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Post by neferetus on Jan 10, 2006 20:51:32 GMT -5
Juan Seguín Of all of the patriots of the Texas Revolution, it was perhaps Juan Seguín who had the most troubled relationship with the land he helped to found. Over the course of a long lifetime, Seguín served as a political leader and as a soldier for both Texas and Mexico. And over the course of that lifetime, both Mexicans and Texans would call him a brave man -- and a traitor. Juan Nepomuceno Seguín was born in Bexar (San Antonio) on October 27, 1806, the son of a prominent Tejano family. His birthplace, the only settlement of any size in Texas, stood at the crossroads of civil war and revolution. As Seguín was growing up, Bexar was a desperately poor place, shattered by decades of Indian raids and violent feuding. Seguín's father, Erasmo, became a key ally of Stephen F. Austin and his colonists in the area. Father and son had witnessed the inability of Spain and Mexico to bring stability and prosperity to the area, and believed that the best hope for the future of Bexar lay with the establishment of a strong Anglo-American colony. In 1829, at the age of 22, young Seguín was elected to his first political office as a San Antonio alderman. Seguín's political coming of age coincided with a time of great struggle in Mexican politics, with the factions boiling down to those who favored a strong central government dominated by the military and the church, versus federalists (such Lorenzo de Zavala) who wanted a more democratic system. By the time Seguín became alcalde (mayor) of San Antonio in 1833, it was impossible to remain neutral. Seguín took action in 1835, forming a militia group with the purpose of marching to the aid of the Mexican governor of Texas, a federalist, in his resistance to the military dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna. Santa Anna and his generals were tired of the unrest in Texas and were using strong-arm tactics to put down both Mexican and Anglo resistance to their rule. Seguín and his men were put to the test closer to home, scouting for and supplied the Texas rebel army during the siege of Bexar in December 1835. A few months later, Seguín was among those holed up in the Alamo as Santa Anna came to take back control of the city from the rebels. He was sent out as a courier to go for help, thus escaping the fate of the Alamo defenders. In Gonzales, Seguín organized a new company that functioned as the rear guard for Sam Houston's retreating army. Seguín's unit became the only Tejano unit to fight at the Battle of San Jacinto. Seguín and his company were singled out for their bravery by both Sam Houston and Edward Burleson. By the Mexicans, Seguín was considered a traitor. After the battle, Seguín supervised the withdrawal of the Mexican army from Texas, then returned to San Antonio, where he oversaw the burial of the Alamo dead. As military commander of the city, he waged a months-long battle for control of the city. Seguín faced not only the continuing threat of Mexican cavalry, but also the indifference of his fellow Tejanos and hostility from Anglo land speculators, who resented taking orders from him. In 1837, Seguín was elected to the Texas Senate, the only Tejano to serve in that body. Though he spoke primarily Spanish, Seguín managed to participate actively in the Senate, chairing the Committee on Military Affairs. It did not escape Seguín's notice that the Tejanos were being shut out of participation in, or even understanding of, the new government. He pushed for laws and other government documents to be printed in Spanish. During this time, Seguín turned his attention to making money. Texas was cash-poor but land-rich, and the system of obtaining land grants was rife with abuse and swindles. Seguín became a small-scale but enthusiastic player in this and other questionable money-making ventures. Seguín became an ally of General Antonio Canales, a rebellious Mexican federalist hoping to create another new country in the Rio Grande area. Seguín raised troops and thousands of dollars to aid Canales, only have the rug pulled out from under him when Canales signed an accord with the central government. He met with Canales' superior, General Mariano Arista, in Mexico. Arista offered Seguín no compensation for his expenditures, but tried convince him to switch sides and join an expedition from Mexico to retake Texas. Seguín refused and returned to San Antonio, where he once again became mayor in 1840. He faced the problem of trying to contain increasing numbers of Anglo adventurers, as well as mounting financial difficulties of his own. He mortgaged his house and property to buy goods for a smuggling venture into Mexico. The venture failed, with Seguín losing everything. He returned to San Antonio in the wake of the Santa Fe expedition, in which a large number of Texans were captured and taken on a humiliating march to Mexico City. Whispers began that Seguín had betrayed the expedition. It was the beginning of the end for Seguín. In early 1842, he notified President Houston