In the narrative of Mexican national memory, the struggle against the French intervention and Maximilian’s empire seems to have retained, even in the face of increasing revisionism, all the qualities of a pristine patriotic myth: the color, excitement, and simplicity of a triumph of good over evil. If we are to believe the textbook version, between 1862 and 1867 the nation—except for a few traitorous Conservatives—led by Benito Juárez, rose heroically to vanquish French imperialism, sweeping away the ridiculous throne set up by the invader. For added drama—and poetic justice—the Hapsburg usurper was shot; his wife went crazy. Mexico’s victory in such an unequal struggle confirmed its commitment to democracy and freedom and its providential destiny as an independent liberal republic.
As a building block for Historia patria, the imperial episode fades before this promethean “Second War of Independence.” Interestingly, the depiction of the Second Empire as an exogenous...
