05/05/2026
Short history lesson on Cinco de Mayo...
Today, we remember a Texas favorite son: General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín, born & raised in Presidio La Bahía (Goliad), Texas (1829). Sadly, most people in Texas are unfamiliar with Texas-born, Texas-bred General Zaragoza’s story (see slide for brief key details). Yet, there’s much more to the story.
As mentioned in the slide, many Spanish Mexican-descent Texans and Southwestern brethren volunteered to fight in defense of Mexico against France during the 1862 Battle of Puebla. Once again, what would compel them to do so if they were already U.S. citizens? The quick answer is family ties. That is, former Spanish Mexican Texas had only been a U.S. state for less than 15 years.
Given that such information is missing in official Texas history, the following notes will hopefully help prove the proverb “Blood is thicker than water” when describing the interlocking bond embracing people living on both sides of the Rio Grande (no pun intended).
(1). It is this Borderlands extended family system that justifies Mexico’s green-white-red banner as one of the two founding flags of Texas.
(2). The communal Spanish Mexican-descent Texans’ genealogy family tree roots themselves grow on both sides of the lower Rio Grande. Oddly, before 1848, today’s South Texas’ Las Villas del Norte individual border towns were at one time cohesive single communities divided by the Rio Grande.
(3). As an example, my hometown of Laredo was split by the U.S. in 1848, when it made the Rio Grande a permanent Mason-Dixon Line, dividing our close-knit families in two. The result? Laredo families continue to be separated from blood-related kin across the river to this day.
(4) Most importantly, Borderlands families look alike, share last names, culture, cuisine, & speak Spanish because they are one-and-the-same. In short, the vibrant Spanish Mexican ambience on the Texas side of the border continues to thrive because it was planted long before 1848.
(5). As the victor of the U.S.-Mexico War of 1846-48, the U.S. had a free hand in writing the provisions in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war. Specifically, U.S. officials knew fully well that the sprawling northern Mexico land mass they’d just acquired contained a significantly large population of brown skin Native Americans and their blood brethren, Spanish Mexican-descent residents. Oddly, the treaty allowed the existing population in Texas and Northern Mexico (today’s Southwest) to retain their unique culture and Spanish language, ostensibly to be ruled via an English colonial-style approach. Sadly, that de facto perception is still present today.
In hindsight, were the U.S. treaty promises made in good faith? Not exactly. From the start, the Spanish Mexican residents’ birthright “On this side of the border” was ignored and soon officially discouraged. Likewise, Southwest Native Americans were brutally persecuted, rounded up, and shipped to U.S. Reservations far from their homes. The result? Spanish Mexican-descent Texans & Native Americans continue to be treated as strangers in their own homeland.
“Sometimes, people don’t want to hear the truth, because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” (Friedrich Nietzsche.)
