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The Colonial
Architecture of Texas and the History that Created it!
Architect Richard Thornton is a member of an alliance of Creek, Choctaw and
Seminole scholars, who over the past seven years have been intensely studying
the heritage of the Muskogean peoples. Much of their activities have involved
re-examination of the archives of the early Spanish, English and French
exploration of the Southeastern United States. We have asked Richard to provide
AccessGenealogy with some of his work. As we add to these articles we will
also be providing a question and answer section for the reader to ask questions
of Richard.
It is a story whose interpretation is
tainted by the nationality of one’s passport. A
battalion of the Texas Army had surrendered to Mexican
troops under the condition that they be treated as
prisoners of war. They were told that they would be
deported to the United States in a few days. On Palm
Sunday, March 27, 1836 Colonel José Nicolas de la
Portilla, of the Army of the Estados Unidos Mexicanos
ordered 342 prisoners of war to march out of the pueblo
of Goliad along three roads, Camino de San Antonio de
Bexar, Camino de San Patricio and Camino Victoria. On
either side of the prisoners, were columns of Mexican
solders. On orders from their officers, the Mexican
soldiers shot the prisoners point blank. Those who
survived being shot, were clubbed and knifed to death.
Twenty prisoners feigned death and were later able to
escape.
Simultaneously, back at the Presidio de Bahia in Goliad,
approximately 80 wounded prisoners were executed by a
variety of means. The lives of doctors and orderlies
were spared, but Colonel James Fannin of the Texas
Regular Army was not. Having a wounded leg, he was
bound, blind-folded and placed in a chair. His last
requests were that (1) his body receive a Christian
burial, (2) his personal belongings be sent to his wife,
and (3) he be shot in the heart, rather than the face.
The firing squad shot him in the face and spat on his
body. The soldiers rummaged through his possessions,
taking some and dumping the rest. His body was burned on
stacks of timber along with the men who had been under
his command.
On April 21, 1836 a seemingly broken and profoundly
outnumbered Texas army turned on the Mexican army that
had been stalking it. Shouting “Remember Goliad!
Remember the Alamo!” the ragtag soldiers under Sam
Houston destroyed Santa Anna’s army in only 18 minutes.
Virtually the entire Mexican army was either killed or
captured. A new nation was born on that steaming
savanna; the Republic of Texas.
A Texan and Mexican version of
history
Since 1911, Hollywood has produced 15 movies about the
Texas War for Independence. Twelve of them focused
almost entirely on the Second Battle of the Alamo. Two
focused on the life of General Sam Houston, while one,
True Women follows the lives of three women from
Georgia, who immigrated to Texas immediately before the
war, and whose families became entangled with its
bloodshed. Only the 2004 movie, The Alamo, True Women
(1997) and Sam Houston, Man of Honor (2008) closely
follow the facts of history, which include the
substantial role that Latin American Tejanos played in
the rebellion. Only one of the movies portrayed any
scenes of the massacre at Goliad.
The war was traditionally presented in American history
textbooks and movies as an account of brave Anglo-Celtic
frontiersmen defending their land against invading
hordes of brown skinned demons. It essentially portrays
Texas as a natural part of the United States and the
war, a glorious chapter in American military history.
In contrast, Mexican public school textbooks skip
lightly over both this war and the Mexican-American War
that occurred 12 years later. The Texas rebels are
demonized as vile North Americano pirates, who invaded
their motherland, grossly outnumbered the brave
defenders of her soil, and then stole the land from poor
Mexico. General Antonio de Padua María Severino López de
Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón is consistently treated by
Mexican textbooks as a corrupt tyrant and traitor, whose
ineptitude as a military commander caused Mexico to lose
over a third of its territory.
The mainstream media of the United States frequently
seems grossly ignorant of Mexican history. News reports
on current events seem to assume that Mexican history
began some time after World War II. Interpretations of
these events seem to be more related to the political
agenda of the commentators rather than historical facts.
