SEASON OF THE SWAMP

One of Mexico’s greatest political leaders enters his wilderness years in the rough streets of New Orleans just before the U.S. Civil War.

In an abbreviated but essential preface, Herrera explains how future president of Mexico Benito Juárez came to live in New Orleans for two years beginning in 1853. Having already served as governor of his home state of Oaxaca but long before he will hold off an invasion by France, he’s been sent into exile by political rival General Santa Anna, along with his brother-in-law Pepe Maza. No one living knows what happened to Juárez in the Big Easy, so Herrera’s suppositions are well grounded between history and creative license. Asked by a new friend what brings him to town, Juárez replies drily, “A slight diversion, a delta, you might say.” Even though Juárez is intimately familiar with Mexico’s brand of corruption, he’s unprepared to be beaten and robbed by the police upon arrival. He’s even less prepared for the realities of an American slave trade at its height. “These people farm people, they breed humans captured at birth,” Herrera writes. “These people fatten up their children, their own children, and then sell them.” The narrative is populated with real historical figures like fellow reformers Melchor Ocampo and Ponciano Arriaga, with one memorable scene featuring a concert on 10 pianos by American composer Louis Gottschalk. In fact, there’s a surprising richness to the milieu of a story mostly about meetings and letter writing. The New Orleans depicted here is carnivalesque, and the surreal spectacle of bear fights, spontaneous parades, and clandestine meetings, added to Benito’s colorful dreams about liberation and justice, give the story a vibrant, almost hallucinatory feel. Meanwhile, Herrera’s portrait of a leader in exile—rolling cigars, printing pamphlets, and plotting a revolution from the sidelines—depicts the frustrating dichotomy Juárez experiences between his lowly circumstances and his dreams of a better nation.

A thoughtful portrait of one revolutionary’s remarkable resilience, far from home.