TEJANOS HISTORY TRACING THIER ROOTS MEXICO.MEXICAN AMERICANS.

People of Mexican descent in Texas trace their biological origins to the racial mixture that occurred following the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the 1520s. During the Spanish colonial period, population increases occurred as Spanish males mixed with Indian females, begetting a mestizo race. By 1821, when Mexico won its independence from Spain, the mestizo population almost equalled the size of the indigenous stock and that of Iberian*born persons. Mexicans advanced northward from central Mexico in exploratory and settlement operations soon after the conquest, but did not permanently claim the Texas frontierland until after 1710. In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the French became increasingly active along the Texas Gulf Coast, and in response, the viceroy in Mexico City made preparations for the colonization of the Texas wilderness. The first expedition in 1716 peopled an area that subsequently became the town of Nacogdoches; a second in 1718 settled present*day San Antonio; and a third established La Bahía (Goliad) in 1721. During the 1740s and 1750s, the crown founded further colonies along both banks of the Rio Grande, including what is now Laredo. At this early time, the crown relied primarily on persuasion to get settlers to pick up and relocate in the far*off Texas lands. Those responding hailed from Coahuila and Nuevo León, though intrepid souls from the interior joined the early migrations. In reality, few pioneers wished to live in isolation or amid conditions that included possible Indian attacks. They feared a setting that lacked adequate supplies, sustenance, and medical facilities for the sick, especially infants. Frontier living inhibited population growth so that at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Spanish Texas neared its end, the Mexican*descent population numbered only about 5,000. Between then and the time of the Texas Revolution in 1836, the number of Hispanics fluctuated, but then increased perceptibly, so that the first federal census taken of Texas in 1850 counted more than 14,000 residents of Mexican origin. Subsequently, people migrated from Mexico in search of agricultural work in the state, and in the last half of the century, moved north due to a civil war in the homeland (the War of the Reform, 1855-61) and the military resistance against the French presence (1862-67). But they also looked to Texas as a refuge from the poverty at home, a condition exacerbated by the emergence of President Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911), whose dictatorial rule favored landowners and other privileged elements in society. The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) increased the movement of people across the Rio Grande. Mass relocation persisted into the 1920s as agricultural expansion in the southwestern United States also acted to entice the desperately poor. The total Mexican*descent population in Texas may have approximated 700,000 by 1930. The Great Depressionqv and repatriation efforts (see MEXICAN AMERICANS AND REPATRIATION) and deportation drives undertaken during the 1930s stymied population expansion. Growth resumed during the 1940s, however, as labor shortages in the United States induced common people from Mexico to seek escape from nagging poverty in the homeland. Many turned to Texas ranches and farms, but also to urban opportunities, as the state entered the post-World War II industrial boom. Their presence, combined with births among the native*born population, augmented the Spanish-surnamed population to 1,400,000 by 1960. Though economic refugees from Mexico continued to add to the expansion of Tejano communities after the 1960s, the majority of children born since that date have had native*born parents. The 1990 census counted 4,000,000 people of Mexican descent in the state. Fewer than 20 percent of that population were of foreign birth. In 1836, when Texas acquired independence from Mexico, Tejanos remained concentrated in settlements founded during the eighteenth century, namely Nacogdoches, San Antonio, Goliad, and Laredo. Other communities with a primarily Mexican*descent population in 1836 included Victoria, founded by Martín De León in 1824, and the villages of San Elizario, Ysleta, and Socorro in far west Texas. Spaniards had founded these latter settlements on the west bank of the Rio Grande during the 1680s as they sought to claim New Mexico, but the villages became part of the future West Texas when the Rio Grande changed course in the 1830s. Population dispersals until the mid*nineteenth century occurred mainly within the regions of Central and South Texas. In the former area, Tejanos spread out into the counties east and southeast of San Antonio seeking a livelihood in this primarily Anglo*dominated region. In South Texas, they pushed from the Rio Grande settlements toward Nueces River ranchlands and still composed a majority of the section's population despite the increased number of Anglo arrivals after the Mexican War of 1846-48. In the years after the Civil War, Mexicans moved west of the 100th meridian, migrating simultaneously with Anglo pioneers then displacing Indiansqv from their native habitat and converting hinterlands into cattle and sheep ranches. By 1900, Tejanos were settled in all three sections. They formed a minority in Central Texas and a majority in South Texas; they held a demographic advantage along the border counties of West Texas, but were outnumbered by Anglos in that section's interior. The rise of commercial agriculture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries summoned laborers for seasonal and farm work, and both recent arrivals from Mexico and native*born Tejanos answered the call by heading into South and Central Texas fields. During this period, they also made for Southeast Texas and North Texas, searching out cotton lands as well as opportunities in large cities such as Houston and Dallas. Between 1910 and 1929, migrant workers began what became a yearly migrant swing that started in the farms of South Texas and headed northward into the developing Northwest Texas and Panhandle cottonlands. They settled in smaller communities along the routes of migration, and by the 1930s the basic contours of modern*day Tejano demography had taken form. With the exception of Northeast Texas, most cities and towns in the state by the pre-World War II era had Tejano populations. Tejanos relied on a wide spectrum of occupations in the nineteenth century, though most found themselves confined to jobs as day laborers and in other unspecialized tasks. They worked as maids, restaurant helpers, and laundry workers, but the great majority turned to range duties due to the orientation of the economy and their skills as ranchhands and shepherds (pastores). A small percentage found a niche as entrepreneurs or ranchers. After the 1880s, Texas Mexicans turned to new avenues of livelihood, such as building railroads and performing other arduous tasks. During the agricultural revolution of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, many worked grubbing brush and picking cotton, vegetables, and fruits, primarily in the fields of South Texas, but also migrated into the other regions of the state as farmhands. In the urban settlements, an entrepreneurial sector-comprising shopowners, labor agents, barbers, theater owners, restaurateurs, and the like-ministered to Mexican consumers in familiar terms. Even as Texas society experienced increased urban movements following World War I, Tejanos remained preponderantly an agrarian people. In towns, many faced labor segregation and took menial jobs in construction work, city projects, railroad lines, slaughterhouses, cotton compresses, and whatever else availed itself. After World War II, however, increased numbers of Tejanos left agricultural work and found opportunities in the industrializing cities. Most found improvements in wages and working conditions in unskilled or semiskilled positions, though a growing number penetrated the professional, managerial, sales, clerical, and craft categories. Presently, the great majority of Tejanos hold urban*based occupations that range from high*paying professional positions to minimum*wage, unskilled jobs. An unfortunate minority remains tied to farm work as migrating campesinos (farmworkers). Since the initial settlements of the early eighteenth century, a sense of community has given Tejanos a particular identity. On the frontier, common experiences and problems forced Texas Mexicans to adjust in ways different from those of their counterparts in the Mexican interior. Tejanos fashioned an ethic of self*reliance, wresting their living from a ranching culture, improvising ways to survive in the wilderness expanse, and devising specific political responses to local needs despite directives from the royal government. In barrios (urban neighborhoods) and rural settlements in the era following the establishment of American rule, Tejanos combined tenets of Mexican tradition with those of American culture. The result was a Tejano community that practiced a familiar folklore, observed Catholic holy days and Mexican national holidays, spoke the Spanish language, yet sought participation in national life. But Tejanos faced lynching, discrimination, segregation, political disfranchisement, and other injustices. This produced a community at once admiring and distrusting of United States republicanism. The arrival of thousands of Mexican immigrants in the early years of the twentieth century affected group consciousness as now a major portion of the population looked to the motherland for moral guidance and even allegiance. Recent arrivals reinforced a Mexican mentality, as they based familial and community behavior upon the traditions of the motherland. Many took a keener interest in the politics of Mexico than that of the United States. By the 1920s, however, birth in Texas or upbringing in the state produced newer levels of Americanization. Increasingly, community leaders sought the integration of Mexicans into mainstream affairs, placing emphasis on the learning of English, on acquaintance with the American political system, and acceptance of social norms of the United States. In modern times, a bicultural Hispanic community identifies primarily with United States institutions, while still upholding Mexican customs and acknowledging its debt to