Mexican Empire

Based on research in five languages and in archives across the globe, Habsburgs on the Rio Grande fundamentally revises narratives of global history. Far more than a footnote, the Second Mexican Empire was at the center of world-historic great-power struggles—a point of inflection in a contest for supremacy that set the terms of twentieth-century rivalry.

Bad Mexicans tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. Led by a brilliant but ill-tempered radical named Ricardo Flores Magon, the magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, migrant workers, and more, who organized thousands of Mexican workers—and American dissidents—to their cause. Determined to oust Mexico's dictator, Porfirio Diaz, the rebels had to outrun and outsmart the swarm of US authorities vested in protecting the Diaz regime.

This fascinating journey through Mexico’s history, from its amazing pre-Hispanic past to the end of the 20th century, will reveal more surprises than the listener can imagine. In the words of the self-proclaimed Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, “Mexico has magic. I looked for that magic, and I found it there.”

It’s 1863. Napoleon III has installed a foreign monarch in Mexico to squash the current regime. Maximilian von Habsburg of Austria accepts the emperor’s crown. But it is his wife, the brilliant and ambitious Princess Charlotte, who throws herself passionately into the role. Known to the people as Empress Carlota, she rules deftly from behind the scenes while her husband contents himself with philandering and decorating the palace. But Carlota bears a guilty secret.

Antes de que el país moderno naciera en 1821, el territorio que hoy comprende 32 estados y algunas islas pequeñas estaba habitado por antiguas dinastías y reinos de guerreros, astrónomos, sacerdotes, templos para sacrificios humanos y, sorprendentemente, algunas de las ciudades más grandes del mundo. Se estima que la sagrada ciudad de Chichén Itzá, en la península de Yucatán, en su máximo esplendor fue más grande que París.

La emperatriz volvió a ser princesa. Después de que su marido fuera fusilado en el Cerro de las Campanas, la consentida, la enamorada, se convirtió en una paria de las monarquías europeas y pasó sesenta años en la locura. Esta obra es la primera que se concentra en las seis décadas que Carlota de Sajonia-Coburgo-Gotha vivió después de que se derrumbara el Segundo Imperio Mexicano, y ofrece un estudio lúcido de uno de los personajes más apasionantes en la historia del país.