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The Memoirs of Santiago Nadal: A Mexico AAR

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Capibara

Capibara

Werewolf Huēyi Tlahtoāni
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Mar 28, 2007
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The Memoirs of Santiago Nadal: A Mexico AAR
bandera-de-mexico.jpg

Hello, and welcome to my newest AAR. After months of virtually no activity in AARland, I have decided to return to scene with this new project, which had been in my mind for quite some time. However, other projects came across, both in AARland and in real life, so I had to put it on hold. Last year, I started my first narrative AAR (Italy: Tales of Friendship, Treason, Love and Death), after a couple of gameplay AARs, trying to do something different. The first chapters were almost experimental. To my surprise, a pleasant one I must say, my AAR was well recieved by the community and throughout the whole thing, I had a solid base of faithful readers, who even made an appearance in some of the chapters. So now, four months after the end of my previous narrative AAR, I have finally decide to start a new one. As the title states, it will be a Mexican AAR, in an autobiographical style, where a man, Santiago Nadal, will show us the Mexico from the XIX Century from his own point of view. The game is loosely based in a Vicky game I played long time ago, but I will be taking a lot of liberties in the storytelling, giving preference to narrative over the actual game. I must thank ComradeOm for his wonderful Mexican AAR (which was just updated), for giving some ideas for mine. On the other hand, thanks to canonized and robou, both of you guys have taught me a lot about narrative AARs. The AAR will begin during the Mexican War of Independence, and will follow a historical path through most of it. However, divergences will start appearing in the way, until we are facing a whole new timeline. I won't tell more, you'll have to read to discover it yourselves. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to make it more enjoyable, interesting, etc. I'm always open to suggestions. But above all, I hope that you enjoy this AAR as much as I have enjoyed writing this first updates that will come soon.

 
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Preliminary note:

As part of the celebrations that will be taking place during this and the next year to commemorate the Bicentennial of the start of the War of Independence, the Secretary of Public Education, alongside Tosocho Editorials, has decided to publish this revised edition of the memoires of Santiago Nadal, a decisive figure in the formation of the identity and spirit of Mexico during the first decades of independent life. He was a man who learned to love his country and fight against every obstacle in his way to preserve the integrity of his nation. From the angle he might be seen, he is one of Mexico’s greatest men to date, alongside others like General Agustín de Iturbide, Father Hidalgo or Porfirio Díaz. As part of this edition, a prologue by the writer Carlos Fuentes is included, which is presented now.


Prologue

When José Vázquez first told me about the new edition of the memoires of Santiago Nadal the SPE was planning on publishing because of the celebrations of the Bicentennial I felt very interested in collaborating in someway with this project. Santiago Nadal has been the centre of many of my works and I even wrote a novel based on his life, but nothing compares to his memoires. These papers, donated by the Nadal family to the National Library fifty five years ago are not only a detailed autobiography about this iconic figure, but also a first hand testimony of Mexican life, political, social, during the 19th Century. Here, we can learn more than in many history books that are published all around the country, from San Francisco to Tuxtla. The insight given is wonderful and the whole text is written in a beautiful prose, which makes the reading easy and entertaining. All around Mexico, there are streets, avenues and plazas named after Santiago Nadal, and of course his name is mentioned in any course of Mexican history. But, what do Mexicans really know about him? Apart from his pivotal role in the War of Independence and never ending political and military career during the following decades, his life is oversimplified in the textbooks used for teaching in the schools, giving the young pupils an “official” point of view of Nadal, making him look like a bronze statue, like a immaculate hero, like a perfect human being. His memoires, however, allow us to see into the man behind the bronze face of all the statues around the country. Here, we can see a man with the virtues and vices of any human being, who isn’t by far the perfect hero presented in the official books. Here, we can meet the real Santiago Nadal. I invite the reader to go back two hundred years in time and start a journey that I promise, won’t be disappointing.

Carlos Fuentes​
 
Huzzah ! Another Capibara AAR :D And one of your home Mexico to boot . I'm very glad you're going back to your roots on this ! Viva Capibara ! Viva Mexico !
 
canonized said:
Huzzah ! Another Capibara AAR :D And one of your home Mexico to boot . I'm very glad you're going back to your roots on this ! Viva Capibara ! Viva Mexico !
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Thanks. That's right, I've always wanted to make a Mexico AAR and here I am! I finally managed to do it.

aldriq said:
Well, this is a nice surprise. I don't usually stray away from the EU forums but being your AAR... count me in :)
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There you go! You can always find something interesting outside the EU world ;)

Freymann said:
¡Viva Mexico, cabrones!:D
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¡Así es! Very good to have you around.

Thanks for the comments! An update is coming now.
 
I.​

Monterey, California. November 17th 1877
After so many years of wars, political intrigues, rebellions and civil strife, my life is finally calm. But this arrives just as I am reaching the end of it. That’s why I’ve decided to start writing these memoirs; I want to leave testimony of all that happened during my lifetime, before my soul goes back to the Lord’s House. I have been blessed with a long life, which I have used well. I must admit I made things I’m ashamed of; however, I don’t regret them, for they helped to forge the spirit of our great nation. I was born in a time when changes of importance were about to happen. I fought for the freedom of our country during the War of Independence, which was achieved after bloody years of conflict. I fought and spilled blood on many of the civil wars that plagued and menaced to torn apart this country for decades; I even had to turn against my own homeland once. During these years I fought alongside great leaders and gained a place in History as one of the heroes of the Motherland. I loved a woman, for many years, despite of all the adversities that came between us. I still love her, even if she is not longer here. I knew pain as well, and the scars in both my soul and my body can attest that. I learned how to live the epoch I was born into and that allowed me to survive in the most turbulent years of this young nation. Maybe nobody will ever read these papers; maybe they will stay in the bottom of a trunk and get lost in time. But still, I must do it, to free myself from a weight that has oppressed me for long time. I hope, however, that if anyone ever reads them, they can learn from the mistakes that we made throughout the years and don’t follow them, leading Mexico to a brighter future. May these memoirs help people learn who I really was, not the one who is starting to appear in statues and streets across the Republic. Now everything rests in the hands of this new generation of leaders, free of instability and with a country in peace. May they take advantage of this and bring a new era of prosperity to Mexico. Now, as the sun hides in the Pacific, I start writing, returning to the point where my life started to change, more than seventy years ago.

