🇮🇹 An Italian Hero of the Mexican Revolution 🇲🇽
Peace negotiations with the Porforio Diaz government (May 16-21, 1911) during the Mexican Revolution. Library of Congress.
Giuseppe "Peppino" Garibaldi II (1879 –1950)
Giuseppe was the grandson of his namesake, the famous revolutionary liberator of Italy.
Born in Melbourne, Australia to Ricciotti Garibaldi and Harriet Constance Hopcraft, Peppino played important roles during his life as a soldier and officer during the Mexican Revolution and later with the French Foreign Legion in World War I.
Returning to his ancestral homeland, he died in Rome.
The mariachis of the world-famous Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico City.
Plaza Garibaldi
The famous plaza of Mexico City renowned for its mariachi bands is named after this hero of the Mexican Revolution.
Peppino Garibaldi in Mexico, 1911. Photo: Harry Blumenthal. Library of Congress.
Battle of Nuevo Casas Grandes
The honor of the plaza designation was in recognition for his leadership and actions that led to victory in the 1911 battle while serving as lieutenant colonel for Francisco Madero's revolutionary forces.
Orozco, Madero & Garibaldi in Casas Grandes.
Ire of Villa
A rift grew between Garibaldi and Pancho Villa over the foreigner's nationality, leadership positions, and successes early in the war. Apparently the “Centaur of the North” went so far as to cross the Rio Grande to El Paso looking to kill the Italian.
Brigadier General Garibaldi in 1915. Bibliothèque nationale de France.
French Foreign Legion
With the help of his family, he raised an Italian force of 14,000 men, known as the Legione Garibaldina in 1914 to fight for France during WWI. 6,000 men of the unit perished in the Argonne including 2 of his brothers. He later rose to the rank of colonel and would fight for Italy upon their entrance into the war.
Image: Animal Gourmet
Pan Dulce & Plaza
You really have reached national hero status in Mexico when not only does your name grace one of the most famous plazas in the country, but when you even have a pan dulce named for you!
That’s right. Mexico City residents and visitors likely have seen the small cylindrical yellow cakes soaked in syrup and decorated with white sprinkles. They are one of our favorites in Mexico’s sweet bread tradition and rarely can be found outside of the central part of the country. It’s far from a cannoli but we wanted to end on a sweet note!
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Want to visit Casas Grandes, Chihuahua? We will even see where the trenches were during the battle! Click here.
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