When chasing bigger game such as deer, a Coahuiltecan team could run all day without getting tired. Such was their stamina and will to find food for their families. Once they caught up with their prey, the successful hunter quickly killed the animal. Reciting a prayer, they collected some of the blood and parts of the animal. The offerings were ritually buried to symbolize the mysterious cycle of birth and death. After eating only enough to sustain them including most of the blood, organs, and viscera, they carried the food back to their campsite. Ingeniously, they made slits on the fresh hide, folding and tying the pieces of meat into a bundle. Ingeniously, they formed a modern-day backpack. They then took turns carrying the bundle. To ensure their safe return, the fastest in the group always traveled in front to act as the lookout. Using this team approach, the group was able to avoid enemies or wolf packs, which were always searching for a quick meal.
The Coahuiltecan resolve to survive was unmatched in the history of civilization. Yet, it was this sense of resourcefulness that has earned them the scorn, ridicule, and disrespect of many seemingly intelligent historians. It is in describing their eating habits only where some historians go to great lengths to make Coahuiltecans sound as less than human beings. How quickly they forget that some of their recent European ancestors prized such somewhat reprehensible foods as snails, head cheese, and horse meat.
One of the observations made by the earliest Spanish explorers concerning the Coahuiltecans attests to their practicality. They ate anything they captured, including snakes, grubs, ants, spiders, and worms. It was the Coahuiltecans that taught the Spanish to eat cactus, prickly pear (tuna), lechugilla, sotol, and the mesquite bean, some of the few valuable food sources available in the desert-like terrain. It is interesting to mention that Spanish Mexican descendants of today in South Texas still eat cacti, mesquite beans, etc, and still practice many of their food gathering skills. (Note: I remember chewing on mesquite beans when I was growing up. During the spring and early summer, the mesquite trees are full of mesquite fruit seed pods that grow in clumps on the tree branches. Each individual piece is pencil-thin and about eight to ten inches in length. My brothers and I always enjoyed a handful sitting under the shade of the mesquite. You don’t “eat” the mesquite bean. You chew it, enjoy the juice, and discard the leftovers. At their peak of ripeness, the juice is extremely sweet and pleasant.)
Due to the scarcity of food sources, the Coahuiltecan clans moved often. However, it was always in the same territory inhabited by their ancestors. It is important to note that everyone without exception had a job to do. That job was to search for food and anything that could be of use to the group. While the small clans did not have a “Chief” like in the movies, the older members acted as elders and led the group to their next camp ground. One of these acted as the medicine man, or at times, a medicine woman.
When it was no longer possible to travel the terrain of their ancestors, the Coahuiltecans suddenly found themselves starving. Food had been scarce before, but it was now impossible to find. Complicating their situation was that other war-like tribes had moved into their territory. Everything had changed. So, the Coahuiltecans joined the padres at the missions. They blended into the Spanish communities contributing to the development of the Spanish Mexican culture.
There were two principal groups of invaders from Europe that are pertinent to our story – those from Spain and those from England. It is important at this time to note that while both groups experienced drastic ups and downs in dealing with the Native Americans, the Spanish were more successful than the English in assimilating with the indigenous people of the New World. For example, the more ethnocentric English shunned the native population as a matter of rule right from their arrival. Rarely did the English co-exist or live side-by-side with the native population. There was little inter-marrying between the two groups. That is why the vast majority of modern-day descendants of the English colonizers look very similar to their ancestors.
On the other hand, the vast majority of Spanish Mexican descendants look more like a blend of their New World native bloodlines and Old World Spanish ancestors. That is to say, Spanish-surnamed U.S. citizens of today significantly personify the qualities of previously thought extinct Southwestern tribes. In other words, some tribes didn’t become extinct per se, they continue to live today through us, their descendants. For example, Spanish-surnamed U.S. citizens in the Southwest share the same genetic code and descend from the original indigenous tribes. To test this hypothesis, the reader does not need expensive and long-drawn-out DNA testing. Rather, they should visit any large metropolitan area in the Southwest, such as, San Antonio, Santa Fe, and Los Angeles. There, among the many cohesive Spanish-surnamed groups living in distinctive barrios, they will see a variety of European and Native American facial features, hair, skin tone, and statures. To paraphrase the opinion of a respected Indian Chief from Louisiana, “Don’t let anyone try to confuse you. If you are a Mexican or Mexican-American, you are a Native American. Welcome my brothers and sisters.”
It should be noted that starting in the 1960s, some Spanish Mexican descendants became born-again Native Americans. In essence, they tried to separate themselves from their Spanish heritage. In their defense, their search was a natural phenomenon. Each one of us yearns to know for certainty where we came from. However, they found it hard to shed only part of their bloodline. In other words, contrary to the old saying “nothing is impossible”, separating their dual-culture is impossible to do. The blending process of our two distinct lineages began many years ago. It has strengthened, not weakened, through many generations. It is folly, therefore, to criticize either our Spanish European or our indigenous ancestors. Each group gave their best and endured the worst of the other. In short, they made us who we are. What is important to note is that the resulting mestizo class has proven to be very resilient. Modern-day Spanish Mexicans in the Southwest and Tejano descendants have both influences to thank for their identity. Spanish Mexicans are here today, not only in the U.S. Southwest, but all over the world. We will be here tomorrow.
