#1962 Club: The Cactus and the Crown by Catherine Gavin

Except for a handful of countries like the UK, USA, France, Germany, Russia where I do have some idea about their histories (at least the highlights) the world is blank to me. I know the names of the countries but little else. Mexico is one such country and so when I saw a historical novel set in Mexico at the Delhi Book Fair this August, I purchased it. By sheer chance, it turned out to have been published in 1962 and so I have read it for the club (while books gathering dust for two decades and more look balefully at me).

The book’s prologue involves Maximilian von Hapsburg, the archduke of Austria still undecided about whether to accept the crown of Mexico which he has been offered by Mexican conservatives who want to see a European royal rule over their country. This invitation is backed by the French emperor, Napoleon III. Maximilian is finally persuaded to accept the offer by the ambitions of his wife, Carlota and the machinations of his brother, Franz Joseph, the emperor of the Austro-Hungarian empire who clearly wants his younger brother and his wife out of the way.

From there the story moves to young Sally Lorimer who is also making a journey to Mexico along with her brother, Dr. Andrew Lorimer. The two are from Southern US and having lost their family members and home during the civil war are now on their way to start a new life in Mexico where their uncle, also a doctor, has bequeathed his practice to Andrew and a sugarcane plantation to Sally. On the ship are also a number of Confederate veterans who along with their leader, Matthew Maury, are keen to set up an American colony in Mexico named the Carlota colony after the empress of Mexico. Andrew, who has seen the ravages of civil-war is bitter against the Union army and is enraged at having been forced to sign a declaration at New Orleans which forbids anyone emigrating to Mexico to return to the United States. He thinks they should settle along with the other Americans at the colony. However, Sally who had believed that the South’s stance in the war was wrong is adamant to proceed to her sugar hacienda. As their ship enters Mexico, they encounter a ship of French soldiers leaving for Europe and as they go further inland, they encounter wounded men…. It is not an auspicious beginning.

Emperor Maximilian is having trouble holding on to his empire. Mexicans under the deposed President Benito Juarez are waging a guerilla war against the Imperial army. The Austrians are loyal but the French Legionnaires are now being recalled to Europe as Napoleon III declares that he cannot afford to have his troops engaged in what he calls a lost cause. The defeat of the Confederate army is another blow to the emperor who had thought the South would support him. The US had never recognized Maximilian but being engaged in a civil war, the country could not help Juarez actively. Now citing the Monroe doctrine that the French with their military aid to Maximilian pose a danger to their country, they start actively aiding the Juaristas. Mexico is awash with skirmishes and battles.

Meanwhile, the siblings after a few initial hiccups try to settle into some routine. Sally manages her plantation, frees her Indian peons, and falls in love with Pierre Franchet, a French Legionnaire at a time when the country is turning against the French. Andrew, who had thought of serving the needy finds himself becoming the physician of Queen Carlota who distraught at having borne no child to Maximilian is slowly losing her hold over reality and becoming increasingly paranoid. He also falls in love with a Mexican girl, Sylvia. Would the brother and sister who are often at loggerheads finally achieve peace and happiness in Mexico?

Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres. Reading this however, I felt that such fiction does need a glossary of Historical personages. I found it very difficult to keep track of all the historical figures who flit through the pages and at times could not place them. It would have been immensely helpful to have such a list. Further, the historical personalities were far more interesting to me than the fictional characters. Sally is the girl with the modern sensibility. Her independence is underlined when she calls the Emperor, Sir, rather than the usual Your Majesty (she would have found a kindred soul in a recent American export to Britain:). She is also beautiful, plucky, courageous, and able to get her man out of the clutches of a Mexican hussy – and that subplot of La Malinche, I have to add, is totally ludicrous. Saddled with such a heroine for a sister, Andrew comes across as resentful, snobbish, and selfish. His shining moments are when he is performing an operation (but even here the writer makes Sally upstage him when she is able to extract a bullet with her bare hands from the shoulder of her wounded beau just by recalling what she had read in a medical manual – Hurrah!) Also while Sally saves and gets her lover, Andrew loses his love to a filthily rich middle-aged man (who, of course, turns out to be brutal and impotent – yawn!).

So while I enjoyed the nuggets about Mexican history: Had no idea about its Austrian connection; the role of the French; the Confederate veterans emigration to Mexico and being asked to sign a clause of no return; the Carlota colony, the novel as a whole failed to impress because the characters seemed so stereotypical. It did, however, make me go to Wikipedia and read about Maximilian and what is known as the Second Mexican empire. I was moved by the fact that Maximilian, even when all was lost, refused to escape unless his loyal generals were also able to escape with him and that before being shot to death, he gave his executioners a gold coin each as was done by European aristocrats. Whatever his faults, he faced his death with equanimity and fortitude. If any Mexican ever reads this post, I would love to know how they view him in the country.

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First Line: A Tall man, with a red-gold beard, stood at his study window high above the Adriatic and focused his glass on the vessels lying at anchor between Trieste harbour and his castle of Miramar.

Publication Details: 1962. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1966.

Dedication: To Margret Collingwood

Pages: 411