At least he left a tip

How Mexico dealt with unwanted foreigners trying to run things down here back in the good old days.

Showing that Televisa can sometimes do things right… the re-enactment of the events of 19 June 1867 was from the closing moments of the first of a three-series telenovela El vuelo del aguila, and agrees with the historical record.

Produced by Ernesto Alonzo.  El vuelo — broadcast from 1994 to 1996 — followed the long career of Porfirio Diaz from his Oaxacan youth through his French exile and, even if hammy and over-the-top (but then that’s the way Mexican are… even wannabes like Maximiliano … he really did tip the firing squad and make a statement about his blood being the last shed for his adopted country) I have to admit that Televisa, has done some good work and  occasionally covers stories relatively straight … at least when the news is over a century old, that is.

(By the way, Maximiliano is played by Mario Iván Martínez, who — being a white guy — gets somewhat stuck in an ethnic ghetto, playing  foreigners a lot in Mexican productions.  Ernesto Gómez Cruz, who usually is, if not the villain, than a sinister character, is cast against type here, playing Benito Juárez)