Miguel de Santana is and was a very difficult historical figure. Mexican history does not remember him well. He was tinhorn dictator who bloodily surpressed all dissent in his own country while being a completely "for sale" hustler internationally, and being a real fool about it. He put down revolts in Zacatecas, Durango, San Luis Potosi and then marched into Texas with a conscript army and was defeated by the Texans at San Jacinto in 1836. He was deposed. In 1841 he came to power again and proceeded to drain the Mexican treasury for three years until deposed again. US President Polk had him sent on a US ship from exile in Cuba back to Mexico and he would preside over the mismanaged Mexican war effort. Having come back into power a fourth time following the Mexican War and Mexico's loss of a third of it's territory he proceded to sell even more of it to the US (the Gadsden Purchase). While it may be argued that this song was in favor of him, it can just as easily be argued that it is a tongue in cheek reference to one of the most conceited and puffed up rulers in world history.