After its independence (1821-24), Mexico had emulated the U.S. by naming itself “Estados Unidos Mexicanos”. Tragically, over half its land was now being consumed by the craving appetite of its mentor, the “Colossus of the North”.
In summary, President Polk’s leading the war with Mexico brings to mind Shakespeare’s Mark Anthony: “The evil that men do lives after them”. The second part of the quote aptly fits Mexico’s brave stand defending itself against great odds: “The good that men do is oft interred with their bones”.
oOo
End of the trail…
Rayo was again devastated when he learned that Tomás was leading ethnic-cleansing drives. The population of border towns continued to grow with displaced Tejanos who are told to “go back to Mexico”.
However, after completing his last cattle business trip to San Antonio, he was told that Mexicans weren’t allowed to stay at his favorite downtown hotel. That was the last straw. As a result, on his return, Rayo moved back to Guerrero, promising never to cross the Rio Grande ever again.
oOo
Deception, humiliation, rejection, and betrayal represented the four horsemen of the apocalypse for Mexican-descent families in Texas. A fifth horseman, Death, epitomized by the Rio Grande, was now a permanent Mason-Dixon Line.
In the end, it was too much for the old warrior to bear. He had given his all in the nearly fifty years he had fought for liberty. He had lived a long life. However, it was not enough. After a short illness, Rayo died while surrounded by his family. He was now finally free to join his ancestors in their campfire in the sky for all eternity.
oOo.
Chapter 26
Abrazos de Lágrimas – Abrazos de Alegría
Since the early 1900s, Laredo has held its annual celebration honoring the U.S. first president, George Washington. However, long before the ceremonies that include friendship abrazos (embraces) on the International Bridge between officials representing the governments of the U.S. and Mexico, a much different kind of abrazos marked a sad occasion between two close-knit family groups.
In 1848, Laredo families from both sides met for a most unhappy event. With “abrazos de lágrimas”, fathers and mothers said goodbye to sons and daughters, brothers and sisters said goodbye to siblings, grandparents said goodbye to their grandchildren, compadres and comadres said goodbye to their kids’ godparents.
One can only imagine the anguish as almost the entire population was affected. Under the watchful eyes of U.S. military troops, customs officials, and Texas Rangers, families gathered en masse by the river’s edge, solemnly waving goodbye to their kin across the Rio.
The reason for what must have been an agonizing event is that following the costly U.S. Mexico War of 1846-1848, northern Tamaulipas was no longer part of Mexico.
On May 15, 1848 residents of the east side of the Rio became citizens of the U.S. Those on the west side remained citizens of Mexico. More drastically, residents living south of the Nueces River were no longer citizens of the state of Tamaulipas.
Their beloved river that had bisected Laredo since its birth, instantly became an international barrier.
With the stroke of a pen on the surrender terms document known as the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, these citizens now resided in the state of Texas.
However, the change within the “string of pearls” of the Villas del Norte on both sides (ambos lados) of the lower Rio Grande was most severe.
Previously, the phrase “El otro lado” just meant the other side of the Rio. Now, its meaning was more extreme.
“El otro lado” suddenly meant another country -- another world. In an instant, the Rio Grande now separated close-knit families in two.
Citizens could no longer cross the bridge at will as they had done for nearly 100 years. Daily life changed forever throughout the banks of El Rio from El Paso to Brownsville.
To illustrate the severe impact, most Texas school children learn about the Mason Dixon Line during the U.S. Civil War that once separated slave states (South) from free states of the North. In that war, families were also separated. Lucky for them, after the civil war, families were re-united and now live together.
Yet, for Villas del Norte families in Texas and the Southwest, we continue to be separated by a permanent Mason Dixon Line to this day.
That’s in spite of the fact that we’re organically still connected by our Spanish names, language, strong genealogy roots, and everyday life.
With the stories in this book as a backdrop, let’s commit ourselves to replace the “abrazos de lágrimas” with “abrazos de alegría”. It’s an event that is 167 years in the making.