of his suspicions that the Mexicans were planning a raid into San Antonio. The Texan government refused to send any aid to the city, and Seguín and most of the Tejano inhabitants evacuated the city during the Mexican invasion. Though the Mexicans occupied the city for only two days being forced to retreat, Seguín's reputation was in tatters. Most Anglos now believed that he had turned traitor. Seguín was forced to resign as mayor and flee to Mexico with his family, in fear of his life. Letter from Somervell to Sam Houston recommending Seguín as a go-between with General Arista, just before Seguín fled to Mexico Seguín would later say that he had no choice but to join the Mexican army. Under the command of Adrián Woll, he returned to Texas in September 1842 -- this time as part of Mexico's invading army. The sense of betrayal among Anglo Texans was complete. While some of his old friends, including Sam Houston and Anson Jones, had compassion for Seguín's situation, the newspapers and the general public did not. They held Seguín up as a Texas version of Benedict Arnold, responsible for every excess and tragedy that came out of the short-lived invasion. For the next six years, he would remain in the service of the Mexican army, seeing action in the Mexican War against U.S. troops. After the war was over, Seguín became determined to return home to Texas, in spite of the hostility he would inevitably face. He settled in present-day Wilson County, where he ranched and became involved in local politics as a justice of the peace and an election precinct chairman. He helped found the Democratic party in San Antonio. In 1858, he published his memoirs. In later years, he retired to Nuevo Laredo to be near one of his sons. His letters portray a man at peace with his life and his choices. He died there on August 27, 1890, at the age of 83. On July 4, 1976, his remains were returned to Texas to be buried in Seguin, the town named in his honor. ( TEXAS STATE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES COMMISSION)
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Post by neferetus on Jan 11, 2006 9:49:40 GMT -5
A rare photograph of Juan Seguin in his later years.
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Post by neferetus on Jan 20, 2006 1:11:43 GMT -5
Long after the Alamo battle, little Enrique Esparza gave detailed accounts of what he saw and remembered. According to Enrique, "The end came suddenly and with a rush..."
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Post by Bromhead24 on Jan 20, 2006 9:57:35 GMT -5
nice photo
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Post by neferetus on Mar 25, 2006 13:53:34 GMT -5
The Toribio Losoya bronze, located in the Paseo del Alamo.Jose Toribio Losoya was born in the Alamo barrio on April 11, 1808. His parents, Ventura Losoya and Concepción de Los Angeles Charlé, had a two-room stone house on the Plaza de Valero near the southwest corner of the mission compound. As a young man, Losoya married Concepción Curbier and became the father of three children. By 1830 he was a private in the Álamo de Parras military company, serving under Lt. Col. José Francisco Ruiz. That year the company built and occupied Fort Tenoxtitlán, where Losoya and his family remained until the company's return to San Antonio de Béxar in September of 1832. Losoya, a Federalist, was one of many Mexican soldiers who opposed Antonio López de Santa Anna's Centralist rule. By the fall of 1835 he had deserted the Mexican army to enlist as a private in Seguín's company of Tejanos. In December of that year he participated in the siege of Bexar. Following Cos' withdrawal from Bejar, Toribio and Seguin formed the nucleus of Jim Bowie's scouts, the 'Leoncitos'. The Leoncitos' reports of Mexican troop movements were pooh-poohed by Lt. Colonel William Barret Travis. ('Some Indian told some vaquero.' ) Losoya was even thrown into the calaboose for drunk and disorderly conduct, as Travis whined in his letters to Governor Smith that Bowie and his men were roaring drunk 'all the time'. Things really came to a boil when Bowie released Losoya from jail to continue his scouting duties. It was just as well that Travis and Bowie patched up their differences swiftly with the agreement of a joint-command. For, as Santa Anna's troops converged on San Antonio in late February 1836, Losoya and a number of Tejanos fell back into the Alamo, along with the rest of the garrison. And when Captain Juan Seguín was sent out by Travis to ride dispatch, along with his servant, Cruz Y Arocha, Toribio Losoya was one of nine Tejanos he left behind. As the church was the stoutest structure in the Alamo compound, Losoya's wife and three children were sequestered there with several other Tejano families, as well as Susannah Dickinson and her daughter. In the aftermath of the pre-dawn assault on March the 6th, Toribio's lifeless body was found somewhere inside the church. His wife, son, and two daughters survived the siege and, in 1838, applied for a land grant, which was given them. Land Grant for the Estate of Jose Toribio Losoya.
