Santa Anna of Mexico

I could not have written this book without the help of a number of individuals and institutions. I am extremely grateful to my editor Heather Lundine. I thank her for having faith in this book and for her first-class editorial work. At the University of Nebraska Press I would also like to thank Bridget Barry, Joeth Zucco, and Sally E. Antrobus. My colleagues in the Spanish Department at St. Andrews, as ever, deserve a mention for their unwavering support and for their collegiality. The same goes to my students, who over the years have not minded becoming santanistas for a semester. I must also thank the many historians who very generously shared their thoughts and notes with me during the period in which I wrote this book. I am immensely grateful to the following: Cath Andrews, Tim Anna, Christon Archer, Linda Arnold, Carmen Blázquez Domínguez, Jesús Hernández Jaimes, Timothy Johnson, Marco Antonio Landavazo, Juan Ortiz Escamilla, Gabriel Torres, Eric Van Young, Josefina Zoraida Vázquez, and Verónica Zárate Toscano. I should also like to thank Alfredo Ávila, who spoke to Santa Anna's descendant Margarita O'Reilly Pavón on my behalf, took the time to photograph the documents held in her private collection and forward them to me as e-mail attachments, and who eventually introduced us in January 2005. I am grateful to Doña Margarita for having allowed us access to her collection in the first place. Likewise I am indebted to another of Santa Anna's descendants, Hugo Villalobos Velasco, with whom I came in contact following an extraordinary series of coincidences. The portrait of Santa Anna that figures on the cover of this book belongs to

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