San Diego, California. September 5th, 1802
It had been one of the hottest days of the year and we were still two months away from the raining season. We would stay at our houses almost all day long, trying to escape from the killing sun. It wasn’t until sunset when we were allowed to go out and play. I missed Monterey. There, I could go out and play at whatever time of the day I wanted. And it was after all, the capital of the province of California, while San Diego was merely a pueblo, formed by some settlers, the missions and the natives. Nothing interesting ever happened here. But my father insisted that there was some potential in this small town full of adobe houses. He dreamt that San Diego would one day be more important than Acapulco, the biggest port of all New Spain. I loved my land, the great wilderness of California: mountains, forests, deserts. But I wanted to see more, I wanted to travel to Mexico City, the capital of the Viceroyalty, that city that would be called La Ciudad de los Palacios some years later by Alexander von Humboldt. I wanted to travel around the world; I wanted to learn from distant cultures and bring back all this that I learned and use it to make California a better place, a center of culture and civilization. However, I didn’t know that my opportunity would come before I expected.

That same evening, a small ship arrived to our harbor. It wasn’t that common to see people arriving to these latitudes this time of the year. Curiously, my friends and I got closer to see what it was all about. Three men came down from the ship. Looking closer, we noticed they were priests. To my surprise, my father arrived shortly after and welcomed them and took them to our house. Despite living in a small town, our residence was fairly big, and allowed us to house some guests. To my disappointment, I was sent to clean up because there would be dinner for our guests and I was supposed to be there. When I arrived to the dinning room, everyone was already gathered.

“Santiago, these are fathers Domínguez, García and Zamora. They were sent from Mexico City to help the mission and take care of the education” said my father introducing them “Fathers, this is my son Santiago.”

They nodded politely and continued to speak between themselves. Not much more happened that night. Some day later, school started and I was assigned with father Zamora. This man was crucial in my formation and my future. Almost all of my education had been thanks to my father, at home, who hired private tutors or would teach me himself. I would also spend hours in the family library, trying to learn as much as I could on my own. Father Zamora saw it that first day. His lessons were interesting, he knew what he was talking about and it seemed he emanated some sort of wisdom aura. Some weeks later, when class had been dismissed, he called me apart.

“Congratulations Santiago, you are a brilliant young man. Your knowledge is amazing and I’m sure with proper guidance you’ll go very far.”

“Thank you, professor” I answered. At that moment I didn’t know what he was about to propose me, I only wanted to get out and go to play with my friends who were waiting for me outside of the building.

“Santiago, I wouldn’t want all this potential wasted here. You know, California will maybe some time become a great province, but for now, it’s just full of missions and natives. I would like you to come with me to Valladolid, where you can get proper studies. I have already spoken to your parents and they agree. Your mother is sad, but she agrees with your father that you must seek your future somewhere else.”

I was left speechless. I didn’t now what to say. All sudden, my lifelong dream was coming true, I was been given the chance to travel to the heart of New Spain, bath myself in its rich culture. But at that moment I got a nostalgic feeling, how could I leave California? How could I leave home? Start again. I was barely a boy. It was a tough decision. But finally I decided to go. One day I would return and help my homeland grow with everything I’ve learned.

I still stayed in San Diego another couple of months. When Spring started, the ship arrived and I had all my stuff ready, it was time to go. My family and my friends went to say goodbye. I kissed my parents and I boarded the ship. Pablo González, my best friend, got closer to give me farewell.

“I am happy for you. I hope you can learn many things. When you come back, I hope you still remember us and share some of the stuff you learned with us. Helps us progress. You know we’ll never forget you around here.”

“You know I won’t either” I said “We’ll always be friends, no matter where we are.”

I wouldn’t see him for years and neither of us could imagine that the next time we met it would be in very different circumstances. But at that moment, we were the best friends of the world, and would miss each other as long as I was away. It was now time to go. The ship was ready to sail. Everyone waved at me from the beach in a last goodbye. California faded away in the horizon. That was the last time I would see it in years. As the Pacific Ocean drew in front of us, a new stage of my life was about to unfold.
 
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An excellent update , full and pregnant with a life to be unfolded .

I can't wait for the next :D
 
So I was taking a look around AARland and I stumbled across this old AAR of mine, which I pretty left at the beggining. However, this project had been on my mind for many time and it would be a shame to let it fade away (even though it's probably there already :p) so I intend to pick it up from where I left it and write till the end, whenever that comes. And of course, it's 2010, year of celebration back here in Mexico, since we are commemorating the Bicentennial of the start of the War of Independence, so what a better time to start over. For those who read the first chapters, I hope you are still interested in this and for those who just discovered this AAR, I invite you to read it hoping you'll like it. A new, fresh, update will be coming next week, so stay tunned.
 
huzzah !! I'm looking forward to it , hermano !
 
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