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Post by Bromhead24 on Mar 26, 2006 10:08:32 GMT -5
Nice "Primary" document...where have we heard that before?
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Post by neferetus on Dec 30, 2007 23:57:14 GMT -5
Here's an excerpt from Timothy M. Matovina's book, THE ALAMO REMEMBERED, University of Texas Press:
The Alamo Remembered Tejano Accounts and Perspectives
By Timothy M. Matovina
San Antonians of Mexican heritage frequently recounted their memories of the Alamo; more than seventy-five sources record Tejano testimony. Tejanos gave their testimonies in various contexts. They provided Texan leaders with the first reports of the Alamo's fall and later related details of the interment ceremony for the Alamo defenders. Visitors and newcomers to San Antonio in the decades following the Texas Revolution also reported conversations with local Tejanos about the Alamo. Some later Tejano recollections served the pragmatic purpose of providing testimony for land claims, pension applications, and other petitions for government relief. Other Tejanos published their recollections, two of them just before the Civil War. Around the turn of the century, more than twenty additional Tejano accounts were published, many of them prompted by journalists who desired to preserve eyewitness testimony of the famous battle. These diverse Tejano Alamo documents are important sources for studying the famous battle and its aftermath although, like other accounts, they require critical assessment.
First Reports On 11 March 1836, Andrés Barcena and Anselmo Bergara arrived in Gonzales (about fifty miles east of San Antonio) and reported that Mexican troops led by General Antonio López de Santa Anna had stormed and taken the Alamo. Although not eyewitnesses, their statements were based on the testimony of Antonio Pérez, who was in San Antonio on 6 March, the day of the final assault. According to Barcena and Bergara, all of the Alamo defenders perished, including seven who surrendered but were executed by order of Santa Anna. The two Tejanos also stated that more than five hundred Mexican soldiers died in the assault and a similar number were wounded. They further claimed that James Bowie was killed while lying sick in bed and that William Barret Travis committed suicide.
A year later, Colonel Juan Nepomuceno Seguín provided an official report of the interment ceremony for the Alamo defenders, whose bodies had been burned at Santa Anna's orders and left in ash heaps near the Alamo. Seguín stated that there were three ash heaps; he had the remains from two of them placed in a coffin. Accompanied by other members of the military, civic authorities, clergy, musicians, and the general populace, he processed with the coffin to San Fernando Church at the center of town and then back to the site of the ash heaps. Soldiers fired three volleys of musketry over the spots of the funeral pyres and the coffin was interred on top of the ashes at the third and largest pyre. Colonel Seguín gave a speech to the crowd in Spanish; Major Thomas Western addressed them in English. In his oration, Seguín stated: "The venerable remains of our worthy companions as witnesses, I invite you to declare to the entire world, 'Texas shall be free and independent, or we shall perish in glorious combat.'"
Conversations with Local Tejanos San Antonio residents frequently discussed the Alamo with newcomers to the town in the years following the battle. Mary A. Maverick, who moved to San Antonio in 1838, later wrote a brief account of the Alamo which included information from a conversation with Juana Navarro Alsbury. Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar obtained a list of five Tejano Alamo defenders from Agustin Barrera, a San Antonian who was within the walls of the fortress shortly after its fall. Theodore Gentilz interviewed several local residents before painting two pictures titled Death of Dickinson and Battle of the Alamo. Reuben M. Potter and John S. Ford did the same before publishing accounts of the battle.
Some visitors to San Antonio recounted conversations with local Tejanos in their journals. An elderly resident of Mexican descent related details of the battle to British traveler William Bollaert and his companions when they toured the Alamo in 1843, for example, and pointed out to them "where Crockett, Travis, Bowie, and others fell." A Tejana resident also described the horrific battle to Bollaert, as well as the feast day celebrations formerly held at the Alamo mission, the long-past beauty of the mission church, and the merry pealing of its bells which in previous days called local residents to worship. Bemoaning the demise of the mission and its festive celebrations, she stated, "I never look into the ruins of the church without shedding a tear." As if to impress upon him the original purpose of the Alamo, she then presented Bollaert a crucifix made from the stone of the mission. When Josiah Gregg met José Antonio Navarro in 1846, Navarro, who was away at the Convention for Texas Independence when the Alamo fell, "condemned the wonted temerity of the Texans" and asserted that Santa Anna had left the east side of the Alamo unprotected, hoping that the Texans would leave in peace and save the Mexican army a costly victory.
