De León, a Tejano Family History

De León, a Tejano Family History PDF

Author: Ana Carolina Castillo Crimm

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 0292782713

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Winner, Presidio La Bahia Award, 2004 San Antonio Conservation Society Citation, 2005 La familia de León was one of the foundation stones on which Texas was built. Martín de León and his wife Patricia de la Garza left a comfortable life in Mexico for the hardships and uncertainties of the Texas frontier in 1801. Together, they established family ranches in South Texas and, in 1824, the town of Victoria and the de León colony on the Guadalupe River (along with Stephen F. Austin's colony, the only completely successful colonization effort in Texas). They and their descendents survived and prospered under four governments, as the society in which they lived evolved from autocratic to republican and the economy from which they drew their livelihood changed from one of mercantile control to one characterized by capitalistic investments. Combining the storytelling flair of a novelist with a scholar's concern for the facts, Ana Carolina Castillo Crimm here recounts the history of three generations of the de León family. She follows Martín and Patricia from their beginnings in Mexico through the establishment of the family ranches in Texas and the founding of the de León colony and the town of Victoria. Then she details how, after Martín's death in 1834, Patricia and her children endured the Texas Revolution, exile in New Orleans and Mexico, expropriation of their lands, and, after returning to Texas, years of legal battles to regain their property. Representative of the experiences of many Tejanos whose stories have yet to be written, the history of the de León family is the story of the Tejano settlers of Texas.

Mexican Americans in Texas

Mexican Americans in Texas PDF

Author: Arnoldo De Leon

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 2009-01-20

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13:

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This third edition of our ground-breaking publication, the first survey of Tejanos, has been completely updated to present a concise political, cultural, and social history of Mexican Americans in Texas from the Spanish colonial era to the present day, a time when people of Mexican descent are poised to become the demographic majority in the Lone Star. Writing specifically for the college-level student and careful to include a consensus of the latest literature in this strong and continually growing field, Professor De León portrays Tejanos as active subjects, not merely objects, in the ongoing Texas story. Complemented by a stunning photographic essay and a helpful glossary, and featuring new biographical vignettes that now introduce and set the context for each chapter, this third edition of our well-loved text is certain to be even more engaging and relevant to readers of all levels. And while the book targets a wide reading audience, it is ideally fit for classroom use. Professors teaching courses in Texas, western, and borderlands history will find it an ideal complement to their class lectures and other outside reading assignments. Of particular interest to students will be discussions describing the survival techniques Tejanos developed to withstand poverty and disadvantage, the process of assimilation over many generations, the changes engendered by the Chicano Movement of the 1960s, the role of political figures such as José Antonio Navarro, J. T. Canales, Alonso Perales, Héctor P. García, or Irma Rangel, or the impact of court cases like which Hernández v. Texas or Plyler v. Doe that changed the direction of Mexican American history.

War and Peace on the Rio Grande Frontier, 1830–1880

War and Peace on the Rio Grande Frontier, 1830–1880 PDF

Author: Miguel Ángel González-Quiroga

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2020-03-05

Total Pages: 509

ISBN-13: 0806167025

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The historical record of the Rio Grande valley through much of the nineteenth century reveals well-documented violence fueled by racial hatred, national rivalries, lack of governmental authority, competition for resources, and an international border that offered refuge to lawless men. Less noted is the region’s other everyday reality, one based on coexistence and cooperation among Mexicans, Anglo-Americans, and the Native Americans, African Americans, and Europeans who also inhabited the borderlands. War and Peace on the Rio Grande Frontier, 1830–1880 is a history of these parallel worlds focusing on a border that gave rise not only to violent conflict but also cooperation and economic and social advancement. Meeting here are the Anglo-Americans who came to the border region to trade, spread Christianity, and settle; Mexicans seeking opportunity in el norte; Native Americans who raided American and Mexican settlements alike for plunder and captives; and Europeans who crisscrossed the borderlands seeking new futures in a fluid frontier space. Historian Miguel Ángel González-Quiroga draws on national archives, letters, consular records, periodicals, and a host of other sources to give voice to borderlanders’ perspectives as he weaves their many, varied stories into one sweeping narrative. The tale he tells is one of economic connections and territorial disputes, of refugees and bounty hunters, speculation and stakeholding, smuggling and theft and other activities in which economic considerations often carried more weight than racial prejudice. Spanning the Anglo settlement of Texas in the 1830s, the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas , the US-Mexican War, various Indian wars, the US Civil War, the French intervention into Mexico, and the final subjugation of borderlands Indians by the combined forces of the US and Mexican armies, this is a magisterial work that forever alters, complicates, and enriches borderlands history. Published in association with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas

