My book, ‘Colonial Spanish Teas and Other Essays,’ is a series of essays dealing with events that have shaped Texas since the early times of Spanish colonization and the establishment of many institutions, namely, the first public schools in 1690, haciendas, cattle raising/drives, commerce, religion, trade, hospitals, farming, and civil/criminal laws.
As a resident of the Río Grande Valley I have witnessed much misinformation about the contributions of Hispanics/Tejanos. This has inspired me to write a book detailing many of the events left out of the normal textbooks. The book was conceived when this author wrote an article for the Brownsville Herald and the McAllen Monitor in 2007 on ‘Hispanics Have Been In Texas Since November 6, 1528,’ which drew many positive commentaries. I now publish articles on Hispanics/Tejanos for the Rio Grande Guardian, the Brownsville Herald, the Hebbronville Enterprise and the San Antonio Express-News. This last media outlet reaches a statewide reading public.
The main thrust is to educate individuals, especially the young students who will be the next generation of Texas leaders. Most Texas history books start with the Battle of the Alamo of 1836 and with the coming of Stephen F. Austin, who came to Texas in 1824 via Mexican Land Grants provided by the Mexican authorities who governed Texas at that time. This history makes little mention of over three hundred years of Hispanic/Tejano presence on Texas soil. Thus, this author ventured into newspaper articles to tell the Tejano Story, via a mass media that hits every home in the Rio Grande Valley and in the State of Texas. Furthermore, Hispanic/Tejanos presently make up over 50 percent of Texas public school students, and if this segment of the population does not know their history or who they are, they cannot, in my opinion, move forward with pride and strength.
Many Hispanics/Tejanos have not recently crossed the river. The river crossed them in 1848 when this state became part of the USA in 1848. They did not come looking for handouts, they did the heavy lifting, clearing the land, Christianizing the Native-Americans, establishing many of the human institutions we all now take for granted.
The following is an excerpt from the book ‘Colonial Spanish Texas and Other Essays:
“Another group of men fought alongside certain well known heroes of the Battle of the Alamo of 1836. They were the Tejanos, whose history has been purged from the pages of history. Their fight for liberty started long before the Battle of the Alamo of 1836.
“In two skirmishes on Texas soil, one in 1811 in San Antonio supporting the ‘El Grito de Dolores’ of 1810 by Father Miguel Hidalgo that also liberated Tejanos in Texas, and the other, the Battle of Medina of 1813 where close to 1,000 Tejanos perished in their pursuit of liberty also. \
“However, after 1848 the intricacies and complexities of the Tejanos did not fit into the new social order, so their contributions were left out of mainstream history. Another version is that northerners coming into Texas at that time were unaware, sought to forget, or simply ignored the vast contributions of the early Hispanics/Tejanos.”
(Garcia, Lino, ‘Colonial Spanish Texas and Other Essays,’ 2014, page 103, Ediciones Lagos, Monterrey, NL)
Some of the contents in this book are:
**El Grito de Dolores of 1810 that also liberated Tejanos.
**Early Spanish Texas Educational Institutions.
**Capitán Ignacio de Zaragoza, Tejano Hero of “Cinco de Mayo.”
**Hispanics in the American Revolution-1776.
**Hispanic Recipients of the Medal of Honor (now numbered at 66).
**Hispanic Legacies of the USA.
**Roots of Hispanic Legacies in Texas.
** Col. José de Escandón, Colonizer of South Texas in 1749.
**Juan Bautista Chapa, Explorer of Texas in 1689.
**The Longoria-Chapa Dynasty of South Texas and Northern México.
**Lorenzo de Zavala – Designer of the Texas Lone Star Flag.
**Ranching and Cattle Drives in Spanish South Texas.
**The Thirteen Original Families of South Texas and Northern Mexico.
**Spanish Jewish (Sephardic) Heritage of South Texas.
**Tejano Patriots at the Battle of the Alamo – 1836.
**Hispanics Have Been in Texas since November 6, 1528.
**The Spanish Language – How It Came To Be.
**Myths and Facts about South Texas Spanish.
Editor’s Note: ‘Colonial Spanish Texas and Other Essays’ is available for $19 (postage included). For information, write to: [email protected]