Unpublished Petitions and Depositions Most Tejano reminiscences of the Alamo from the decades following Texas independence are petitions and depositions filed in land claim cases for heirs of the Alamo defenders. The majority of these documents are sworn testimony that a particular Tejano died in the Alamo fighting on the Texan side. Thus they are an early Tejano rebuttal to depictions of the Alamo defenders as a homogeneous Anglo-American group. In an 1856 deposition, for example, Damasio de los Reyes numbered the Tejano Alamo defenders at seven. Candelario Villanueva testified in 1859 that he entered the Alamo after its fall and saw the bodies of "Gregorio Esparza... Antonio Fuentes, Toribio Losoya, Guadalupe Rodriguez, and other Mexicans who had fallen in the defense of the Alamo." Extant land claim files indicate that Tejano citizens sought compensation for the service of seven Tejano Alamo defenders.
Some documents in these files recount personal experiences of individual Tejanos. In his 1859 deposition, Candelario Villanueva stated that his arrival at the Alamo was delayed because Colonel Juan Seguín sent him to lock Seguín's house in the town. While Villanueva performed this task, Mexican troops arrived, cutting off his entry to the Alamo and thus sparing him the fate of its defenders. Francisco Esparza recalled that he sought permission from Mexican general Martin Cos to bury the body of his brother Gregorio. General Cos granted his request, probably because Francisco had fought in the Mexican army during the Texan siege of San Antonio three months earlier and was on reserve with the Mexican forces during their Texas campaign. Because of Francisco's timely action, Gregorio Esparza was the only Alamo defender whose body was not incinerated after the battle. Several Tejano depositions recount that Santa Anna prevailed upon local citizens to burn the bodies of the Alamo defenders after the Mexican victory. Brigidio Guerrero testified that he fought with the Texan army inside the Alamo, but when "he saw that there was no hope left he had the good fortune of saving his life by concealing himself."
A few Tejano reminiscences of the Alamo are recorded in requests other than land claims. In 1850, Gabriel Martínez submitted a claim seeking compensation for a home near the Alamo, along with some corn and clothing, all of which Texas troops had burned during the siege "in order the better to defend said post." Juana Navarro Alsbury's 1857 petition for compensatory relief stated that she rendered "all the service she could towards nursing and attending upon the sick and wounded" inside the Alamo during the siege and that her private property was "seized and taken by the enemy" after the battle.
Published Accounts The first published Tejano account dealing with the Alamo battle was Juan Seguín's 1858 memoir. Seguín was among the Alamo defenders but left the fort to seek reinforcements. His account details his futile efforts to enlist the support of Colonel James Walker Fannin and his troops, as well as Seguín's return to San Antonio on 6 March with provisions for the Alamo defenders, only to find that the garrison had already fallen.
Two years later, Francisco Antonio Ruiz recorded the first published Tejano account of the battle itself in an entry of The Texas Almanac for 1860. Ruiz was the mayor of San Antonio when the Alamo fell, and Santa Anna ordered him to remove the dead after the battle. His account, titled "Fall of the Alamo, and Massacre of Travis and His Brave Associates," describes the battle, the gallantry of the Texan soldiers, the incineration of their bodies at Santa Anna's orders, and the disposal of corpses in the San Antonio River because the numbers of deceased Mexican soldiers made it impossible to bury them all.
Extant sources indicate that no further Tejano accounts were published for nearly thirty years. As the remaining eyewitnesses dwindled to a precious few, however, newspaper reporters and others began to record Tejano reminiscences of the Alamo with some regularity. These reminiscences provide more vivid detail than earlier reports, petitions, depositions, and conversations recorded in travelogues. They also reflect the diversity of vantage points from which Tejanos observed the siege of the Alamo, the battle, and its aftermath. Some Tejanos witnessed these events from within the Alamo, some left the garrison as couriers or scouts, some watched from the distance in the town, and others left San Antonio during the hostilities, returning after the battle was over.