Tejanos in Gray

Tejanos in Gray PDF

Author: Jerry Thompson

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2011-02-17

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 160344243X

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Mexican Texans, fighting for the Confederate cause, in their own words . . . The Civil War is often conceived in simplistic, black and white terms: whites from the North and South fighting over states’ rights, usually centered on the issue of black slavery. But, as Jerry Thompson shows in Tejanos in Gray, motivations for allegiance to the South were often more complex than traditional interpretations have indicated. Gathered for the first time in this book, the forty-one letters and letter fragments written by two Mexican Texans, Captains Manuel Yturri and Joseph Rafael de la Garza, reveal the intricate and intertwined relationships that characterized the lives of Texan citizens of Mexican descent in the years leading up to and including the Civil War. The experiences and impressions reflected in the letters of these two young members of the Tejano elite from San Antonio, related by marriage, provide fascinating glimpses of a Texas that had displaced many Mexican-descent families after the Revolution, yet could still inspire their loyalty to the Confederate flag. De la Garza, in fact, would go on to give his life for the Southern cause. The letters, translated by José Roberto Juárez and with meticulous annotation and commentary by Thompson, deepen and provide nuance to our understanding of the Civil War and its combatants, especially with regard to the Tejano experience. Historians, students, and general readers interested in the Civil War will appreciate Tejanos in Gray for its substantial contribution to borderlands studies, military history, and the often-overlooked interplay of region, ethnicity, and class in the Texas of the mid-nineteenth century.

That They May Possess the Land

That They May Possess the Land PDF

Author: Galen D. Greaser

Publisher: Galen D. Greaser

Published: 2023-01-30

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13:

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That They May Possess the Land: The Spanish and Mexican Land Commissioners of Texas (1720-1836) by Galen D. Greaser (author) The grievances accumulated by Anglo-American settlers in Mexican Texas in the 1830s did not include complaints about the generous land grants the government had offered them on advantageous terms. Land ownership is central to the history of Texas, and the land grants awarded in Spanish and Mexican Texas are intrinsic to the story. Population in exchange for land was the prevailing strategy of Spain’s and Mexico’s colonization policy in what is now Texas. Population was the objective; colonization the strategy; and land the incentive. Spain and Mexico defined the formal procedures, qualifications, and conditions for obtaining a land grant. Colonization was a two-part process involving, first, the relocation of colonists from their place of origin to the new site and, second, the placement of colonists on the land in conditions that would enable them to become productive citizens. The colonization effort featured the use of private recruiting agents – empresarios - to assist with the first task. Government agents - land commissioners –oversaw the second objective. Title to some twenty-six million acres of Texas land, about one-seventh of its present area, derives from the land grants made by Spain and Mexico to its settlers. A land commissioner played a part in every case. The story of the empresarios who contributed to the colonization of Texas is a staple of Texas history, but an account of the land commissioners engaged in this process is given here for the first time. The cast of commissioners features, among others, a Spanish field marshal, a Dutch baron, a cashiered United States army colonel, a philandering state official, a self-serving opportunist, an Alamo defender, and a Tejano patriot. Drawn largely from primary sources and richly documented, this sometimes contentious story of the Spanish and Mexican land commissioners of Texas helps complete the narrative of the colonization of Texas and the history of its public domain. This study is a reminder of another lasting legacy of Spanish and Mexican sovereignty in Texas, their land grants.

José Antonio Navarro

José Antonio Navarro PDF

Author: David R. McDonald

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2013-03-01

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 0876112920

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The first biography to appear in more than a generation on the most influential Tejano leader of the nineteenth century, José Antonio Navarro: In Search of the American Dream in Nineteenth-Century Texas fills one of the most glaring gaps in the current historical literature on Texas. The product of a lifetime of research by author David McDonald, this volume is sure to stand as the definitive treatment of Navarro’s life for decades to come. McDonald corrects many long-standing misconceptions concerning Navarro and fleshes out the details of his life in a way no author has done before. Born in San Antonio in 1795, José Antonio Navarro lived through a tumultuous era in Texas history that saw the transitions of Texas from a Spanish colony to a Mexican state, an independent republic, an American state, a Confederate state, and an American state once again. More than just bearing witness to these events, however, José Antonio Navarro helped shape them. He served in the legislatures of Coahuila y Texas, the Republic of Texas, and the state of Texas. He was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and a steadfast defender of the rights of all Tejanos and people of Mexican descent in Texas, ensuring at both the 1836 Consultation that created the Texas Republic and the 1845 drafting of the state constitution after annexation that political rights would not be restricted solely to those with white skin and pure European ancestry. José Antonio Navarro has won a 2013 citation from the San Antonio Conservation Society's Publications Awards Committee. José Antonio Navarro: In Search of the American Dream in Nineteenth-Century Texas is more than just a political biography; it is a story of the American Dream. Navarro and his family worked hard to improve their lives on the Texas frontier, starting with his father, an immigrant from the Mediterranean island of Corsica. Navarro was not only an influential politician, but a successful businessman and rancher. This pattern of improvement continued into the next generation of the family when Navarro’s son Ángel entered Harvard College to study law. José Antonio Navarro was also an early friend of Stephen F. Austin, sharing a vision of Texas with the famed empresario in which both Tejanos and Anglos could thrive. Navarro believed that Texas was a place where peoples of all colors and backgrounds should be able to realize the American Dream. Published with the generous assistance of the Friends of Casa NavarroNumber Two in the Watson Caufield and Mary Maxwell Arnold Republic of Texas Series