the country of its forefathers. In truth, Tejanos are a diverse group, even divided along social lines. During the colonial era, a small, elite group that included landowners, government officials, and ambitious merchants stood above the poverty-stricken masses. Though the American takeover of Texas in 1836 reversed the fortunes of this elite cohort, Mexican Americans devised imaginative responses in their determination to maintain old lands, buy small parcels of real estate, found new businesses, and develop political ties with Anglo-Americans. This nineteenth-century social fragmentation remained into the early 1900s, as even the immigrants fleeing Porfirio Díaz and the Mexican Revolution derived from different social classes. The lot of the great majority of Tejanos remained one of misery, however. Most Mexican Americans lived with uncertain employment, poor health, and substandard housing. Out of the newer opportunities developing in the 1920s, however, emerged a petit bourgeoisie composed of businessmen, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals; from this element descended the leaders who called on the masses to accept United States culture during the 1920s. According to the 1930 census, about 15 percent of Tejanos occupied middle-class positions. After World War II, social differentiation became more pronounced as numerous Tejanos successfully achieved middle-class status. By the 1990s, nearly 40 percent of the Tejano labor force held skilled, white-collar, and professional occupations. The majority, however, remained economically marginalized. Tejanos faced numerous obstacles in their efforts to participate in the politics of the nineteenth century. Anglos considered them unworthy of the franchise and generally discouraged them from voting. Where permitted to cast ballots, Tejanos were closely monitored by Anglo political bosses or their lieutenants to ensure that they voted for specific candidates and platforms. Members of the Tejano landholding class cooperated in this procedure. The status quo for them meant protecting their possessions and their alliances with Anglo rulers (see BOSS RULE). Despite efforts to neutralize Tejanos politically, Texas Mexicans displayed interest in questions of regional and even national concern. Especially in the counties and towns along the Rio Grande and in San Antonio, they joined reform movements and attempted to mobilize people behind economic issues that bore on the wellbeing of barrio residents. Some held offices as commissioners, collectors, or district clerks. Moreover, they took stands on the divisive issues of the 1850s, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Gilded Age politics. During the early decades of the twentieth century and continuing until the late 1940s, political incumbency took a downturn. The Democratic party institutionalized the White Primary during this period, the legislature enacted the poll tax, and demographic shifts occurred that diluted the majority advantage held by Tejanos in South and extreme West Texas. The nineteenth-century bosses who had compensated Mexican voters with patronage suffered setbacks from the Progressive challenge and were removed from power during the teens. Some Mexican-American politicians in the ranch counties of South Texas-Webb, Zapata, Starr, and Duval-did manage to retain their positions, however. In the post-World War II years, Anglo political reformers solicited Mexican-American cooperation in efforts to establish improved business climates in the cities. Due to a more tolerant atmosphere and political resurgence in the barrios, Tejano politicians once more gained access to political posts; in 1956 Henry B. Gonzalez became the first Mexican American to win election to the Texas Senate in modern times. In the mid*1960s a liberal*reformist movement spread across Tejano communities, led by youths disgruntled with barriers in the way of Tejano aspirations and inspired by a farmworkers' march in 1966. Anglo society became the object of militant attacks. Out of this Chicano movement surfaced the Raza Unida party with a plank that addressed discriminatory practices and advocated the need for newer directions in Texas politics. For a variety of reasons, this political chapter in Tejano history ended by the mid*1970s and was succeeded by more moderate politics, led by leaders wanting to forge workable coalitions with liberal Democratic allies. The 1970s and 1980s saw a dramatic rise in the number of Tejano incumbents. Federal legislation and court decisions, a more open*minded Anglo society, and the impact of the Chicano movement brought successes. Clubs with political leanings existed throughout Texas in the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century, although no large successful organization appeared on the scene until 1929, when activist members of a small but growing Tejano middle class founded the League of United Latin American Citizens. Though LULAC was nonpolitical, it sought to interest Texas Mexicans in politics (by sponsoring poll tax drives, for instance) and worked to change oppressive conditions by investigating cases of police brutality, complaining to civic officials and business proprietors about segregation, and working for a sound educational system. Along with the American G.I. Forum of Texas, which was founded in 1948, LULAC utilized the judicial process to effect changes favorable to Mexican Americans. During the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s, these two organizations turned to the federal government to get money for needy Mexican-American communities in the state. Both pursued a centrist political position after the Chicano period. In 1968, civil rights lawyers founded the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund to fight for legal solutions of problems afflicting Mexican Americans. By the 1970s, MALDEF had gained distinction by winning judicial victories in the areas of diluted political rights, employment discrimination, poor educational opportunities, and inequitable school finance. As descendants of Spaniards who brought their religion to Mexico, the majority of Texas Mexicans belong to the Catholic faith. Generally, Texas-Mexican Catholics have observed doctrine and received the sacraments by marrying in the church and having their children baptized and taught religion, though their adherence to Catholic teaching is far from complete. Recent surveys indicate that many Mexican-American Catholics view the church as a place for worship but not an institution readily responsive to personal and community needs. Close to 60 percent believe themselves to be "good Catholics." Protestants have proselytized among Texas Mexicans with general success. Many barrios in the larger towns featured Protestant places of worship by the 1870s, and newer enclaves in the twentieth century had several "Mexican" Protestant churches. Protestant work among Mexican Americans has been constant in the twentieth century; Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Jehovah's Witnesses have made special efforts to convert Mexican-American Catholics. Approximately 20 percent of Mexican Americans in the United States belong to Protestant communions. Anglo-American society in the nineteenth century did not concern itself over the education of Texas-Mexican children, since farmers and ranchers had little need for a literate working class. Where public schooling might exist, however, Tejano families urged their children to attend. Those who could afford it, on the other hand, enrolled their youngsters in private religious academies and even in colleges. Select communities established local institutions with a curriculum designed to preserve the values and heritage of Mexico. Not until the 1920s did government take a serious interest in upgrading education for Tejanitos, but even then, society provided inferior facilities for them. Texas-Mexican children ordinarily attended "Mexican schools" and were discouraged from furthering their education past the sixth grade. Attendance in these schools, however, did have the effect of socializing and Americanizing an increased number of young folks whose parents were either foreign-born or unacculturated. Though Texas Mexicans had protested educational inequalities since the second decade of the century, it was not until the 1930s that they undertook systematic drives against them-namely as members of LULAC, but also through local organizations such as the Liga Pro*Defensa Escolar (School Improvement League) in San Antonio. Before World War II, however, the educational record for Tejanos proved dismal, as poverty and administrative indifference discouraged many from regular attendance. The children of migrant parents, for example, received their only exposure to education when the family returned to its hometown during the winter months. After the war, the G.I. Forum joined in the struggle to improve the education of the Mexican community with the motto "Education is Our Freedom." With LULAC, the forum campaigned to encourage parents and students to make education a priority. Both organizations also worked through the legal system and successfully persuaded the courts to desegregate some districts. During the 1950s, indeed, Tejanos witnessed slight improvement in their educational status, though this may have been partly due to the rural-to-urban transition of the time. City life meant better access to schools, better enforcement of truancy laws, and less migration if heads of families found more stable employment. The gap between Mexican-American and Anglo achievement remained wide, however, and after the 1960s, MALDEF leveled a legal assault on issues such as racial segregation and the inequitable system of dispersing public funds to school districts. Concerned parents and legislators also strove for a better-educated community by supporting such programs as Head Start and bilingual education. In more recent times, however, Mexican-American students still had the highest dropout rate of all ethnic groups. In part, this explained the fact that Mexican-American students average only ten years in school. Within the social space of segregated neighborhoods or isolated rural settlements, Tejanos carried on cultural traditions that blended the customs of the motherland with those of the United States. They organized, for instance, an array of patriotic, recreative, or civic clubs designed to address bicultural tastes. Newspapers, either in