Particularly vivid accounts of the battle itself are attributed to three observers from within the Alamo: Juana Navarro Alsbury, Enrique Esparza, and Andrea Castañón Villanueva, more popularly known as Madam Candelaria. They describe details such as the surging columns of Mexican troops and the heroic deeds of Crockett, Bowie, and Travis. Esparza, who was a boy at the time, also relates that his father, Gregorio, fought valiantly as an Alamo defender and died near the cannon that he tended.
A prominent contribution of the Navarro Alsbury and Esparza accounts is that they recall those who survived the final assault. While the lists of survivors in these accounts are inconsistent, cumulatively they include Juana's son Alejo Pérez and her sister Gertrudis Navarro; Enrique's mother, Anna Salazar Esparza, his sister, and three brothers; Mrs. Concepción Losoya, her daughter, and two sons; Mrs. Victoriana and three little girls; Mrs. Susanna Dickinson and her baby; an old woman named Petra; Mrs. Juana Melton; Trinidad Saucedo; and others who are not identified by name. Esparza also attests that Brigidio Guerrero was spared because he convinced Mexican soldiers that the Texan forces were holding him prisoner.
In addition, Esparza recounts the traumatic experience of the survivors after the battle. He states that Mexican soldiers fired several volleys into the room where he and others were concealed, killing a young boy. Then the soldiers entered the room and demanded the Texans' money. When they realized that no booty was forthcoming, they took the women and children to the home of Ramón Músquiz, a prominent San Antonio political figure. Músquiz ensured that the prisoners were fed. Several hours later the soldiers led them before Santa Anna, who exacted an oath of allegiance from them before giving each woman a blanket and two silver dollars. After this interview, the Alamo survivors were free to go.
Accounts from defenders who left the Alamo as couriers or scouts include those of Juan Seguín and Trinidad Coy. As was previously mentioned, Seguín stated in his 1858 memoirs that he left the Alamo to seek reinforcements for the beleaguered fortress. In two later accounts, he described in greater detail the danger entailed in his departure from the Alamo. Trinidad Coy's amazing story was reported by his son Andrés in a 1911 interview. The younger Coy recollected that his father was one of several scouts sent from the Alamo to ascertain Santa Anna's position and intentions. After many days of searching, a farmer advised him that the Mexican troops were only a few miles away and were headed for San Antonio. Immediately Coy set out for the Alamo, but his horse refused to move. Upon inquiry, Coy discovered that a young boy had unwittingly grazed the horse in a corral filled with "loco weed." The boy offered a "wiry little pony" to replace Coy's sick horse, but this mount proved inadequate. Mexican soldiers soon spotted Coy and the pony fell over dead when Coy tried to outrun them. Taken as a prisoner to San Antonio, Coy witnessed the movements of the Mexican troops from afar. Finally he was able to escape and work his way to the Alamo, only to discover the funeral pyre which contained the burning remains of his fallen comrades.
Eulalia Yorba, Maria de Jesús Delgado Buquor, Juan Díaz, and Juan Vargas remained in the town during the siege and fall of the Alamo and thus observed the battle from a distance. Yorba attended the sick within the Alamo immediately after it fell; her account includes her poignant memories of the battle's aftermath. Delgado Buquor and Díaz were children at the time and apparently did not venture out of the town, but they did see the rising smoke from the funeral pyres. Mexican troops impressed Vargas to serve in their camp, which was close enough to the Alamo for him to hear the sounds of the battle.
A significant element of these accounts is that they reveal how the Mexican troops treated San Antonio residents. Yorba recalled that Mexican soldiers confiscated all the food in her home but promised her that she and her children would not be harmed if they remained in the house. She went to the rectory of the local priest seeking food and comfort and from there saw the final assault. Delgado Buquor stated that Mexican soldiers forced her family from their home and treated them harshly. She also related that Santa Anna seized a young girl from her neighborhood and held her captive while the Mexican troops were in San Antonio. (Juan) Díaz, whose father was the custodian of San Fernando parish, recounted that many Mexican officers stayed at the church. Since his mother fed them, Santa Anna ordered his soldiers to guard their home. Perhaps because of this protection, Díaz recollected "but few cases of damage" resulting from the depredations of Santa Anna's soldiers. Vargas remembered that Santa Anna's troops confiscated local supplies and even threatened him with execution when he refused to participate in the storming of the Alamo. Instead, they compelled him to carry equipage, perform kitchen duties, assist the wounded, and bury their dead.
