Wife: Elodia Castelo Guerrero
Place of Residence: Brownsville, Texas
Cemetery: City Cemetery
Father: Pedro Guerrero (Mexico)
Mother: Guadalupe Guerrero (Mexico)
------------------------------------
At 110, Guerrero Still Wonders If He Shot Emperor
Brownsville, Texas, April 1 - (AP) - The only living member of the Mexican firing squad which executed Emperor Maximilian at Queretaro in 1867 recalls that the proud Austrian died "like a brave soldier, with a smile on his lips."
Grizzled Antonio Guerrero, 110 year-old veteran of the Franco-Mexican war, lives quietly these days in his Brownsville home, musing over the part he played in ending forever France's imperialistic venture in Mexico.
"Aim at my body and leave my beard and features unmarred," Guerrero quoted the defeated emperor as saying when, with his back against a brick wall, he faced the firing squad.
His armies vanquished by Mexican forces under Benito Juárez and other patriots, Maximilian had surrendered at the battle of Queretaro. But he was thrown in prison at the Teresitas convent and later take to Capuchinas convent.
President Juárez, again the head of Mexico after French rule ceased, ordered Maximilian and Generals Miramón and Mejía, also captured, court martialled. They were sentenced to death.
Five days later, on June 19, 1867, Guerrero says, he and other members of the firing squad fired a volley into the bodies of the emperor and his two generals. Some of their rifles, by custom, contained blanks.
"I may have fired the shot which killed an emperor," Guerrero says, his tone denoting wonderment over the tragic event in which he, a humble soldier, had been designated to participate.
The aged soldier, wrinkled and shrunken, remembers that Maximilian gave each member of the firing squad a silver peso before he died.
-April 3, 1936
------------------------------------
Place of Residence: Brownsville, Texas
Cemetery: City Cemetery
Father: Pedro Guerrero (Mexico)
Mother: Guadalupe Guerrero (Mexico)
------------------------------------
At 110, Guerrero Still Wonders If He Shot Emperor
Brownsville, Texas, April 1 - (AP) - The only living member of the Mexican firing squad which executed Emperor Maximilian at Queretaro in 1867 recalls that the proud Austrian died "like a brave soldier, with a smile on his lips."
Grizzled Antonio Guerrero, 110 year-old veteran of the Franco-Mexican war, lives quietly these days in his Brownsville home, musing over the part he played in ending forever France's imperialistic venture in Mexico.
"Aim at my body and leave my beard and features unmarred," Guerrero quoted the defeated emperor as saying when, with his back against a brick wall, he faced the firing squad.
His armies vanquished by Mexican forces under Benito Juárez and other patriots, Maximilian had surrendered at the battle of Queretaro. But he was thrown in prison at the Teresitas convent and later take to Capuchinas convent.
President Juárez, again the head of Mexico after French rule ceased, ordered Maximilian and Generals Miramón and Mejía, also captured, court martialled. They were sentenced to death.
Five days later, on June 19, 1867, Guerrero says, he and other members of the firing squad fired a volley into the bodies of the emperor and his two generals. Some of their rifles, by custom, contained blanks.
"I may have fired the shot which killed an emperor," Guerrero says, his tone denoting wonderment over the tragic event in which he, a humble soldier, had been designated to participate.
The aged soldier, wrinkled and shrunken, remembers that Maximilian gave each member of the firing squad a silver peso before he died.
-April 3, 1936
------------------------------------
Wife: Elodia Castelo Guerrero
Place of Residence: Brownsville, Texas
Cemetery: City Cemetery
Father: Pedro Guerrero (Mexico)
Mother: Guadalupe Guerrero (Mexico)
------------------------------------
At 110, Guerrero Still Wonders If He Shot Emperor
Brownsville, Texas, April 1 - (AP) - The only living member of the Mexican firing squad which executed Emperor Maximilian at Queretaro in 1867 recalls that the proud Austrian died "like a brave soldier, with a smile on his lips."
Grizzled Antonio Guerrero, 110 year-old veteran of the Franco-Mexican war, lives quietly these days in his Brownsville home, musing over the part he played in ending forever France's imperialistic venture in Mexico.
"Aim at my body and leave my beard and features unmarred," Guerrero quoted the defeated emperor as saying when, with his back against a brick wall, he faced the firing squad.
His armies vanquished by Mexican forces under Benito Juárez and other patriots, Maximilian had surrendered at the battle of Queretaro. But he was thrown in prison at the Teresitas convent and later take to Capuchinas convent.
President Juárez, again the head of Mexico after French rule ceased, ordered Maximilian and Generals Miramón and Mejía, also captured, court martialled. They were sentenced to death.
Five days later, on June 19, 1867, Guerrero says, he and other members of the firing squad fired a volley into the bodies of the emperor and his two generals. Some of their rifles, by custom, contained blanks.
"I may have fired the shot which killed an emperor," Guerrero says, his tone denoting wonderment over the tragic event in which he, a humble soldier, had been designated to participate.
The aged soldier, wrinkled and shrunken, remembers that Maximilian gave each member of the firing squad a silver peso before he died.
-April 3, 1936
------------------------------------
Place of Residence: Brownsville, Texas
Cemetery: City Cemetery
Father: Pedro Guerrero (Mexico)
Mother: Guadalupe Guerrero (Mexico)
------------------------------------
At 110, Guerrero Still Wonders If He Shot Emperor
Brownsville, Texas, April 1 - (AP) - The only living member of the Mexican firing squad which executed Emperor Maximilian at Queretaro in 1867 recalls that the proud Austrian died "like a brave soldier, with a smile on his lips."
Grizzled Antonio Guerrero, 110 year-old veteran of the Franco-Mexican war, lives quietly these days in his Brownsville home, musing over the part he played in ending forever France's imperialistic venture in Mexico.
"Aim at my body and leave my beard and features unmarred," Guerrero quoted the defeated emperor as saying when, with his back against a brick wall, he faced the firing squad.
His armies vanquished by Mexican forces under Benito Juárez and other patriots, Maximilian had surrendered at the battle of Queretaro. But he was thrown in prison at the Teresitas convent and later take to Capuchinas convent.
President Juárez, again the head of Mexico after French rule ceased, ordered Maximilian and Generals Miramón and Mejía, also captured, court martialled. They were sentenced to death.
Five days later, on June 19, 1867, Guerrero says, he and other members of the firing squad fired a volley into the bodies of the emperor and his two generals. Some of their rifles, by custom, contained blanks.
"I may have fired the shot which killed an emperor," Guerrero says, his tone denoting wonderment over the tragic event in which he, a humble soldier, had been designated to participate.
The aged soldier, wrinkled and shrunken, remembers that Maximilian gave each member of the firing squad a silver peso before he died.
-April 3, 1936
------------------------------------
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