Spanish or English, informed communities of events in both Mexico and the United States. Tejanos also developed a literary tradition. Some left small autobiographical sketches while others wrote lay histories about Tejano life. Creative writers penned narratives, short stories and poems that they submitted to community newspapers or other outlets; some were in Spanish, especially those of the nineteenth century, but works were also issued in bilingual or English form. Civic leaders compiled records of injustices or other community concerns, and academicians wrote scholarly articles or books. Among the latter may be listed Jovita González de Mireles, Carlos E. Castañeda, and George I. Sánchez, who published after the 1930s. Painters, sculptors, and musicians have made some contribution to Tejano traditional arts, though not much is known of such contributions before the 1920s. During the 1930s, Octavio Medellín begin a career as a sculptor of works with pre*Columbian motifs. After World War II, Porfirio Salinas, Jr., gained popularity as a landscape artist, and during the 1960s some of his paintings hung in Lyndon B. Johnsons's White House. More recent is José Cisneros, known for his pen-and-ink illustrations of Spanish Borderlands historical figures. The workers of Amado M. Peña, a painter from Laredo, and the sculptor Luis Jiménez of El Paso reveal a border influence but go beyond ethnicity. Numerous musicians have established legendary careers in Spanish; several Tejanos have topped the American rock 'n roll charts, and some have earned Grammys. Folklore, much of it based on the folk beliefs of the poor in Mexico, flourished in Mexican communities in Texas. While reflecting many themes, it especially served to express feelings about abrasive confrontations between Tejanos and Anglos. Corridos of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, for example, criticized white society for injustices inflicted on barrio dwellers or extolled heroic figures who resisted white oppression. In the nineteenth century, the dominant language in the barrios and rural settlements was that of Mexico, though some Tejanos also attained facility in English and thus became bilingual. Various linguistic codes characterize oral communications in present*day enclaves, however, due to continued immigration from Mexico, racial separation, and exposure to American mass culture. Some Texas Mexicans speak formal Spanish only, just as there are those who communicate strictly in formal English. More common are those Spanish speakers using English loan words as they borrow from the lexicon of mainstream society. Another form of expression, referred to as "code*switching," involves the systematic mixing of the English and Spanish languages. Another mode of communication is caló, a "hip" code composed of innovative terminology used primarily by boys in their own groups (see PACHUCOS). Friction has characterized relations between mainstream society and Tejanos since 1836. Mechanisms designed to maintain white supremacy, such as violence, political restrictions, prohibition from jury service, segregation, and inferior schooling caused suspicion and distrust within the Mexican community. Repatriation of Mexican citizens during the depression of the 1930s and Operation Wetback in 1954 inflicted great anguish on some of the communities touched by the drives, as Tejanos perceived them to be racially motivated. In more recent times, conflict between the two societies has persisted over such issues as immigration, the right to speak Spanish in schools, and the use of public money to support the Tejano poor. Even as Anglo-American society attempted to relegate Tejanos to second-class citizenry, Mexican Americans have sought to find their place in America. Middle-class businessmen have pursued integration into the economic mainstream, and the politically minded have worked for the involvement of Tejanos in the body politic. Such were the objectives of organizations as LULAC, the G.I. Forum, and MALDEF. Though recent immigrants wrestle with two allegiances, their children have ordinarily accepted the offerings of American life. Indeed, Texas Mexicans have proven their allegiance toward the state on numerous occasions, especially during the country's several wars. Seldom have drives toward separatism gained support across the spectrum of the community. Probably the most prominent movement emphasizing anti*Anglo sentiments was the Chicano movement, but even its rhetoric appealed only to certain sectors of the community. In the Lone Star State, Mexican Americans stand out as one of the few groups having loyalties to the state while simultaneously retaining a binary cultural past. See also MEXICAN AMERICANS, BILINGUAL EDUCATION, CATHOLIC CHURCH, CHICANO ART NETWORKS, CHICANO LITERARY RENAISSANCE, CHICANO MURAL MOVEMENT, CIVIL-RIGHTS MOVEMENT, ELECTION LAWS, FOLKLORE AND FOLKLIFE and articles beginning with FOLK, LITERATURE, MEXICAN-AMERICAN FOLK ARTS AND CRAFTS, MEXICAN-AMERICAN LAND GRANT ADJUDICATION, MEXICAN AMERICANS AND EDUCATION, MEXICAN AMERICANS AND RELIGION, MEXICAN TEXAS, M&UACUTE;SICA NORTEÑA, SEGREGATION, TEJANO POLITICS, TEXAS-MEXICAN CONJUNTO, TEXAS-MEXICAN FICTION, TEXAS-MEXICAN VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE, and TEX-MEX FOOD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Rodolfo Acuña, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (2d ed., New York: Harper and Row, 1981). Evan Anders, Boss Rule in South Texas: The Progressive Era (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982). Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936-58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). Gilbert R. Cruz, Let There Be towns (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1988). Arnoldo De León, Ethnicity in the Sunbelt: A History of Mexican-Americans in Houston (University of Houston Mexican American Studies Program, 1989). Arnoldo De León, San Angeleños: Mexican Americans in San Angelo, Texas (San Angelo: Fort Concho Museum Press, 1985). Arnoldo De León, They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes Toward Mexicans in Texas, 1821-1900 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983). Arnoldo De León and Kenneth L. Stewart, "Tejano Demographic Patterns and Socio-economic Development," Borderlands Journal 7 (Fall 1983). Ignacio M. Garcia, United We Win: The Rise and Fall of La Raza Unida Party (Tucson: University of Arizona Mexican American Studies Research Center, 1989). Mario T. García, Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, 1880-1920 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981). Mario T. Garcia, Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1930-1960 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989). Richard A. García, Rise of the Mexican American Middle Class, San Antonio, 1919-1941 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991). Gilberto Miguel Hinojosa, A Borderlands Town in Transition: Laredo, 1755-1870 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1983). Jack Jackson, Los Mesteños: Spanish Ranching in Texas, 1721-1821 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986). Oakah L. Jones, Los Paisanos: Spanish Settlers on the Northern Frontier of New Spain (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979). David Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987). Manuel Peña, The Texas-Mexican Conjunto: History of a Working-Class Music (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985). Gerald E. Poyo and Gilberto M. Hinojosa, eds., Tejano Origins in Eighteenth-Century San Antonio (San Antonio: Institute of Texan Cultures, 1991). Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr., "Let All of Them Take Heed": Mexican Americans and the Campaign for Educational Equality in Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987). Edgar G. Shelton, Jr., Political Conditions among Texas Mexicans along the Rio Grande (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1946; San Francisco: R&E Research Associates, 1974). Jerry D. Thompson, Warm Weather and Bad Whiskey: The 1886 Laredo Election Riot (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1991). W. H. Timmons, "The El Paso Area in the Mexican Period, 1821-1848," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 84 (July 1980). Emilio Zamora, Mexican Labor Activity in South Texas, 1900-1920 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1983). Arnoldo De LeónRecommended citation:"MEXICAN AMERICANS." The Handbook of Texas Online. <http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/...pqmue.html> This page dynamically generated: Mon, May 02, 2005 at 14:12:01 CSThttp://www.rra.dst.tx.us/c_t/History...0AMERICANS.cfm(Offline)  05-02-2005, 04:55 PM  #2EsePsychobpholic Join Date: Jun 2004Location: ORANGE COUNTYPosts: 2,679 Re: TEXANOS HISTORY TRACING THIER ROOTS MEXICO.Tejano South TexasA Mexican American Cultural Province Back to Book Description By Daniel D. ArreolaTable of Contents Chapter 1: Borderland Culture Region Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Chapter 1. Borderland Culture Region Chapter 2. Land beyond the Nueces Chapter 3. Territory Shaped Chapter 4. Homeland Forged Chapter 5. Texas Mexican Spaces Chapter 6. Texas Mexican Small Towns Chapter 7. Texas Mexican Cities Chapter 8. Texas Mexican Social Identities Chapter 9. Tejano Cultural Province Notes References Figure Sources IndexChapter 1: Borderland Culture RegionThe United States-Mexico border is the most extensive geographical area in which two of the principal cultures of this hemisphere actually meet. More than half of that border, approximately one thousand miles, is also the southern boundary of Texas.—Pauline R. Kibbe, Latin Americans in Texas, 1946.There can be no doubt that the Spanish-speaking constitute a clearly delineated ethnic group. But one must also recognize that there is no more heterogeneous ethnic group in the United States than the Spanish-speaking.