The Ballad of Roy Benavidez

The Ballad of Roy Benavidez PDF

Author: William Sturkey

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2024-06-11

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 1541600274

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The dramatic life of Vietnam War hero Roy Benavidez, a Mexican American Green Beret from a working-class family with deep roots in Texas, revealing how Hispanic Americans have long shaped US history In May 1968, while serving in Vietnam, Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez led the rescue of a reconnaissance team surrounded by hundreds of enemy soldiers. He saved the lives of at least eight of his comrades that day in a remarkable act of valor that left him permanently disabled. Awarded the Medal of Honor after a yearslong campaign, Benavidez became a highly sought-after public speaker, a living symbol of military heroism, and one of the country’s most prominent Latinos. Now, historian William Sturkey tells Benavidez’s life story in full for the first time. Growing up in Jim Crow–era Texas, Benavidez was scorned as “Mexican” despite his family’s deep roots in the state. He escaped poverty by enlisting in a desegregating military and was first deployed amid the global upheavals of the 1950s. Even after receiving the Medal of Honor, Benavidez was forced to fight for disability benefits amid Reagan-era cutbacks. An unwavering patriot alternately celebrated and snubbed by the country he loved, Benavidez embodied many of the contradictions inherent in twentieth-century Latino life. The Ballad of Roy Benavidez places that experience firmly at the heart of the American story.

North to Aztlán

North to Aztlán PDF

Author: Richard Griswold del Castillo

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780805745870

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"In this comprehensive survey, Richard Griswold del Castillo and Arnoldo De León explore the complex process of cultural and economic exchange between Mexican Americans, Mexican immigrants, and a racially and ethnically diverse North American society."--Jacket.

Latinas in the United States, set

Latinas in the United States, set PDF

Author: Vicki L. Ruiz

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2006-05-03

Total Pages: 909

ISBN-13: 0253111692

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Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia records the contribution of women of Latin American birth or heritage to the economic and cultural development of the United States. The encyclopedia, edited by Vicki L. Ruiz and Virginia Sánchez-Korrol, is the first comprehensive gathering of scholarship on Latinas. This encyclopedia will serve as an essential reference for decades to come. In more than 580 entries, the historical and cultural narratives of Latinas come to life. From mestizo settlement, pioneer life, and diasporic communities, the encyclopedia details the contributions of women as settlers, comadres, and landowners, as organizers and nuns. More than 200 scholars explore the experiences of Latinas during and after EuroAmerican colonization and conquest; the early-19th-century migration of Puerto Ricans and Cubans; 20th-century issues of migration, cultural tradition, labor, gender roles, community organization, and politics; and much more. Individual biographical entries profile women who have left their mark on the historical and cultural landscape. With more than 300 photographs, Latinas in the United States offers a mosaic of historical experiences, detailing how Latinas have shaped their own lives, cultures, and communities through mutual assistance and collective action, while confronting the pressures of colonialism, racism, discrimination, sexism, and poverty. "Meant for scholars and general readers, this is a great resource on Latinas and historical topics connected with them." -- curledup.com

Ode to East Texas, Volume 23: The Art of Lee Jamison

Ode to East Texas, Volume 23: The Art of Lee Jamison PDF

Author: Lee Jamison

Publisher: Joe and Betty Moore Texas Art

Published: 2021-01-15

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9781623498924

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In 2017, Huntsville artist Lee Jamison embarked on a trip with sketchbook in hand, recording his impressions and recollections of East Texas, a region he has called home for about 45 years. Having built a solid reputation as a respected Texas Regionalist painter, Jamison, with other collectors and observers of the Texas art scene, has become convinced that East Texas, while rich in natural beauty and historic interest, has typically been under-represented as a subject of serious artists. Landscapes and scenes of the Texas Hill Country and the Trans-Pecos abound in collections and galleries across the state, but East Texas, in Jamison's view, has received short shrift. Seeking to remedy this lack of parity, the artist traveled the winding roads and tree-lined passages of East Texas for well over a year, observing, sketching, and journaling along the way. The result is an astonishing visual record of contemporary East Texas land, lore, and culture as viewed through the eyes of an accomplished painter. These fine works are further enriched by the artist's poignant and insightful literary observations, providing backstories and personal accounts for each image. A thoughtful introduction by historian Carolina Castillo Crimm provides the ideal entry into Jamison's loving treatment of the region's vistas and stories. Exhibiting an unshakeable awareness of place and a poet's sensibility, Lee Jamison's Ode to East Texas stands as an affectionate hymn to a familiar region, an invitation to a new appreciation of its qualities. Collectors, students, and aficionados of Texas art will be grateful for this fresh examination of a region too long overlooked.