The Diezmo takes place in the years immediately following the Texas Revolution and follows the story of James Alexander and his close friend, James Shepherd, as they participate in the disastrous "Mier Expedition" along the Mexican/Texan border. Starting off enthusiastically enough, the pair comes to realize their mistake in joining a soon to be rogue militia, and take actions that would today be viewed as war crimes, or even genocide, as they target Mexican villages for looting, and murder civilians. Ultimately, the remaining members of the expedition were captured and held as prisoners by the Mexican military. Many of them died in captivity, and James Alexander barely escaped with his life.

The basis of this novel is the bloody “Mier …show more content…
In the novel, James Alexander claims “We were kept separate from horses but afforded the same treatment; we had a communal trough from which to water, were made to avoid along the perimeter of the corral, and were given but one shovel with which to fling the offending spoor as far from the crude corral as possible.” . This claim is backed by the records of the Texas State Library and Archive which state “As far as the Mexicans were concerned, the Texans were privateers on an unauthorized raid and entitled to no consideration as military prisoners of war. They were initially sentenced to death, then ordered on a forced march to Mexico City”. This would seem to be just the beginning of the Texans …show more content…
Initially ordering the execution of all the failed escapees, Santa Anna changed his mind after hearing the pleas of several foreign ministers for mercy. Instead he ordered the decimation of the remaining one hundred and seventy-six prisoners. Decimation is an ancient Roman Tradition in which army units who were disloyal, or failed in their duties due to cowardice were punished by having one of every ten men executed. While we can hardly see this as an act of mercy, Santa Anna certainly considered it one. In The Diezmo, James Alexander gives a fictional, yet chilling recollection of the events of the drawing, “I walked up to the pot, trying to look properly terrified: and I was. Never had I had so many eyes upon me. Hundreds of eyes, from all directions.” In the story James used a clever trick to slight the guards and save himself from the possibility of death, but in reality there is no evidence of any of the Texans being so lucky. Those that drew the black beans were executed by firing squad that night. For the other prisoners, their journey had just