—Carey McWilliams, North from Mexico, 1948.No one can quite remember how long the Mexican flag has hung alongside the United States flag in the city council chambers in Brownsville, Texas, but during the Texas sesquicentennial in 1986, a non-Hispanic resident of this Rio Grande Valley town contested the propriety of that display. "We are Americans," he said, "the Mexicans are people who live on the other side of the river." In Brownsville, as in dozens of communities across South Texas, resident Mexican Americans contend, however, that ancestral, cultural, and even economic ties are far stronger across the Rio Grande to places like Matamoros, Mexico, than to most northern American cities.That the eagle and serpent banner stands next to the stars and stripes in this border town is not an isolated example of bicultural expression in the region. In San Antonio, some four hours by auto north of Brownsville, the city's leading daily is the only major American newspaper with a weather map that shows all of Mexico as well as the United States. Along the Rio Grande between Brownsville and Laredo upriver, some 140 parteras or midwives service Mexican women who flock to South Texas to give birth on American soil and thereby confer U.S. citizenship upon their newborn. If raised in Mexico until the completion of elementary school, then such children must be bused to secondary school in the United States, because the Mexican government prohibits the registration in public schools of children born in the United States.In this southernmost periphery of the mainland United States rests what may be America's largest ethnic subregion, Mexican South Texas. South Texas is the southeastern edge of what has been identified as the Hispanic American borderland. To the Spanish-speaking population of this region, the borderland includes parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado as well as Texas, the states where some 83 percent of Americans of Mexican ancestry reside. One historian called the area a lost homeland, the conquered northern half of the Mexican nation. Mexican Americans, along with Hispanos (Spanish Americans) and Native Americans, are unique among southwestern ethnic groups in that each is a territorial minority, having occupied land before the arrival of Anglo American colonists.At the close of the nineteenth century, a writer observed that South Texas is "terra incognita to the rest of the United States" where the Rio Grande, which figures as the southeastern boundary of the United States on most maps, "can in no sense be regarded as fulfilling any of the conditions of a line of delimitation" between Mexico and Texas. Regional ambiguity and confused political and cultural demarcation have long been associated with South Texas, and still, today, the region remains an enigma in the popular imagination. Typically, South Texas is lumped together with other parts of the borderland, sometimes called "MexAmerica." A feature story in a national newsmagazine labeled the entire region "Selena Country," after the celebrated slain pop singer from Texas.But Mexican South Texas is a distinctive borderland, unlike any other Mexican American subregion. That assertion is the underlying thesis of this book. The reasons for this distinctiveness are many and complex, and they have roots in a distant past. In the chapters that follow, I make the case for geographical distinctiveness, and from several perspectives. First, however, I need to set the context for a cultural geographic view of this region. Because this work is a cultural geography, I begin with that idea and that point of view.Cultural Geographic ViewCultural geography is a subfield of geography with a scholarly tradition that is some seven decades old in the United States. Its conventions and standards of analysis have been declared and interpreted by geographers and researchers in cognate fields. Plural research themes characterize cultural geography, yet there is ambiguity still about the nature of culture and its application in this widely defined subfield. Despite a lack of definitional consensus, culture is part of everyday lives, and it gives meaning to those lives. It is the search for meaning, as Clifford Geertz suggested, that makes the study of culture an interpretive exercise, not an experimental science. Cultures can be seen to change, and they can be contested. Ultimately, cultures are produced and reproduced through a range of forms and practices that are embedded in spaces. Cultural geography, like the discipline of which it is a part, is less easily defined by its subject of study than by a point of view. If geographers are concerned with the study of phenomena and ideas from a spatial perspective, then cultural geographers are interested in studying aspects of culture, spatially represented. Three spatial abstractions have chiefly concerned how cultural geographers assess cultures, and each of these is significant to the present study; they are region, place, and landscape.Region is the highest resolution of abstraction that concerns cultural geographers. The modern culture region idea stems from the Annales School in early twentieth-century France and especially the writings of Paul Vidal de la Blache, who argued that genre de vie or way of life is represented best through the study and exploration of regional personality. In the United States, Carl Ortwin Sauer and his students at the University of California at Berkeley carried out regional studies of culture areas, what Sauer termed "the oldest tradition of geography" and "a form of geographic curiosity that is never contained by systems." Other cultural geographers have argued for a perspective that emphasizes how regions act as forms of communication and how regions are shaped in the geographic past. In North America, there has been a resurgence of interest in assessing cultural regions from both scholarly and popular points of view.The concern for regional understanding is not unique to geography. In the study of Mexican Americans, borderland historians especially have examined the varied regional experiences of this large ethnic population in Southern California, southern Arizona, West Texas, and South Texas. While regional history informs substantially about the relationships among ethnic subcultures, its goal is not geographic explanation. The intent of regional cultural understanding is to analyze the meanings behind the region. These can include knowing the ancestral geographic roots of the residents, how the region came to be formed politically and demographically, how identity is vested through cultural representations, and how the region is emblematic of a particular identity and, therefore, different from other cultural regions. Cultural geographers study these varied meanings through the process of place making and the symbolic attachments that cultures create in landscape.Place making is the process of settling, and eventually bonding, to place. It is a universal human quality but with variations that are specific to people and their place. Yet, cultural geographers have demonstrated that traditions established through long residence in one place can be transferred and to some extent replicated in another setting. Cultures, then, have particular ways to make a place, and understanding that process is part of the contribution geographers bring to cultural and regional studies. Place making is typically understood as a synthesis of various components, and charting the arrangement and significance of those elements is a complex exercise. Cultural geographers adhere to diachronic analysis in their study of place and believe that understanding of the human-place bond requires reconstruction of critical pieces of a past, whether institutional, material, or popular. The ground level analysis of place typically involves an assessment of a culture's landscape, the physical manifestation of ideas in space. Landscape analysis has figured as one of the distinguishing hallmarks of cultural geography.The idea of landscape as a political visual concept and scholarly subject has been assessed and reviewed by geographers. That landscape can have multiple meanings to different groups as well as individuals has been explored, and several geographers have articulated systematically how landscapes can be read, providing insight into place and social situation. Most cultural geographers accept the fact that landscapes are socially constructed. For example, the notion, cited above, that regions can be considered communicative devices studied by cultural geographers has been applied to the study of landscape as a representation of social identity. Landscape can act as a signifying framework through which a social system is communicated, reproduced, experienced, and explored. Signification typically implies more than the practical and thus is grounded in symbolic representation. Dwellings, for example, are primarily for shelter, but in some—perhaps many—cultures, dwellings can become so elaborate, like palaces, that the signifying factor of the structures exceeds the primary factor. Understanding a culture's landscape, then, becomes more than recognition of signatures: it is a reading of the meaning behind the signatures, an unraveling of a social code.Social codes are most elaborately presented in written texts that become allegorically reproduced in a landscape. However, many vernacular cultures and subcultures lack elegantly written texts that might reveal a landscape code. In such instances, landscape meaning must be sifted through deep reading of people and place, an examination of folk cultures long resident in particular habitats. Nevertheless, cultural geographers have begun to study industrial and postindustrial landscapes, especially urban and suburban environments, a departure from more traditional cultural geographic studies of folk cultures.The practice of cultural geography, then, has evolved to mean the prioritizing of culture in scholarship through emphasis on the study of cultural systems and their signification, and especially how culture is represented in space, place, and landscape.Mexican South TexasCultural geographic study of ethnic variation at the scale of subregions in the United States found early direction by Wilbur Zelinsky, who outlined the rudiments of twelve major groups during the 1960s and created a structure for classifying regional units by culture area. Hispanic American culture region study was pioneered by Richard Nostrand, whose 1970 paper "The Hispanic American Borderland: Delimitation of an American Culture Region" created the foundation for further inquiry of this regionalization. Nostrand's historical and cultural geographic study of the Hispanos or Spanish Americans of north-central New Mexico suggests that this subgroup is culturally distinctive among Spanish-speaking populations in the United States, and that their four-century occupancy of this region has created a homeland that