Enthusiastically, let us re-ignite our ancestral family flame. We must begin to use our newfound family roots as a perpetual torch to guide us toward a new beginning. Hopefully, it will be a new tradition honoring members of our beautiful Villas del Norte Family living on both sides (ambos lados) of the Rio Grande.
Only then can we continue to add links to what former Tamaulipas Governor Ravize called a “cadena sin fin de ideales” (unending chain of ideals), thereby preserving the memory of our ancestors, founders of Las Villas del Norte in what is now Texas.
Epilogue
“If it doesn’t fit the Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston models…”
An epilogue by its very purpose serves the author as a tool to wrap up a literary work. Ironically, the Friendly Betrayal epilogue has an additional goal. That is, to hopefully serve as a reminder to the book’s readers. Texas history does not begin in 1836 with the arrival of Anglo immigrants from the U.S.
Sadly, that slanted viewpoint is incomplete, but it’s the version Texas school children are taught in social studies and history classrooms as regards the story of Texas. It is woefully lacking because of its stifling effect on students’ gaining knowledge of the true origins of the state of Texas.
Whatever details that mainstream historians include of pre-1836 people, places, and events are considered “foreign” history. Lamentably, generations of Spanish Mexican-descent Texans have not learned that they have ownership of Texas. That is, Texas history without Tejanas and Tejanos is like a story with no beginning.
Nowhere else in history has one ethnic group robbed another group of its heritage to embellish their own. Yet, that is what Anglophile Texas historians have long done to the Álamo in San Antonio and La Bahia Presidio in Goliad.
These historic structures must be honored for their strength, beauty, and creativity of its Spanish Mexican builders. They must no longer be marketed only because armed Anglo expatriates from the U.S. died there.
With a hearty booster shot of anticipation, this book’s intent is to help begin a Tejano Renaissance. Over two hundred years’ worth of pre-1836 Texas history must once again see the light of day.
The first chapters of Texas history may be written in Spanish, but that only means that Texas history is truly bilingual and bicultural. No longer should Mexican-descent Texans be disrespected just because they wish to preserve their rich Spanish Mexican culture “on this side of the U.S. Mexico border”.
The first step has been taken. The Tejano Monument in Austin unveiled in 2012 took a bold new beginning. The reason is that it’s the first memorial in our state capital that honors the key contributions our Spanish Mexican ancestors made in founding this great place we call Texas.
In short, a new era of Texas history must begin so that students of all backgrounds clearly understand that Texas history and that of the Southwest does not begin at the 1836 Battle of the Álamo. It is that frame of mind that omits the foundation of Texas, whose roots were planted in 1691.
Although Friendly Betrayal is a work of fiction, its setting is quite solidly part of the foundation of early Texas. Sadly, since 1848, Texas history is written with an unwritten mandate.
That is, if early Texas people, places, and events don’t fit
the Sam Houston model, they are left out of the Texas story taught in social studies and Texas history classrooms. As a result, Mexican-descent students have for generations been treated as foreigners in their own homeland.
It’s better to live with dignity embracing the Spanish Mexican roots of Texas, than for Mexican-descent Texans to live under the undignified shadow of post-1836 Texas history. It is good to be reminded every now and then that Spanish-surnamed Texas did not drink from the cup of dignity until 1954, when in issuing its Class Apart Decision, the U.S. Supreme Court directed that the State of Texas no longer discriminate against Mexican-descent citizens.
Whereas the predominantly Protestant Texas Anglo society was forced to remove “No Mexicans Allowed” signs from places of business, true equality waited until 10 years later, with the passing of President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 Civil Rights Act. The struggle for equality is never-ending for descendants of the Spanish Mexican founders of Texas.
In words that Walt Whitman said in 1883:
“We Americans have yet to really learn our own antecedents… Thus far, impress’d by New England writers and schoolmasters, we tacitly abandon ourselves to the notion that our United States have been fashion’d from the British Islands only … which is a very great mistake.”
