Flowers, Guns, and Money: Joel Roberts Poinsett and the Paradoxes of American Patriotism

The vast majority of Americans would not know that the lush red-and-green potted plant so ubiquitous at Christmastime, the poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima, also known as Poinsettia pulcherrima, cuetlaxochitl in Nahuatl, and flor de Nochebuena in Spanish) was introduced into the United States from its native Mexico by the US statesman Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779–1851), an important political figure of the early US republic. It is ironic, furthermore, that in 2002 the US House of Representatives created National Poinsettia Day, observed every year on December 12 (the date of Poinsett's death), blithely unaware (or uncaring) of his history in Mexico or that the same day is dedicated there to the Virgin of Guadalupe, the country's patroness. As the first accredited envoy to the Mexican republic, Minister Poinsett made himself persona non grata in the country. He introduced the more liberal York rite strain of Masonic lodges, thus aggravating...