is stamped with attributes of that distinctiveness. While cultural geographers like Nostrand and others have continued to elaborate the geographical personality of Hispanos, little effort has been made to distinguish geographically other Hispanic subgroups of the borderland.As described in the opening of this chapter, Mexican South Texas regionally and culturally is a distinctive part of the Hispanic American borderland, and this book assesses the nature of that geographical condition. My methods include areal analysis to delimit Mexican South Texas and place-landscape interpretations to analyze ethnic identity of the region. Regional bounding is a time-honored tradition of geographical study, but it is neither absolute nor constructed without inherent bias. Geographers classify regions at many scales, and I am principally concerned with meso-scale analysis to study phenomena between local and national resolutions. Geographers continue to debate the adequacy of the regional concept, yet the concept and methods of regionalizing persist. Why region continues as a useful concept may suggest that it is not simply an end in itself, but rather a descriptive and analytical tool that facilitates the spatial organization of ideas.In Chapter 2, I lay the basis for considering South Texas as a distinctive cultural region. I demonstrate that this area was not seen as a differentiated region until quite recently, and that its earliest historical identity lacked clarity. The association of the region as a Hispanic area is even more recent, despite early evidence of Spanish colonial settlements. This delayed perception of the region as a human-settled environment may have been influenced by its early identification as a wild land that was without potential human use. In Chapter 3 I construct the historical geography of South Texas as a Hispanic cultural framework, first through political claim and boundary alignment, then via colonization and transformation to Mexican American territory. Culture regions are not always coincident with political borders, but political process can be significant in setting an areal perimeter and in exercising control and authority over space. Finally, Chapter 4 charts the geographic evolution of South Texas as a Mexican American homeland. Demographic and cultural data are structured into four temporal cross sections to reveal the changing dominance of this ancestry group in the region, from early-twentieth-century expansion and immigration to a veritable stronghold condition by the end of the century.Beyond culture region, I assess cultural representations of place and landscape to investigate aspects of Mexican American identity in South Texas. Cultural representation, like region, is an abstract concept, yet it too is complex and never absolute or neutral. Representation is a symbolization of the material and ideological, and place and landscape are vehicles for its interpretation. While nongeographers typically accept place and landscape as unambiguous and self-evident, geographers realize that these concepts allow cultures to shape space into place through various experiences and from varied points of view. In the second part of the book, I examine this active place-making process as it involves Mexican Americans in the region. The goal is to understand how South Texas Mexican society became a specific regional subculture, rooted in nearby northeastern Mexico yet wed to the social and economic circumstances of South Texas and its hinterlands. That interpretation provides the basis for further support of my thesis that Mexican South Texas is a unique Mexican American cultural province, similar to but unlike Mexican American regional cultures in other borderland areas.In Chapter 5, I evaluate place at the scale of lived spaces like the rancho, plaza, urban barrio, and colonia. These spaces have become the emblematic expressions of local Mexican American settlement in South Texas, and they figure prominently in Mexican American identification. I then investigate specific places and their landscapes as vignettes in Chapters 6 and 7. While South Texas has become a predominantly urban region, small town life continues to be significant to local identity. Chapter 6 explores three examples of Texas Mexican small towns. These are San Ygnacio on the Rio Grande south of Laredo, San Diego on the coastal plain west of Corpus Christi, and Cotulla along the railroad and highway corridor that connects San Antonio on the northern edge of South Texas to Laredo on the Mexican border. Significantly, these communities are dominated by Texas Mexicans and the towns are more than a century old, so that each has a legacy of many generations of Mexican American attachment to place.In Chapter 7, I explore the two largest Texas Mexican cities of the region, San Antonio and Laredo. Demographically, economically, and culturally, San Antonio is the capital of South Texas. One of the oldest settlements in the borderland, San Antonio has a long association with Mexican American cultural ways, yet it has emerged most recently as the cradle of Texas Mexican identity. Laredo on the Rio Grande is almost as old as San Antonio but for much of its history has been in the shadow of the larger city. Laredo's historic gateway identity as a bridge between Mexico and Texas has been invigorated with the windfall of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Nevertheless, Laredo may be the most Mexican American medium-sized city in the country, symbolic of Texas Mexican places that have risen from relative obscurity to subregional notoriety.Finally, social identity among South Texas Mexican Americans is inspected through foodways and public celebrations in Chapter 8. Here Texas Mexican culture is studied through the lenses of folk and popular culture to assess how social practices become specific among Mexican Americans. In Chapter 9, I return to the thesis of regional distinctiveness and summarize how Mexican South Texas is a cultural province, connecting Mexico and the United States in a hybrid form that is unique in the borderlands."Mexican" and "Mexican American" are appellations used interchangeably in this book, as are "Texas Mexican" and "Tejano/a." Since these terms are fluid, distinction is made by the context in which each is used. For example, although persons referred to as "Mexican" are usually citizens of Mexico, at times they may be citizens of the United States. And while "Mexican Americans" usually refers to persons of Mexican heritage born in the United States, it may also refer to U.S. citizens originally from Mexico. "Texas Mexican" and "Tejana/o" are generally used to distinguish Mexican Americans who are Texans by birth from, say, Mexican Americans born in Arizona or California.Throughout the text I follow the convention of using Spanish-language spellings and accents as they appear in standard and cited sources. Mexican place names generally follow the usage of topographic maps published by the Dirección General de Geografía, while Spanish toponyms in the United States follow the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. For example, I use the English spelling "Rio Grande," whereas in Mexico the watercourse is called the "Río Bravo del Norte."Search Books | Orders | CatalogsMonth Releases | Current SeasonTerms of Sale | Privacy Policy | UT Austin Web Accessibility GuidelinesCopyright © 2003-5 University of Texas Press. All rights reserved. http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exarrtej.html(Offline)  05-02-2005, 04:56 PM  #3EsePsychobpholic Join Date: Jun 2004Location: ORANGE COUNTYPosts: 2,679 Re: TEXANOS HISTORY TRACING THIER ROOTS MEXICO.Texas MusicSan Antonio, Corpus Christi and Rio Grande ValleyTexas?musical heritage predates the birth of the Republic, according to the Southwest Texas State University Center of Texas Music History. Music supposedly played a central role at Texas first major historical event, the calamitous Battle of the Alamo. Legend has it Davy Crockett fiddled lively hoedowns to bolster the spirits of his fellow defenders of the Alamo. Meanwhile, Mexican Gen. Santa Anna instructed his military band to play &#58918;eguello,?the no quarter anthem designed to strike terror in the hearts of the Alamo defenders. Texas music is diverse, and nowhere is that more evident than the rich musical legacy that comes alive nightly in the cantinas and dance halls of San Antonio , Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley . All three destinations offer unparalleled music, entertainment and fun. In San Antonio, the jewel of the city is the famed River Walk , where cafes, shops, galleries and clubs beckon along the meandering river as it winds through the heart of the city. While strolling down the River Walk, make sure to stop and enjoy the live Mariachi bands that play every night, giving the area an authentic Mexico feel that you can&#58809; get anywhere else in the country. You&#58801;l find colorful folk art, pottery and delicious Mexican cuisine nearby in the Market Square . No visit to San Antonio is complete without a visit to the cradle of Texas?liberty, the Alamo in Alamo Plaza . Explore more 18th century beauty in the Spanish missions on the historic Mission Trail . Only a short distance from San Antonio, Corpus Christi offers Texas-size attractions, with by-the-sea flair. The city is home to the U.S.S. Lexington, the most famous aircraft carrier to serve in the U.S. Navy and the Texas State Aquarium, where underwater adventures and thriving sea life await your visit. Enjoy the sun, surf spectacular fishing, kayaking and birds in this friendly city. The Rio Grande Valley showcases a rich cultural and agricultural heritage with international roots. The area&#58808; balmy temperatures and notable bargains make it a perfect shopping destination. Besides great shopping and food, the area also features historical attractions, museums, recreational activities and access to the beach. When it comes to music, Germans and Czechs in Central and South Texas left a legacy of polkas, schottisches, and waltzes to the state&#58808; musical culture. By the middle of the 19th century, Mexican-American musicians had acquired the accordion and a taste for polka rhythms, creating bouncy Conjunto music and leading to today&#58808; Tejano sound. One of Conjunto&#58808; leading accordionists, Flaco Jimenez, even recorded with the Rolling Stones and Dwight Yoakum, making accordion music &#58954;ip.? Steel