About the site

“Santa Anna Goes to Washington” is a project by David Patrick McKenzie for History 697: History and New Media, a graduate course at George Mason University.

David began researching this topic in 2009, thinking of publishing a local history article about Santa Anna and Almonte’s time in Washington in January 1837. He had first gained interest in the journey several years before, when visitors to the Alamo, where he worked as a history interpreter, would ask about it.

Since Santa Anna lived for 82 years and served as president of Mexico between six and 11 times (depending on how one counts), most biographies treat the journey very minimally. Texas Revolution studies have rightfully treated the journey to Washington as a footnote to the conflict. Since nothing concrete came out of the journey on the diplomatic front, histories of U.S.-Mexican relations in the early 19th century mention the journey peripherally, if at all.

As such, David initially conceived looking into this journey as a window into U.S. perceptions of Mexico directly after the Texas Revolution, less than a decade before the United States and Mexico went to war.

After researching at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., Washingtoniana Division of the District of Columbia Public Library, Library of Congress Manuscript Division, and Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, he realized this would not be feasible as a local history project--simply too few sources for that part of the story.

After talking with prospective advisors as he applied to the History Ph.D. program at George Mason University, he thought of looking into the broader journey, and having the story of the journey form a part of his dissertation about U.S. and Mexican visitors to each others’ countries in the decades leading up to the U.S.-Mexican War in 1846. Thus was born this project.

“Santa Anna Goes to Washington” is based on a database David is developing for his dissertation, entitled “Familiar Strangers: U.S. and Mexican Visitors to Each Others’ Countries, 1776-1846.” This Omeka database will include the primary sources, plus interpretation, to accompany David’s dissertation.