The Battle of Churubusco: American Rebels in the Mexican-American War

Today, Churubusco is a residential suburb of Mexico City. But in 1847, it was the stronghold of the San Patricios, a motley battalion of soldiers -- including some runaway American slaves -- who deserted the United States Army for a just, if suicidal, cause. In this graphic novel, Andrea Ferraris uses a bold charcoal technique to tell the story of the San Patricios through the eyes of Gaetano Rizzo, a 22-year-old Sicilian immigrant (based on a real soldier of the time). Promised citizenship and a parcel of land, Rizzo joins the U.S. Army in the fight to take California away from Mexico. Before long, he realizes that the cruelty he is ordered to inflict is no different from the horrors he had escaped from in his home country.