guitarist prodigy Doug Sahm embraced the Tex-Mex sound and played homage to his Texas roots. He eventually hooked up with his mentor Freddy Fender, Augie Meyers and Flaco Jimenez to form the Texas Tornados, a Tex-Mex supergroup who earned Grammys and high chart action. Today, Los Super Seven, featuring former Texas Tornados and adding country star Rick Trevino, continues the Mexican-American supergroup tradition. &#58934;ejano?usually refers to the electrified, pop-oriented music of younger generations of Mexican-Americans. The contagious dance music combines the modern - synthesizers - with the traditional -- accordion - and is extremely popular in Texas. Its biggest star, Corpus Christi&#58808; Selena , combined the Latin American cumbia with American dance music. Immensely popular, Selena and her band played to huge crowds including more than 60,000 at the Houston Astrodome . Selena died in 1995, but not before influencing hundreds of thousands of Mexican-American youth who idolized the young singer. Today, Tejano continues to be a culturally significant symbol of collective pride. To get a printable version of this tour select the city or attraction you want to start from.Select a Tour Stop to Print Houtson, Port Arthur and Beaumont San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Rio Grande Valley Austin Dallas and North Texas Lubbock Click on corresponding link below to check Highway Information and see short Day Trips •Day Trips•Highway Info•Click here to view Trip Savers coupons available NOW for your trip!Home | Texas Cities | Texas Activities | Texas Events | See Texas | Driving Tours | Search Lodging | Free Stuff | Accessibility | LinksOrder a Travel Guide | Trip Savers | Texas Products | Privacy & Security | Travel Guide FAQ | Trip Planner Log In | Contact UsThe Official Site of Texas Tourism© Copyright 2005 Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism. All rights reserved.http://www.traveltex.com/driving_tours_details.asp?SN=3156821&LS=0& st=112(Offline)  05-02-2005, 04:59 PM  #4EsePsychobpholic Join Date: Jun 2004Location: ORANGE COUNTYPosts: 2,679 Re: TEJANOS HISTORY TRACING THIER ROOTS MEXICO.Tejano Heroesof TheTexas Revolutionof 1836SDHP post these links as an educational aid for anyone interested in Texas HistoryAll of the sources for this information came out of the Handbook of Texas online. Juan Nepomuceno Seguin (1806-1890) SEGUÍN, JUAN NEPOMUCENO (1806-1890). SEGUÍN, JUAN JOSÉ MARÍA ERASMO (1782-1857) MENCHACA, JOSÉ ANTONIO (1800-1879 MEMOIRS by Antonio Menchaca Juan AbamilloCRUZ Y AROCHA, ANTONIO BADILLO, JUAN ANTONIO (?-1836)HERRERA, PEDRO (1806-?)LOSOYA, JOSÉ TORIBIO (1808-1836)FLORES, MANUEL (ca. 1801-1868)GOLIAD CAMPAIGN OF 1836 NAVARRO, NEPOMUCENO (ca. 1810-1877)ESPARZA, JOSÉ MARÍA (1802-1836)RODRÍGUEZ, AMBROSIO (?-1848)NAVARRO, JUAN NEPOMUCENO JIMÉNEZ, DAMACIO (?-1836). FLORES DE ABREGO, JOSÉ GASPAR MARÍA (1781-1836). MATAMOROS PRISONERSVAQUEROS The First Cowboys Added 01/05/05Copyrighted © 2004-2005 By Angelita HernadezThanks to Angelita Hernandez for allowing us to add her research on this lost Tejano Hero. Yes, you have my permission to add the Bio of Manuel Montalvo to your website. Angelita MONTALVO CHILDRENMANUEL MONTALVOApril 9, 1802 - April 21, 1882 Paternal great-great-grandfatherof Angelita Hernandez Garmondez@aol.comincluded: (1) 1757 Report, Camargo(2) Family data from the Census of May 31 1750(3) November 1874 Statement to Bexar CountyMontalvo member of the Texian Force (4) Honorable discharge, 23rd day of April 1837(5) Serves as Texas Ranger(6) Grievance, January 12, 1875 request for timely payment of pension(7) PedigreeReport and Census Document from 1757 Towns in Mexico (Nuevo Santander)The Town of CamargoIt was founded on the 5th of March of 1749, with the dedication to Senora Santa Ana, its captain Don Blas Maria De La Garza, it has 66 families of settlers with 378 persons to which are added 19 families which, according to the listing of said captain, have been added after the last registration of married couples with 24 persons from the outside because the others were sons and daughters of the same settlers and, with the previous ones, it comprises 85 families with 402 persons which, with the ones above, comprise 531 persons. Its mission, Laredo with the dedication to San Agustin, the minister the R.F. Fray Juan Bautista Garcia has 500 persons of congregated, indoctrinated Indians and there will be many more which abound in the environs who will join, attracted to the good style of the said priest: he has already started his field of corn and of common seasonal beans for which he has farming tools and a good number of major and minor livestock: they have finished the construction of a decent convent of stone, mortar, and adobe, and its flat roof of beams and a kind of bitumen and now the construction of the church has begun: among the reported Indians there are many who are employed as workmen in the construction, as laborers in farming, in making adobe bricks, soap , and other very suitable jobs to which they apply themselves and, according to how it goes, it shall be, in short, one of the best missions of the Indies. The settlers of this town are, as is evident from their registry, generally Spaniards: they came in with some major and minor livestock which has produced so much that it causes admiration: Goats commonly produce two, three, and four broods and the sheep two and all of them live, and the mules are commonly large bodied, with which they already find themselves rich due to the great fertility of the land: this last year they harvested a reasonable corn and seasonal bean crop to which they have taken a fancy. The great flood of last year of 1751 did some damage to it for which reason I moved it a little farther down to a higher site. They have built some flat-roofed houses and the settlers are preparing for others. The situation is beautiful and very merry at the eastern edge of the San Jaun River which forms a square with the one of the north (abundant in fish) which is introduced at a short distance and, for the extension of their livestock, they have passed part of them to the north of the latter one which has helped since it is very important to dominate that area, attract the many Indians that are there, facilitate the removal of salt, and the transit and communication with the Presidio and Mission de la Bahia del Espiritu Santo. The irrigation canal which had been built at the said San Juan River, because of their not having trimmed the opening to the canal with stone and mortar: was destroyed by a large flood, but it is easy to build another although those, who ignore the method, think it is difficult, with whose benefit the perfection of the said town shall be complete, which offers much growth. It is situated 10 leagues to the west of that of Reinosa, 30 nearly to the North-northwest of that of Burgos, 25 nearly to the east of that of Cerralvo, boundary of the Nuevo Reino De Leon, and 10 to the southeast of the settlement of Mier. Manuel Montalbo's family came from Monterey, Nuevo Leon to help settle the town of Camargo, Tamaulipas Mexico in 1749. The Census of May 31 1750 show that Antonio Montalvo was married to Dona Maria De la Garza, which they had three children Miguel Montalvo who was five, Juana Montalvo who was four and Dorotea one year of age. Forty five years later in the Census of December 31, 1795 in San Fernando Tejas lists Miguel Montalvo married to Juana Hernandez and having five children, Maria Thomasa fourteen, Juan Jose sixteen, Juan Simon eight, Maria Trinada three and Maria Josefa two. The San Fernando church records show Juan Jose marrying Maria Simona Guerra on April 16, 1801 in San Fernando Tejas. A year later the baptismal records of the San Fernando church show Juan Manuel Anastacio Montalvo to be baptized in April of 1802. His Godfather was Jose Antonio Manchaca and his Godmother Maria Josefa Arocha. The census of January 1, 1820 show Miguel Montalvo being Indian widowed, and a farmer. The next census of 1830 has citizens of Texas (A census of 6500 Pre-Revolutionary Texians.) Manuel Montalvo is listed as single age 45, which is not accurate. According to his birth certificate he is only 28 at the time. The 1840 census show Manuel Montalvo as single and owner of one League of land in San Antonio TX. In the census of 1850 of Bexar county, TX list him as 49 married to Polina (Apolonia Valdez.) They are listed as having six children Jose 14, Antonio 11, Blas 8, Manuel 6, and Brehada four and finally Simon one year of age. ( Simon being one of the children kidnapped by Indians when Resurreccion was attack by a large force of Indians in 1861. ) In October 28 of 1835 Manuel was in the battle of Conception under Juan Seguian. Later that year two companies of scouts were assembled to determine the best route to which to retake San Antonio. One company was led by Frank W. Johnson and the other by Ben Milam. The volunteers were outside of town in a standoff with Mexican General Perfecto de Cos with 1200 Mexican soldiers Milam realized that the Texans were going to withdraw to Goliad. He shouted the Famous words, Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio? Manuel was one of the people who went with him. In a statement made to the Republic of Texas dated Nov, twentieth 1874 Manuel Montalvo states. (The statement below is partial and not the entire statement made to the Republic of TX.) "State of Texas on the 30th day of November A. D. 1874 County of Bexar before me John Rosenheimer a Notary Public in and for Said County and state Personally appeared Manuel Cebera a resident citizen of this County, to me well known, who being duly sworn, under his oath does hereby declare affirm and attest, that he was born in the year 1797 of Texian parents, that at the date of the declaration of Guadalupe he was a married man, and the head of family, that at that time he was living at the Rancho of Salvador Flores, on the San Antonio river, about 28 miles below the city of San Antonio, that he and Manuel Montalvo, left said rancho, with S. Flores and joined the Texian Force on the Salado, afliant was an active soldier on the battle of conception, and followed with the balance of the troops to the north of the city of San Antonio, when at the old mill (Molino Blanco) afliant, on the first organization was made a corporal when Manuel Montalvo his comrade was named honorary Sargeant, afliant continued to serve during the seige, and untied in the storming and