San Patricio

Audio. By The Chieftains featuring Ry Cooder. 2010.
Ballads about the San Patricio Battalion during the U.S. Mexico War.

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San Patricio tells the nearly forgotten story of the brave San Patricio Battalion — a group of Irish immigrant conscripts who deserted the U.S. Army in 1846 to fight on the Mexican side in the U.S. – Mexican War (1846-1848).

Although the members of the San Patricio Battalion were treated as traitors and deserters by the U.S. government, Chieftains’ founder and frontman Paddy Moloney says, “the men of the San Patricio Battalion are remembered by generations of Mexicans to this day as heroes who fought bravely against an unjust and thinly veiled war of aggression.” ‘San Patricio’ brings their story to life through heart-stirring ballads and effervescent dance songs from both countries, including traditional “sones” that the San Patricios might have heard while in Mexico, and Irish airs and reels that evoke the homeland they left behind.

The Chieftains rekindle their Grammy-winning partnership with Ry Cooder for San Patricio, illuminating musical and historical bonds between Ireland and Mexico. (Publisher’s description.)

Distributed by Concord Music Group.

Related resource: The Zinn Education Project provides a free interactive lesson about the U.S Mexico war that includes the San Patricio Battalion: U.S. Mexico War Tea Party. (The lesson is based on the chapter from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States,  “We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God.”)