John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “The Angels of Buena Vista” opens the novel. Read the full poem and discuss the woman named Ximena. How did she end up on the battlefield? What do you think she represents?
Throughout A Ballad of Love and Glory, Grande activates all five senses. There are the scents of war and the tastes of the food cooked in each city. We can hear the cannon fire and church bells, see the rolling Mexican landscape, and feel the textures of the fabrics. Come up with other examples for each of the five senses!
John Riley leading the St. Patrick’s Battalion is based on a real moment in history. Not much is known about his early years, as parish records were destroyed in a fire in Ireland, but there are military records placing him in both armies, and his participation in the battles is well documented. There are statues to commemorate him and the battalion in his birthplace of Clifden, Ireland, and Mexico City. If you want to read more about the battalion, other resources include The Irish Soldiers of Mexico by Michael Hogan, The Rogue’s March by Peter Stevens, and Shamrock and Sword by Robert Ryal Miller. There is also an album by the Chieftains called San Patricio in honor of the battalion.
In the author’s note, Grande writes that “the Mexican-American War has been called the war that the US cannot remember and Mexico cannot forget.” What did you know of the war before reading this novel? Why do you think in the US this particular war has been erased from the collective consciousness? What can be done to help future generations remember this war?