In summary, there is much to learn about the indigenous people of America. It was the crucial blending of both their bloodlines with those of the arriving Spanish Europeans that set a strong foundation in early Texas. The number of native-born Spanish women in America was insufficient. Texas was also very far away from the points of origin of its settlers, such as Monclova, Monterrey, Saltillo, and other major cities. Therefore, it was inevitable that sooner or later bachelor soldiers found wives among the native females. The marriage of the two cultures was inevitable. Creoles, some of them already possessing both Spanish and Native American bloodlines from generations in Mexico, likewise inter-married and fine-tuned the mestizo culture.
To a significant degree, Mestizos and Native Americans provided both the leadership and muscle for the labor intensive industry of the ranchos. They will become the first cowboys and cowgirls. They will thrive and prosper for generations before the arrival of the first wave of Anglo-Saxon immigrants, who if truth be known, came to Texas to become Mexican citizens.
The story in this book is a fictionalized account of the blending of the Spanish and Native American cultures in South Texas. The setting is central New Spain. It is the 1760s and European civilization is moving north and northeast into Texas.
Appendix 6
Early Texas and today’s immigration debate
The area that we now know as Texas was an especially blessed spot. A land of many contrasts, it was home to a variety of indigenous groups. Unaware of others outside their realm, they were in their own cosmos of paradise.
Today, we tend to talk about Texas as if its famous present-day familiar rigid form and political boundaries have always been there. However, it was not always so. In fact, the “Tejas” territory was determined more by the turf of several related tribes than by geographic nature. (Note: In the Spanish language, both Tejas and Texas are pronounced
as Tejas, since the “x” is pronounced with a Spanish “j” sound as in Mexico, Mexia, and Bexar.)
Tejas was a vast multi-terrain, geographic area that encompassed parts of modern-day states. Abutting the New Mexico border to the west, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana to the north and east all share original Tejas hunting grounds when the territory was home to several distinct groups of indigenous people. Indeed, it is hard to talk about early Texas without considering its vast area of influence extending to the middle of modern-day Mexico.
Physically shaped by a vast desert to the west and by the Gulf of Mexico to the east, it is then not difficult to consider Texas as a crossroads. Migrating tribes appear to have used Texas as a funnel as they moved south to north to hunt and trade from early spring, through the summer months, and into fall when their migration reversed and they headed south for the winter. Ironically, the vast army of “snow birds” made up of white U.S. seniors and retired people that annually make this trip to South Texas and Northern Mexico today are not the first ones to do so!
For thousands of years, small, close-knit clans went in search of game to feed their families. Along the way they met other related groups. Often, they embraced each other; trading, marrying, and sharing technology. At other times, unfortunately, their contact was adverse.
In a very provocative sense, modern-day immigrants looking to work are only following the same paths taken by their ancestors many, many years before. After all, this was their home before it was overrun by European illegal immigrants. Our native ancestors did not have to stay within the illogical Western European-based political boundaries set across deserts and mountain ranges, both reflecting natural travel patterns that have existed for thousands of years.
The absurdity is most evident in using the Rio Grande as a political (national), rather than as a natural boundary. Additionally, because the region is populated by the same related people of Spanish Mexican and Native Americans, the area is known as a Borderlands region that straddles both sides of the U.S. Mexico boundary.
Today, the large herds that our resourceful ancestors followed are gone. The question is: Did the hunter gatherers consume them all? The answer is No. In a deliberate pattern of annihilation, they were wantonly butchered after 1850 as a means by encroaching Anglos in their move west to destroy the tribes’ food source. The rest will be obliterated by sport hunting. Thus, the violent displacement was devastating and brutal to the indigenous tribes.
Today, their descendants come looking for work instead of game, but their goal is identical. They visit the same hunting and trading terrain for the same age-old reason -- to feed their families. In that respect, nothing has changed for thousands of years. At great risk to their life, they still walk the many hundreds of miles to put food on their family’s table!
oOo
Nothing distorts the contributions of Spanish Mexicans and Native Americans in U.S. history more than movies and books. They have long provided the wrong impression of our hardy ancestors and native people. This type of entertainment only perpetuates the Anglo Saxon Manifest Destiny plan. The myth that indigenous people were passive nomads with no actual roots to a particular area and needed white Anglo Saxon masters to rule them is a totally false premise.
