ABOUT US
A love letter to the rebel spirit that binds Ireland and Mexico, San Patricios tells a story of resistance, resilience, and the joy of food, drink, music, art, and community.
Our name comes from the Batallón de San Patricio, a group of mostly Irish immigrants who fled Ireland during An Gorta Mór in search of a better life, landing on the eastern shores of America chasing freedom and the pursuit of happiness.
Having escaped British boots, many were handed American ones, joining the U.S. Army, only to find themselves back under the heel of Protestant Anglo-Saxons who despised them for the same old reasons: Catholic, poor, and Irish.
History, it turned out, has a twisted sense of déjà vu. America’s hunger for land mirrored Britain’s, and as Manifest Destiny swept west, Irish soldiers looked south and saw a mirror, Mexico living out the same expansionist cruelty they’d just escaped.
Treated as inferior, deemed unworthy, and crushed beneath the imperial heel, they faced a choice: complicity or conscience. They chose the path of most resistance, following their conscience, breaking ranks to fight alongside their Mexican brethren. They knew conscience rarely wins. They were right.
Resoundingly beaten, those who survived were either barbarically executed or branded deserters, both metaphorically and literally, by the U.S., while Mexico ascribed them near-sainthood status. History is written by the victors, and like many rebels on the losing side, they were consigned to rot in history’s dustbin.
The bond between Ireland and Mexico goes deeper than fiestas and hooleys, whiskey and mezcal.
These two nations share a spirit of rebellion, resistance, pride and defiance – and in the 1840s, they joined forces to form the Batallón de San Patricios, defending Mexican soil from American invasion.
The odds were stacked, but they fought on, together, to the bitter end.