taking of Bexar, during the fight he was in the Veramendi house. Was present at the death of the lamented B. Milam and one of those who helped in burying him in the lot of the Veramendi house in the southern wall facing said lot." After the Storming of San Antonio Manuel Montalvo continued in the military as Spy, soldier, and Texas Ranger. A partial listing of the story about the storming of San Antonio explains the purpose of sending B. Milam, and gives a detailed description of the volunteers and associates surrounding his command. The penalties affixed for a violation were to be inflicted by the sentence of a court-martial or a reprimand from the captain of the company to which the offender might belong, as the case might be. These regulations were highly satisfactory and had a very happy effect in the army, as they indicated a system which had the effect to establish confidence and guarantee security to the camp; every man, therefore, cheerfully respected and obeyed them. This gallant band of volunteers upon parade having undergone inspection and review for the first time, presented the appearance of an army of regular soldiers rather than undisciplined citizens of the country. All entertained the most implicit confidence in their commanding officer, and it was a pleasure to perform with promptness any duty assigned them. The commander-in- chief being under the impression that volunteers would press forward to join the army without delay from all parts of the country, and that as soon as the necessary preparations could be made for an attack upon San Antonio our forces would be sufficiently strong to insure a successful result, he determined to take up the line of march in that direction immediately. An efficient spy-company, consisting of experienced frontier citizens, was organized and placed in charge of Colonel Benjamin R. Milam, who was dispatched towards San Antonio for the purpose of watching the movements of the enemy and keeping our army constantly advised of their operations and everything of any importance that might be discovered. Manuel Montalvo was honorably discharged on April the 23 of 1837. This discharge was by order of the President of the Republic of TX. In a statement made to the republic of TX a brief description and statement shows Manuel becoming a spy. "To all whom it may concern, Know ye that Manuel Montalvo a private in the 2nd regiment of Cavalry who was enlisted the 5th day of November 1836, to serve during the war is hereby formally discharged from the army of Texas, (by order of the president) was born in Bexar in the Republic of Texas is 36 years of age five feet four inches high, brown complexion, grey eyes, Black hair and by occupation was enlisted as a Hunter. Given at Bexar this 23rd day of April 1837. Approved, John N. Seguin Manuel Flores, Capt." It is well documented that Manuel Montalvo joined the TX Rangers under Seguin and Jose Maria Gonzales And Jack Hays. He continued as a TX Ranger through the 1840s. In a letter of Grievance addressed to Stephen H. Darden, State Comptroller, From Hispanic Texian Heroes, dated January 12, 1875 Manuel and all his comrades state. Sir. We the undersigned citizens of this country respectfully address you this communication to remove from your mind what seems to us an unjust impression as regards the application of certain Mexicans for pensions who participated in the Revolution which separated Texas from Mexico. We assert that the following named persons commanded companies at the taking of San Antonio in 1835. On the 20th of October 1835, Juan N. Seguin followed by thirty seven men of Mexican birth, joined on the Salado Creek according to previous appointment, the first Texan forces that gathered in order to oppose the Central Government proclaimed by Santa Anna in violation of the Federal government constitutionally existing. Placido Benavides of (La Bahia) Goliad joined on the same creek with the revolutionary troops with 26 or 28 men, so that at the Battle of Concepcion, the Mexicans who took part in that fight numbered some seventy men if we add some isolated soldiers. Directly after the Concepcion fight it was agreed between the Texian Leaders to put the siege to the city of San Antonio and to remove the camp to the Northern part of the city. But before the removal, Salvador Flores was detailed to the Mexican ranches on the San Antonio River, and Manuel Leal to the Mexican with object of raising new forces that were very much needed: these two patriots returned soon after, Flores with 15 new men, and Manuel Leal with 26." A conflict of authority took place at that moment between Juan N. Seguin and Placido Benavides both claiming to be Captain; it was amicably settled in favor of Seguin for the reason that he had raised more men than Benavides, but with the understanding that although Seguin was to be the Superior officer, Benavides would preserve the direct and immediate Command over the men he had brought from Goliad, and that agreement was intended to Manuel Leal and Salvador Flores; as soon as the troops reach their new camp, on the old mill, they were joined by fourteen privates of the old Company of the Alamo for the most part sons of San Antonio who deserted from Mexican forces of Gen. Cos and joined Seguin's Command with arms and baggage. There was not at that time any thing like a muster roll, or a regular register of enlistment; every volunteer who offered his services was readily accepted, and the men joined the party that suit them best, they acted with a liberty that had nothing in common with the disciplining of a regular army: generally the private followed the order of the officer who had brought them to Camp. During the stay of the troops, before San Antonio, several parties of Mexicans joined the patriots: namely, Miguel Alderete who in company with Mayor Collensworth came from Goliad with twenty odd men: Col. J. C. Neil and Phillip Dimmit who arrived also with a Mexican Company raised in Victoria and in the lower country, without countin isolated enlistment that took place every day. In fact, the company of Seguin alone amounted to over one hundred and sixty men on the day of the Storming of Bexar. After the taking of the place, that company was sent out to protect the people of the Ranches, against the devastation made by the retiring Mexican troops. On their return they found that the Mexican volunteers of Benavides and Dimmitt had left for home, as well as the American patriots. There were not fourteen Americans in San Antonio, after the taking of the place. Col. J. C. Neil had received, first the military Command, but he was soon after superceded by B. Travis who had under his former company and that of Seguin. They continued in active service, for several months and relying on the false report that all was quiet on the Mexican borders, a large quantity of the Mexicans were authorized to retire in order to protect their families against the Indian depredations. At the coming of Santa Anna, the company of Seguin had been reduced, and the arrival of the enemy being entirely unsuspected: he most part of the men received the authorization to secure the safety of their families and to join the Texians at the Alamo: it is due to that circumstance that fifteen Mexicans only entered the Alamo with Travis. At the gathering of the Texian Army at Gonzales, Seguin had a large Company, in fact the largest of the Army, but it was a new Company quite different from the one he had commanded at the taking of Bexar. He had above one hundred men: out of whom 25 were detached to protect the invaded population. From 15 to 20 were at the order of Deaf Smith; thirty odd were sent Eastward to escort and protect American Families, three men were sick at San Felipe, about ten at least were with the baggage at Harrisburg, four or five remained behind in charge of the horses at the moment of the battle of San Jacinto., so that he mustered only twenty two men, when he was ordered to give the names of those who had actually fought. "We would respectfully remind you that we and our comrades took up arms against our own kindred and country, believing we were right, and now we feel humiliated to find that when we have testified on oath to the services rendered by us and our (own) old companions, many of whom are not only suffering from the infirmities of age but also from extreme poverty that their claims should be disregarded and forced to wait for weeks and months for their pensions, when Americans have been promptly paid upon what we consider no better evidence than our friends have furnished. We feel assured, honored Sir, that you must have been misled or misinformed as to the parties who have applied for pensions as well as their witnesses, and we address you this communication to disabuse your mind of any prejudice you may entertained, and to assure you that we entertained for you personally the kindest feelings and only ask for our old companions simply justice and nothing more. Signed: Juan Jimenes, Ygnacio Expinosa, Martin Maldonado, Ignacio Arocha, Tomas Martines, Narciso Leal, Juan Martines, Antonio Olivia, Estevan Uron, Manuel Montalvo, Crescencio Montes, Pablo Salinas, Quirino Garza, Nepomuceno Flores, Juan N. Seguin, Antonio Menchaca, Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Antonio Vasquez, Damaso de Los Reyes" For more on this subject: http://www2.tsl.state.tx.us/repclaims/208/20800294.pdfManuel Montalvo died on the 20th of April, 1882 at 1:00 a.m. in Jiménez, Coahuila, Mexico. "En la Villa de Jiménez a los beinte un dias del mes de Abril de mil Ochocientos Ochenta y Dos a las nuebe de la manana ante el Jeuz del Estado Civil C. Luis Faz, comparecio Apolonia Valdez viuda mayor de edad, y de esta vecindad, y expreso; que hoy a la una de la mañana fallecio de paralis en esta villa, su esposo Manuel Montalvo era de noventa aos de edad originario de Bejar y vecino de esta Villa, e hijo lejitimo de Juan Montalvo y de Maria Guerra." Angelita Hernandez paternal pedigree Antonio Montalbo married (unknown date or place) Maria De La Garzathey had one son Mijuel and two daughters Juana and Doretea.Mijuel Montalbo married (unknown date or place) Juana Hernandezthey had three sons Juan Jose and Juan Simon, Pedro and three daughtersMaria Thomasa, Maria Trinidad, and Maria Josefa.Juan Jose Montalbo married Maria Guerra on April 16, 1801 in San Fernando, Tejasthey had two sons Juan Manuel Anastacio and Ignacio.Juan Manuel Montalbo married (unknown date or place) Apolonia