Indeed, it is time for the entire Mexican-descent Hispanic population in the U.S. (regardless of their social, economic, political, and/or religious affiliation) to stand with their heads high and learn to share our rich, beautiful pre-1836 Texas history with the general public.
Said another way, It is time to realize that Texas and the Southwest are in New Spain; not in New England. It is time to write Texas history in a seamless manner from 1519 to the present. Only then will people see that the Spanish Mexican roots of Texas run deep. ¡Juntos venceremos!
oOo
“Exigimos solamente lo que merecemos (We demand only what we deserve).” Dr. Lino Garcia, Jr., Professor Emeritus, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley UTRGV).
oOo
PART II
Background Notes
(Friendly Betrayal)
Premise: Nowhere else in history has one ethnic group robbed another group of its heritage to embellish its own. Yet, that’s what mainstream U.S. and Texas historians have generally done to Texas history. In particular, conventional writers have long painted an artificial Anglophile façade over Texas and the Southwest. Using Anglo Saxon-influenced brushes they have most definitely done so in painting the Álamo in San Antonio and La Bahia Presidio in Goliad with New England pastel colors, rather than the unique earth-tone color of the Southwest.
Expected Goal: Specifically, pre-1836 historic structures in Texas must be honored for their strength, beauty, and creativity of their Spanish Mexican builders. They must no longer be marketed only because armed Anglo expatriates from the U.S. died there.
Equally important, this book’s aim is to put forward and emphasize the idea that pre-Columbian Native American history is to be respected similarly in the seamless history of our country.
Discussion. Contrary to heavily embellished mainstream Texas history, (l) Stephen F. Austin is not the Father of Texas. (2) Sam Houston is not the first President of Texas. (3) The “Álamo” is a church and not a fort (no one died inside during the 1836 battle).
Adverse impact goes beyond the physical aspect; it’s ingrained in the mindsets of most Texans, including Mexican-descent, whose historical lineage has been stunted since 1848. That is, not knowing that they are descendants of the founders of Texas, some Spanish-surnamed Texans are unwilling to challenge the predominant Anglo Saxon history of Texas.
Maintaining a formidable artificial Anglophile façade through the determined efforts of the Texas State Board of Education, has buoyed some Texans of Anglo Saxon (and Nordic) descent to cultivate a lasting antagonism toward Texans of Mexican-descent. That’s in spite of the fact that the unique Mexican heritage lured U.S. expatriates in the first place.
Deliberately deprived of their ancestral heritage inheritance by the Texas SBOE, many Mexican descent Texas become passive appeasers of the mainstream Texas history that rejects them. By being constantly reminded that they are not part of post-1836 Anglo-dominant Texas history, many Mexican-descent Texans go through a merry-go-round of emotions, such as shame, embarrassment, denial, and cynicism regarding their lost history. Thus, it’s imperative to restore and mend the broken pedigree by reconnecting with early Texas and Southwest history.
The sad truth? Misinformation abounds in mainstream Texas history. There’s much work to do that ironically begins within the Mexican-descent population Texas and the Southwest.
It’s an uphill struggle that nevertheless we must pursue. Once and for all, we must prove that Sam Houston took over a work in progress. Only then can teachers in the classroom teach Texas history in a seamless manner by demonstrating to the students that Texas history doesn’t begin in 1836 and that without Tejanas and Tejanos, Texas history is like a story with no beginning.
As biblical conquerors did often, upon conquering Mexico, Anglo leaders’ intent was to rebuild the San Antonio downtown area as an Anglophile city atop the ashes of the town’s Spanish Mexican ruins.
They deliberately set their goal to do so in the early 1900s attempting to replace Spanish architecture in San Antonio with New England’s Georgetown-type construction. Indeed, it was in pursuing that goal that Anglos tore down El Presidio de San Antonio de Béxar “El Álamo”, the site where the fighting took place and is now under asphalt and commercial building foundations. As such, they razed the Presidio to convert the grounds into commercial development, hoping to remove San Antonio’s Spanish Mexican traces.