There is evidence that the indigenous tribes, each masters of vast regions, held regular annual gatherings where everyone was welcome. During certain times of the year, the organized confederations may have called for a general truce. This multi-purpose contact was welcome and highly anticipated. Preparations took months for the eager tribes who longed to chat with friends they had not seen for at least one entire year. Many walked many hundreds of miles through trails and pathways of the Camino Real just to be part of the event. Clan leaders learned new technology, trade, exchange information, and most importantly, find wives and husbands for members of their clans.
oOo
Beginning in the late 1600s to mid 1700s, Spanish Mexican pioneers from the interior of Mexico came to Texas to make it their home. Amazingly, historians tend to dismiss this fascinating period of U.S. history as if it has no merit. At best, they treat pre-1836 Spanish Mexican Texas history as foreign history. As a result of this ethnically biased slant, many U.S. citizens think that most of the Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens recently arrived from Mexico and other Latin American countries. That is not true. In reality, Spanish Mexican culture in the U.S. Southwest encompasses a large part of the present-day U.S. As mentioned earlier, “New Spain” is twice as large of “New England” in the U.S.A.
This in itself demonstrates the blatant disregard by mainstream historians for the New Spain colonial existence of our ancestors in Texas and the Southwest. Rather than being considered foreign history, our ancestors role in building this great place we now call the U.S.A. is part of the magnificent fabric that envelops it. The fact that our ancestors spoke Spanish and not English should not be used to exclude Spanish Mexicans in the telling of U.S. history. That is one of the main goals of this book.
It was our pioneer ancestors arriving in the early 1700s who confirmed Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca’s account of the diversity of tribes living in the area. Over 200 years before, the famous explorer had written extensively about the great number of distinct tribes that he lived with between 1528 and 1536 first as a castaway and then as a slave.
As our ancestors continued to settle the Rio Grande area, the families that accompanied Don Jose de Escandon report that they found dozens of different groups still inhabiting most river banks, the countryside, and coastal regions. They were the same people that Cabeza de Vaca observed as he travelled throughout Southeast and South Texas, and crossed the Rio Grande around present-day Zapata, Texas.
While we may think that the natives always enjoyed an Eden-like existence, the reality was sobering. Although annual fair-like meetings took place, weaker tribes frequently experienced hellish encounters with their neighbors. Exercising a live-and-let-live philosophy in the vast shared territories, some tribes often found it necessary to pay tribute to their more powerful neighbors. Others were usually only one or two days ahead of their pursuers. They had to keep moving to avoid being killed or made into slaves.
Still, others organized into temporary cooperative alliances that allowed different clans to co-exist, especially those related through marriage. There is strength in numbers. That is precisely the reason that some of these tribes were more eager than others to befriend our European ancestors and join their permanent settlements of missions, presidios, and pueblos. There is little doubt that the Spanish-Mexican settlements in Texas would have been successful had it not been for this fact alone.
That is contrary to the long-standing common belief among Anglo Saxon mainstream history writers that Spanish missionaries and priests forcibly won over the natives to join their missions so that they could Christianize them. The story goes that, if the natives did not convert, their necks were the targets of the sharp edged swords of the conquistadores. Such persistent, popular stories are unkind, unfair, and untrue.
Dios was the one and true God in all of Europe. The Church was an integral part of the Spanish Crown. The intrepid explorers sailed into the unknown and found situations they couldn’t explain. They had sailed the mysterious unknown seas based on dead reckoning and their unending faith. They were now exploring the mysterious land using those same instincts. The experience made the explorers even more likely to attribute the fate of every step to the all-powerful Supreme Being.
God was everywhere and responsible for everything. To their way of thinking, God had put these strange people in their path. If they found beings who were not Christians, they would take care of that as part of their overall plan of settlement in the New World. Many of the things that the Spaniards saw in the New World were inexplicable to their European-thinking minds. One of the most outrageous rituals they observed was the indigenous people’s fondness for sacrificing human beings.
; In vain, the Spanish tried to explain that Christ had already died for all of our sins, no matter if they were white or brown. At least, that was the message taken by the multitude of willing missionaries. Along the way, priests suffered heinous deaths at the hands of those they were trying to save from themselves.
So, while the Christian evangelization of the natives was certainly a goal of the Crown, the facts say otherwise. After all, the priests were not armed and had no power to force anyone to do anything. These unsung men of God, such as Fathers Margil, Francisco Hidalgo, Olivares, and many more, took it upon themselves to fearlessly go it alone to do their job of spreading the word. They definitely had their hearts in the right place. Often, they were attacked without warning.
Many of them were brutally killed. Others were massacred in the most horrible ways by those who feared or misinterpreted their benevolence. Against these odds, the priests were still able to focus on their job and translate their deep faith with great results. Also, as a kinder, gentler counterbalance to the military at the presidios, the missionaries provided a checks and balance system in dealing with the treatment of the natives. They were an army of Dr. Livingstons in the New World. It is for this noble mission that Spanish priests in the New World should finally be honored.
Friendly Betrayal Page 24