Kids Comics Pitchfest 2025 Showcase

Irish Compadres

A proud Mexican grandfather recounts his heroic tales of fighting against the U.S., side by side with the legendary Irish San Patricios, as a young boy during the Mexican-American war in the mid-1840s. This story details how hundreds of Irish immigrants defected from the U.S. army and joined the Mexican army in what was a relatively unknown stain on American history for some 150 years.

This story is about xenophobia and abuse of immigrants during a period of intense nativism that permeated the United States, and its army, in the mid-19th Century.

My Why:

It is my mission to tell this story with sequential art--it is an important, inspiring and highly relevant story in a day and age where politicians try to re-draw borders and re-name geographies on a whim.

In 2014, I heard the story of Los San Patricios, or Saint Patrick's Battalion, from comedian Felipe Esparza. He told an impassioned tale about brave Irish soldiers that felt so strongly about their ethics and morals that they turned coat and joined the Mexican army during the height of the Mexican-American war. Since then, I have been obsessed with learning everything about the battalion and its leader, John Riley. Information on this part of U.S. history is sparse and hard to find, as the U.S. tried its best to sweep it under the rug.