Primavera

Twelve years ago, by the time I was in college, I saw the movie The Patriot (Roland Emmerich, 2000) for the first time as schoolwork. The feeling I got from the movie is, that behind the villain interpreted by Jason Isaacs, there was probably an untold story.

This feeling led me to develop what I imagined to be this untold story; which, as a consequence, made me research this topic deeply. The villain from the movie was based— unfairly — on a real historic figure: Sir Banastre Tarleton (1st Baronet, GCB), who commanded a British loyalist regiment known as British Legion.

Tarleton’s figure is still today full of controversies, with him being considered a villain in the United States, and a hero in England. The history told through these two centuries blame him for ordering to massacre surrendered American soldiers, what motivated the inhabitants of the southern colonies to take sides on the war and to influence on the American victory.

Although, with the passing years and the increasing research to the sources of the massacre’s reports, a new version came to light: that the American Commander refused the surrender offer made by Tarleton, and when he saw that his troops would lose the battle, he ran away. During the Americans’ surrender, a shot hit Tarleton’s horse, who got trapped underneath it. His troops, believing his Commander was killed under a flag of truce, returned to attack the Americans.

Based on the fact that every story has two sides, I decided to approach the British side on the American Revolutionary War and to write not only one novel but three. With a fictional main arc inserted into the context of this war, my major objective is to take the reader on a journey through time, to see the world and its predominant values through the eyes of those who lived in that era.

This story is still in its initial phase — even after twelve years since its first spark —, and I consider it as my greatest project. And, for sure, what requires my energy the most to come into existence.