Valdezthey had eight sons Jose Eusebio, Manuel, Jusus, Maximiano, Blas, Donaciano, Antonio, and Simon and one daughter Bernabe.Jose Eusebio Montalbo married Felipa Guevara on July 12, 1854, in San Fernando, Tejasthey had five sons Ysabel, Francisco, Canuto, Eujenio, Jose, and three daughters Bitoriana, Natalia and Rosita.Ysabel Montalbo married Tiodora Zepeda on Jan. 29, 1901 in Del Rio, TexasThey had one son Rafael, and eight daughters. Anita, Guadalupe, Pauline,Rosa, Maria, Victoria and Felipa.Rafael Montalbo married Angelita Garcia on April 29, 1940 in Brownwood, Texasthey had seven sons Moses, David, Antonio, Ralph, Ynocencio, Jose, Willie and five Daughters Josefina, Angelita, Ysabela, San Juana and Mary.Angelita Montalbo married Frank Hernandez on Jan, 2, 1968 in Modesto, CAwe have six sons Cecilio, Raymond, Christopher, Mike, Jose Angel, Juan and One daughter Maria Elizabeth.Angel my good friend, Of course you may print the article it will not only be my pleasure to share the thoughts with your readers but a privilege as well. Please stay the course and may the good spirit be with you all always Thank you very much.Rudy.Greetings my friends here is one of my compositions to express my views on Tejano contributions in international events in history.Cinco de Mayo Tejano LegendEvery year on or around the anniversary of the fifth of May people in many cities of the United StatesCelebrate the victory of the Mexican forces over the French in 1862. The popularity of the event is worldwide. It has been said the popularity of the event is greater in the United States than in Mexico. It’s beenOne hundred and forty-one years and some people still say, “ It’s Mexican Independence Day”. Hopefullyby next time this year you will know that the anniversary simply celebrates a victory that is believed tohad been the turning point towards the defeat of the French five years later. I take pleasure in joining thefestivities, because I am proud to say the General who led the Mexican forces that day was Ignacio SeguinZaragoza a bonafide Tejas born Tejano/Texan. Seldom if ever this is mentioned.Mexicans, Hispanics, Latinos, Mexican- Americans as well as proud Tejanos will be renderinghomage and celebrating a historical event that pays special tribute to a renowned Tejano. This illustriousTejano was Ignacio Seguin Zaragoza, who on May 5, 1862 led approximately 4,800 Mexican defendersto a decisive victory over a superior foe of about 8,000 Frenchmen, Napoleon's 111th Army, at Puebla,Mejico. Zaragoza was born 1829 near Goliad Tejas at the Presidio la Bahia. When he was four years oldhis parents left Tejas and settled in Monterey, Nuevo Leon, Mejico, where he received his education. Laterhe served as Secretary of Defense under Mexican President Benito Juarez. General Zaragoza was 33years old, when he passed away September 8, 1862. He was laid to rest in the liberal Mexican ArmyCemetery in Mexico. On May 25,1962 his remains were moved to the city of Puebla, site of the famousbattle. That same year to commemorate the 100 years after the glorious victory that boosted the moral ofthe Mexican patriots to pursue an end of the civil war in Mexico, the city of Puebla presented the city ofGoliad, Texas a bronze replica of the famous, legendary Tejano. Many Tejanos, Latinos, Hispanics andother Americans in the U.S. join in the celebration without realizing the significance of it.. Hopefully youyou have learn and will remember this famous Tejano. May God bless Texas and all its Tejano/Texans.AMERICAN TEJANO PRIDEWe are proud patriotic Americans, who hold proper respect and pride in ourselves. We are American born and raised...a unique citizen...traditionally bold, aggressive and individualistic with a strong sense of duty, unparalleled loyalty, and honor. For Tejanos who served in the Texas Revolution of 1836 and subsequently the Armed Forces of the United States the term"For God and country" signified then and continues to signify our undisputed commitment to carry out the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of our country's defense and security. Historical facts, monuments, and other honors bear witness to our courage in the face of ultimate danger and powerful odds. Throughout history, American Tejanos unselfishly sacrificed their lives so the rest of us could continue the battle and ultimately achieve the final victory to preserve our nation's freedom for all Americans. It gives me the greatest sense of pride and indescribable honor to have served my country and joined the ranks of such gallant men.Pride runs deep around these parts, it always has and always will. So it goes without saying that in many of our humble homes you'll often find the American and Texas flags beside the portrait of a proud American Tejano orTejana in the distinguished service dress uniform representing the military branch they proudly served. Yes, without a doubt I am extremely proud of my Spanish, Indigene and Tejano ancestry. Moreover my body and soul bursts with patriotic UNITED STATES American Tejano Pride.For some of us, our ability and command of both the English and Spanish language surely demonstrate the capacity, ability and potential of a United States born Tejano citizen with an educational background and capabilities second to none. Tejanos are Americans who have maintained close ties and identify with our original roots and traditions. A unique, exceptional and diverse U.S. American culture that introduced and shared its customs and traditions with the rest of its citizens enhancing their true American patriotic spirit and good will to all.I whole-heartedly acknowledge and express my utmost respect to those who claim their undisputed pride as Hispanic, Mexican, Latino, Chicano or Mexican American. However, as Tejanos we must pursue our identity by recognizing and acknowledging that our pride for our ancestral heritage is something we hold dear to our hearts and which no one can take away. More importantly, we owe it to ourselves to pursue and preserve our American Tejano pride and dignity. We must never sanction or tolerate the denial of this precious right. Throughout the world, the United States, and particularly in Texas there are legions of Tejanos who are direct descendants of the original native Texans. Tejanos have earned and deserve the respect, privilege and proper identity other Texas-born Americans enjoy. I am proud of my origin and extremely proud to be a patriotic American Tejano. We are Americans, Tejanos, by the Grace of God bilingual mostly by ability and choice.GOD BLESS TEXAS and its' TEJANOS / TEXANS. VIVAN LOS TEJANOSPOR DIOS, NUESTRA GENTE Y PATRIA QUERIDA... VIVA TEJAS Y USARUDY 'TEJANO' PENAE-Mail: Atexhero@aol.com HOME SEGUIN FAMILY HISTORY LINKS MEMBERSHIP PAGE Juan Seguin T-Shirt JUAN SEGUIN BIOGRAPHY copyrighted © 2001-2005, Angel Seguin Carvajal GarciaFounder SDHP & 1st Priority Search & RecoveryNo copying without written permission"All Rights Reservedhttp://www.seguindescendantshp.com/tejanoheroes.html(Offline)  06-23-2005, 11:03 PM  #5Tejan0Firme Userveterano Join Date: Dec 2002Posts: 30,587 Re: TEJANOS HISTORY TRACING THIER ROOTS MEXICO.Defintely Mexico screwed up when it invited the gringos to come populate.The original Tejanos were an unruly bunch that kept flipping off the crown and Mexico did not have the resources to keep military outposts.But the focus is one the Tejanos who withstood the tyranny of Spain and the gringos.(Offline)  06-23-2005, 11:05 PM  #6EpioNModerator  Join Date: Jul 2003Location: Chicago (south side)Posts: 2,790    Re: TEJANOS HISTORY TRACING THIER ROOTS MEXICO.didn't the feckled faced Irish have something to do with the Texas revolution?(Offline)  06-23-2005, 11:16 PM  #7Tejan0Firme Userveterano Join Date: Dec 2002Posts: 30,587 Re: TEJANOS HISTORY TRACING THIER ROOTS MEXICO.Not really that is more in the Mexican American War.Figure US civil war ending time frame.(Offline)  07-16-2005, 03:01 PM  #8Mexikanerpeon Join Date: Jun 2005Posts: 159 Re: TEJANOS HISTORY TRACING THIER ROOTS MEXICO.[img]/images/graemlins/bandit.gif[/img](Offline)  11-30-2010, 01:08 AM  #9Rios_Pbpholic  Join Date: Dec 2002Location: Moreno Valley, CaliforniaPosts: 2,509 Re: TEJANOS HISTORY TRACING THIER ROOTS MEXICO.my maternal great-granpas' plakaso(nick name) is 'big-tex.' he was born in el paso, but raised out here in 'east los.' his mother was puertorican and his father a chihuahueno(i'm guessing juarez). i have other chihuahueno roots. batopilas, chihuahua, mex. and chihuahua, chihuahua, mex.__________________Orgulloso y Que(Offline)  12-25-2010, 02:52 PM  #10Tejan0Firme Userveterano Join Date: Dec 2002Posts: 30,587 Re: TEJANOS HISTORY TRACING THIER ROOTS MEXICO.still here and still a Tejano(Offline) Page 1 of 212>« Previous Thread | Next Thread »Thread Tools Show Printable Version Email this PageDisplay Modes Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded ModePosting RulesYou may not post new threadsYou may not post repliesYou may not post attachmentsYou may not edit your postsvB code is OnSmilies are On[IMG] code is OnHTML code is OffForum Jump    User Control Panel  Private Messages  Subscriptions  Who's Online  Search Forums  Forums Home       Music      Latino Hip-Hop Culture / Latin Rap / Chicano Rap / Latino Rappers      Rap Battle Board / Rap Freestyle Board      Latin Freestyle Music / Hearthrob Music      Reggaeton / Latin Reggae / Spanish Reggae / Latin World Music      Brown Rock / Rock en Español / Spanish Rock      BP Music Video Board  Entertainment      Karaoke Bar | Letras de Canciones      YouTube Videos      Video Games      Movies and Television      Music Industry / Business Board      General Entertainment  Chicano Studies and Latin American Studies      Colleges and Universities      Chicano Studies General Discussion  News and Current Events      Mexico Forum      Las Americas      Social Issues      Politics      World News      Sports:  NFL / NBA / MLB / Boxing / NCAA / MMA  Art and Culture | Arte y Cultura      Prose And Poetry      Story Board      Prose And Poetry Discussion Board      Literature and Magazines      Visual Arts / Estilo y Diseño  General Discussion      General Discussion Board      Lowrider Shows, Lowriding and Cruisin'      Chicano/Latino Fashion and Cultural Stores      Jokes, Riddles,  Humor and Comedy BP Forum      BrownPride Photo Albums / Galeria de Fotos      Feedback      MySpace, Facebook, and Blogs...    All times are GMT. 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