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

Today, Churubusco is just a quiet residential suburb of Mexico City, but in 1847 it was the stronghold of the San Patricios, a motley battalion of soldiers — even including some runaway American slaves — who deserted the United States Army to join with Mexico for a just, if suicidal, cause. During that time, many newly arrived Europeans — including Irish, Spaniards, Germans, Italians, and Poles — tempted by the promise of citizenship and a parcel of land for their service, found themselves fighting for the U.S. Army on the wrong side of history.

In The Battle of Churubusco, 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 to America who joins the U.S. Army in pursuit of the American Dream. But once he sees the cruelty he is being ordered to inflict upon the people of Mexico — no different from what he had escaped from in his home country — he has a crisis of conscience. Is the American Dream worth spilling all that blood?

The character of Gaetano Rizzo is based on the real-life Garretson Roberts (as his name was Anglicized at Ellis Island), a U.S. soldier born in Sicily and hanged in Churubusco June 13, 1847 for desertion.