Initially planned as a total urban renewal effort, only a few small buildings were saved (San Antonio de Valero and the Convento, for example), thanks to Adina de Zavala, early defender of San Antonio’s Spanish Mexican past. She literally stood in the way of the Anglos’ wrecking ball.
Sadly, tourists and residents alike continue to be misled by Chamber of Commerce-type misinformation concerning the “Álamo”. In truth, the small structure is a mission dedicated to Christian religious instruction. It’s a place of worship, peace, and tranquility, not a place of war. Said another way, it’s a Native American Roman Catholic Church.
oOo
The above represents only a sample within the long list of deliberately placed boulders covering the path to early Texas history. Some of the boulders hide pre-1836 information, others project misinformation still others distort, diminish, and dismiss historical people, places, and events.
The question is how do we best go about to set the record straight? Interestingly enough, the answer is simple. Solutions to knotty problems are sometimes amazing in their simplicity. So it is with this one. The best way to pulverize these huge boulders is for us to continue to share pre-1836 Texas history with the general public.
Sadly, the deception began the very moment that the U.S. took Texas and the Southwest from Mexico in 1848. For pure Manifest Destiny reasons, they attempted to erase relics of New Spain and replace them with New England symbols. To explain the scope of the pretext, it’s apt to compare it to a significant event in world history.
In 132 AD, the Romans defeated the Jewish defenders of Judea. Because the victors intended to forever mark the conquered territory with the Roman seal, Hadrian, the Roman Emperor renamed Judea as Syria Palaestina (Palestine). Equally unjust, and adding insult to injury, he renamed Jerusalem as Aeolia Capitolina. Such drastic moves had one purpose only; to eradicate all Jewish connections to Judea. Though, the Jews persevered and after a long period of persecution, they survived, thrived, and were able to reclaim and restore their Jewish homeland.
The U.S. invasion of Mexico’s sovereign northern territories (Texas and the Southwest) also tried to eradicate all Spanish Mexican connections to the land. In contrast to the Roman invasion of Judea, the U.S.
invaders did not rename Texas. They just claimed it as Anglo Saxon. Incredibly, they brazenly adopted Spanish Mexican names for the new states that they carved out of New Mexico and Alta California territories, such as California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico.
Thus, a curiously strange atmosphere prevails throughout the Southwest. That is, the area’s trademark Spanish Mexican ambience and vibrant way of life continue to be dominant, while at the same time, intolerant Anglos still treat Mexican- and Native American-descent people as foreigners in their own homeland. Worse, they shun Spanish Mexican people and their culture “on this side of the border”, even though it’s that very nature that gives the region its unique vibrant ambience.
That superior-subordinate attitude was solidly set after 1848. It was then that U.S. historians wiped the slate clean and began recording history with a marked slant against the Spanish Mexican people. At its worst, that mindset perpetuates the idea that Texas history begins in 1836, totally ignoring pre-1836 people, places, and events; treating them as “foreign” history.
Ever since the unveiling in 2012 of the Tejano Monument in Austin, the first to respect Texas founders in the state capital, the Anglophile façade is beginning to crumble off the Texas history panorama. Though, questions remain as to why it is taking so long for Anglophiles to understand the obvious. The 1836 battles are part of a chronological chapter in Mexico’s history, not the U.S., since Mexico did not lose Texas and the Southwest until 1848.
The question is why seemingly intelligent mainstream writers and historians continue to diminish the actual founding of Texas by Spanish Mexican pioneers?
A follow-up question is why must they reject pre-1836 details simply because they don’t fit the Sam Houston model? One possible answer to both questions is that they insist on remolding history to tailor their concept of Manifest Destiny, force-fitting it as part of U.S. folklore.
Friendly Betrayal Page 16