Paisanos: The Forgotten Irish who changed the Face of Latin America Hardcover – May 3, 2017

This was a gift but based on the feedback from the recipient it is a great read. They have bookmarked lots of names to do further research on as wrll

The book does a good job documenting the role of Irish migrations in Latin America's history.

Wonderful!

In "Paisanos", Tim Fanning gives a good overview of the Irish who contributed significantly to Latin American history.After telling us about Irishmen in Spanish service (Richard Wall, Alexander O'Reilly, Ambrose O'Higgins, John MacKenna and others), he introduces us to Bernardo O'Higgins, the liberator of Chile, and then gives an account of the thousands of Irish volunteers who, alongside with Englishmen and Scots, fought in the armies of Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin in the Wars of Independence. Finally, he tells the stories of Eliza Lynch, a heroin of Paraguay, and the San Patricio Battalion, which fought for Mexico in the 1848 war against the United States.Individually, these subjects have been covered before, but mostly with an academic audience in mind. Fanning's contribution is not so much fresh research, but the fact that he integrates these stories, of Irish interest, in a compact work destined for the general reader. What I enjoyed the most were the photographs of the men (and a few women) mentioned in the text. Other books are not so richly illustrated.The bibliography is also very good, combining archives, out of print sources and more recent publications. Having myself done a great deal of research on the British and Irish volunteers in Latin American independence, and also on the Wild Geese in Spanish service, I can confirm that the list of works mentioned is very comprehensive.

Enjoyed the book, it opened my eyes to the role the Irish played in Spain and Latin America. It always give me a sense of pride when you travel down a Calle O'Donnell in Madrid or O'Reilly n Havana and now I have a much better background knowledge as to how that came about. It wasn't over scholarly but it kept my interest from start to finish. It also looked at both heroes and villains in the light of facts not fiction. There was a lot of hard work and research evident in the book.

Got this book for my fiancé after a friend recommended. He absolutely enjoyed and loved it!