Interpretations of the Texas War of Independence swing
between the extremes of American boosterism and
politically correct versions totally sympathetic to the
Mexican perspective.
During the next few days, the Examiner will take an
objective view at the events preceding and during the
Texas War of Independence and hope to give readers a
better conception of the appearance of Texas during that
era.
Mexico before the Wars
In 1798, the Viceroyalty of Mexico was one of the
largest nations in the world. It was not a sovereign
nation, but the most important and populous colony of
the Spanish Empire. Its claimed territory stretched from
the Pacific Coast of what is now Oregon to the Isthmus
of Panama; from the Great Lakes and Canada to the mouth
of the Mississippi River. However, very soon thereafter,
its territory began to shrink. Napoleon Bonaparte
conquered Spain and placed his brother on the throne.
Napoleon secretly transferred ownership of the Province
of Louisiana back to France, but did not tell officials
in Mexico City or New Orleans about this change.
Napoleon then secretly negotiated with a delegation from
the United States to sell the Louisiana Territory to the
United States. Napoleon’s publicly stated purpose of
this deal was to insure the United States becoming one
of the most powerful nations on earth with a navy that
he hoped someday would humiliate Great Britain.
Mexico at that time was a feudal land with a rigid caste
system. At the top of the hierarchal society were the
peninsulares, wealthy Caucasians, who had been born in
Spain. Below them were the creoles blancos, pure
Caucasians born in the Western Hemisphere. Below them
were the creoles mestizos, families with mixed Indian,
European and sometimes, African heritage. At the bottom
of the heap and the vast majority were people of
predominantly Native (Indios) or African (Negros)
heritage. These people were essentially serfs. Most all
wealth was held by the Spaniards and pureblood Creoles.
The hierarchal society was kept in a repressed state by
Spanish garrisons stationed in presidios (garrison
towns) throughout the viceroyalty and a power church
establishment, which catered to the welfare of the
wealthiest Caucasians. The Holy Office or Inquisition
retained its powers to execute victims until 1812. Many
of the early victims were homosexuals or Converso Jews,
who had immigrated to the northern part of Mexico to
practice their religious beliefs in isolation. However,
during the 1700s, the Holy Office focused on booksellers
and anyone not of noble birth, who was caught owning a
Bible or book banned by the church. Public burnings or
auto de fe’s were major social events in Mexican cities,
where everyone turned out in their best clothes. The
last person to be burned at the stake was a middle class
mestizo woman, who had been caught with a Bible in her
home.
Mexico had once been the densely populated home of many
of the Western Hemisphere’s most advanced indigenous
societies. After Mexico was conquered by Spain in the
1520s, the population plummeted from warfare, European
diseases and overwork of the native peoples.
Approximately, 95% of the indigenous peoples of Mexico
died during the 16th century. Three-fourths of the
people in the Mexican Highlands died during one horrific
epidemic in 1585. The province of Cohuila y Tejas was
almost entirely populated by Native Americans, since the
plagues had affected that region less, while few
Caucasian settlers immigrated to that region.
Until the 1820s, the area that was to become Texas had
very few Caucasian residents. There were a few missions,
but for the most part, the landscape was occupied by
Native Americans. The Spanish Crown maintained two
presidios that protected major missions. One was at San
Antonio de Bexar and the other was El Presidio de Bahia,
which protected the trade route between the only port at
Copano Bay. Most all the Spanish buildings, including
the missions, were built out of adobe. The Presidio de
Bahia in Goliad, was the only major stone building in
all of Tejas.
In the next segment, we will look at the events leading
up to the 1835 insurrection in northern Mexico and the
types of buildings that Tejanos and Texians lived in.
Part 2 |
Part 3 |
Part 4 |
Part 5 |
Part 6
Notes About this Material
Source: Richard Thornton, an alliance of Muskogean scholars, professors and
professionals. Copyright Richard Thornton, Blairsville, GA, 2010. Used here with
permission.
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