El Cerro de las Campanas

The Cerro de las Campanas (Hill of the Bells) was where Maximilian was executed in June of 1867-- 45 years ago. Pictured left, as I snapped it in the local museum, is the coffin used to transport his body from there to the embalmer's.

>>Mexican writer Araceli Ardón, who lives in Querétaro, posted the essay, "Cerro de las Campanas," on her blog.

>>Click here for a few photos of the Cerro de las Campanas and the chapel to Maximilian's memory.

>>A translation from the Hungarian about the fiasco of the embalming is here.

>>Lots more about Maximilian on the dedicated webpage here.

>>"From Mexico to Miramar or, Across the Lake of Oblivion," my award-winning essay about a visit to Maximilian's (yes) Italian castle, originally published in the Massachusetts Review, is available here.

I aim to post more regularly on the coming weeks. Several interesting items are awaiting...

José Luis Blasio Papers in Mexico City

The author of the dishy-- and classic-- memoir, Maximiliano Intimo, José Luis Blasio served in Mexico as a secretary to Maximilian von Habsburg, and in Europe 1866, to the Empress Carlota, witnessing many of the most dramatic events of the Second Empire / French Intervention. I was delighted to learn that his invaluable archive now has a home at the Centro de Estudios de Historia de México Carso in Mexico City.