Other San Antonians abandoned the town during the hostilities but later recorded their memories of the events before and after the battle. Pablo Díaz recalled the fortifications which the Texan soldiers made at the Alamo in preparation for Santa Anna's arrival. He also described the funeral pyres of the Alamo defenders after the battle, along with the gruesome spectacle of Mexican corpses floating in the river. Juan Antonio Chávez, who was a boy at the time, fled with his family but returned in time to see the incinerated bodies of the Alamo defenders. Another childhood witness, José Maria Rodriguez, stated that his father advised Colonel Travis to retreat from San Antonio before Santa Anna's forces overwhelmed him, but Travis did not believe that Santa Anna could mount so large an army only three months after the Texas volunteers conquered San Antonio. Afterward Rodríguez's father left San Antonio to join General Sam Houston's army, and his mother took the family to a nearby ranch. From the rooftop of a house, the young Rodriguez saw the flash of guns and heard the boom of cannons during the Alamo battle. Yet another Tejano who left San Antonio before the Mexican army occupied the town was Antonio Menchaca. Menchaca's memoirs relate details such as the arrival of Davy Crockett and his Tennessee volunteers at San Antonio, the first courier's report of Santa Anna's advancing army, Menchaca's flight from the town with his family, and his conscription into the Texan army by General Edward Burleson at Gonzales.
Like other Alamo accounts, Tejano accounts require critical assessment. Historians must bear in mind that petitions for land claims, pensions, and other government compensation are legal documents that reflect their authors' purposes of procuring their claims. Statements like those of Andrés Barcena, Anselmo Bergara, and José Antonio Navarro were based on second-hand information and could reflect inaccurate renderings of eyewitness testimony. Furthermore, third parties recorded their statements, removing extant documents one step further from the original sources. Some Tejano testimony may also suffer from mistakes in translation. Anglo Americans interviewed many witnesses in Spanish, at times with the help of an interpreter. Significant observations and details could easily have been lost or misunderstood in the process.
Published Tejano accounts merit the most critical attention, since the majority of them were based on interviews conducted at least fifty years after the recorded events and many of the witnesses were children at the time of the battle. The published accounts also tend to provide far more detail than other Tejano testimony. Such detailed accounts are more prone to inaccuracies than the general observations contained in earlier statements. The position from which eyewitnesses viewed the siege and battle is yet another consideration in assessing the veracity of their accounts, since the precision of their descriptions is contingent on how clearly they saw these events.
Interviewer bias also undoubtedly influenced how reporters recorded Tejano testimony. In a 1902 article, for example, a San Antonio Express reporter asserted that Enrique Esparza "tells a straight story. Although he is a Mexican, his gentleness and unassuming frankness are like the typical old Texan." The presumption that Mexicans tend not to tell "straight stories" reveals the racial bias of this reporter, a bias that easily could have influenced an interview of Esparza or other Tejanos.
While a comprehensive analysis of the historical accuracy in Tejano Alamo accounts is beyond the scope of this work, the possibilities of errant observation, alterations in original testimony by second or third parties, faulty translation, memory lapse, and interviewer bias indicate the need for critical assessment in studies that utilize Tejano (and other) sources. Despite this need, extant Tejano accounts remain a significant and often untapped resource for historical studies of the Alamo.
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Post by seguin on Jan 1, 2008 0:37:50 GMT -5
Great idea for a thread, Nef! I don´t think we have covered the Tejanos here in this forum before...
What does the text under the Seguin photo say? There´s a couple of words I can´t read...
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Post by neferetus on Nov 8, 2022 8:50:50 GMT -5
Great idea for a thread, Nef! I don´t think we have covered the Tejanos here in this forum before... What does the text under the Seguin photo say? There´s a couple of words I can´t read... "Juan N. Seguin Small copy of photo loaned McArdle by his daughter, Mrs. Chavez"
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Post by neferetus on Nov 8, 2022 8:51:54 GMT -5
San Antonio Express News, 11-8-2022 Attachments:
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