Beyond the Alamo : Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821-1861

"Introducing a new model for the transnational history of the United States, Raul Ramos places Mexican Americans at the center of the Texas creation story. He focuses on Mexican-Texan, or Tejano, society in a period of political transition beginning with the year of Mexican independence. From the perspective of the Tejanos of San Antonio de Bexar, Anglo-Americans were immigrants and the battle of the Alamo was a war between brothers." "Ramos explores the factors that helped shape the ethnic identity of the Tejano population, including cross-cultural contacts between Bexarenos, indigenous groups, and Anglo-Americans, as they negotiated the contingencies and pressures on the frontier of competing empires. Initial peace gave way to violence as tensions between Anglo-American immigrants and the Mexican government made cultural brokerage impossible, leading to Texas's secession from Mexico and subsequent annexation by the United States. Ramos demonstrates that Bexarenos turned to their experience on the frontier to forge a new ethnic identity within dominant American culture. The nineteenth-century story of the Tejano people, who went from political dominance in 1821 to political minority in 1861, is a story of declension, but it is also a story of resurgence in the face of changing conditions and oppressive circumstances."--Jacket MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict CONTENTS 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 12 INTRODUCTION: Forging Identity in the Borderlands: Situating San Antonio de Béxar 18 PROLOGUE: Life in a Norteño Town 32 PART I. TREE WORLDS IN 1821 42 1. Making Mexico: Insurgency and Social Order in Béxar 44 2. Indigenous Identities: Locating “lo Indio” in the Tejano World 70 3. American Immigrants: Colonization and Tejano Identity 98 PART II. BECOMING TEJANO 126 4. Disrupting the Balance: Colonization Troubles, 1828–1834 128 5. La Pérdida de Tejas: Tejanos and the War of Texas Secession, 1834–1837 150 6. Tejanos as a Suspect Class: The End of Secession, 1837–1848 184 7. Voting and Violence: Tejanos and Ethnic Politics, 1848–1861 222 CONCLUSION: Challenging Identities: Transnational Becomes Local 248 NOTES 256 INDEX 298

Introducing a new model for the transnational history of the United States, Ramos places Mexican Americans at the center of the Texas creation story. He focuses on Mexican-Texan, or Tejano, society in a period of political transition beginning with the year of Mexican independence. Ramos explores the factors that helped shape the ethnic identity of the Tejano population, including cross-cultural contacts between Bexareños, indigenous groups, and Anglo-Americans, as they negotiated the contingencies and pressures on the frontier of competing empires.