National identity on a shifting border: Texas and New Mexico in the age of transition, 1821-1848

Journal of American History

Volumn 86, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 668-687

  Reséndez, Andrés ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0012284912     PISSN: 00218723     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2567051     Document Type: Review

References (118)

1. For the most forceful formulation of this view, see John Breuilly, Nationalism and the State (Chicago, 1982), 1-2.
2. See also Anthony D. Smith, National Identity (Reno, 1991), 59-61.
3. E. J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality (Cambridge, Eng., 1990), 10.
4. See Peter Sahlins, Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, 1989), 8-9.
5. On Mexico, see David A. Brading, The Origins of Mexican Nationalism (Cambridge, Eng., 1985);
6. Peter F. Guardino, Peasants, Politics, and the Formation of Mexico's National State: Guerrero, 1800-1857 (Stanford, 1996);
7. Florencia E. Mallon, Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru (Berkeley, 1995);
8. Florencia E. Mallon, "Peasants and State Formation in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Morelos, 1848-1858," Political Power and Social Theory, 7 (1988), 1-54;
9. Alan Knight, "Peasants into Patriots: Thoughts on the Making of the Mexican Nation," Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, 10 (Winter 1994), 135-61;
10. and Guy Thomson, "Bulwarks of Patriotic Liberalism: The National Guard, Philharmonic Corps, and Patriotic Juntas in Mexico, 1847-88," Journal of Latin American Studies, 22 (Feb. 1990), 31-68.
11. The Manifest Destiny explanation has been popular among both Mexican and American historians. See Albert K. Weinberg, Manifest Destiny: A Study of Nationalist Expansionism in American History (Baltimore, 1935);
12. Frederick Merk, Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation (New York, 1963); and
13. David M. Pletcher, The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War (Columbia, Mo., 1973). Pletcher's book constitutes the most authoritative recent study of the war. Among works by Mexican historians, see, for example,
14. Gastón García Cantú, Las invasiones norteamericanas en México (The American invasions of Mexico) (Mexico City, 1971).
15. For a critique of Manifest Destiny as a cause of the Texas Revolution, see Andreas V. Reichstein, Rise of the Lone Star: The Making of Texas (College Station, 1989), 197-202.
16. On historiographical one-sidedness, see David J. Weber, Myth and the History of the Hispanic Southwest (Albuquerque, 1987), 94-95.
17. Recent work has shown considerable regional autonomy in the colonial period, in spite of efforts to curb it. See Horst Pietschmann, "Protoliberalismo, reformas borbónicas y revolución: La Nueva España en el último tercio del siglo XVIII" (Protoliberalism, Bourbon reforms, and revolution: New Spain in the last third of the eighteenth century), in Interpretaciones del siglo XVIII mexicano: El impacto de las reformas borbónicas (Interpretations of the Mexican eighteenth century: The impact of the Bourbon reforms), ed. Josefina Zoraida Vázquez (Mexico City, 1991), 27-66;
18. and Brian R. Hamnett, "Factores regionales en la desintegración del régimen colonial en la Nueva España: El federalismo de 1823-24" (Regional factors in the disintegration of the colonial regime in New Spain: The federalism of 1823-24), in Problemas de la formación del estado y de la nación en Hispanoamérica (Problems in the formation of state and nation in Hispanic America), ed. Inge Buisson et al. (Bonn, 1984), 305-17.
19. Although the church and the military have been customarily viewed as the twin pillars of centralism in early Mexico, recent work has emphasized that those two corporations supported federalist as well as centralist movements and sometimes did not participate. See Josefina Zoraida Vázquez, "Iglesia, ejército y centralismo" (Church, army, and centralism), Historia Mexicana, 39 (July-Sept. 1989), 205-34.
20. Because of lack of population, Texas was joined to neighboring Coahuila in 1824 to form the gigantic state of Coahuila and Texas. This arrangement continued until Texas seceded from Mexico in 1836. New Mexico was administered as a territory during the Mexican period. This meant that while Coahuila and Texas was allowed to promulgate its own state constitution and elect its own governors, New Mexico was under the tutelage of the national government and territorial governors were appointed.
21. For a fuller development of this argument, including discussion of patronage from the Mexican center to the Far North, see Andrés Reséndez, "Caught between Profits and Rituals: National Contestation in Texas and New Mexico, 1821-1848" (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1997). To be sure, there were profits coming from the south and rituals from the north. But since the Mexican government was formally in possession of these territories, it had the means to deliver Mexicanist rhetoric and rituals more efficiently than other governments.
22. By tejanos, nuevomexicanos, and californios, I refer to the Spanish-speaking populations of Texas, New Mexico, and California respectively. These terms will not be italicized hereafter. On the emergence of local identities in San Antonio, see Gerald E. Poyo and Gilberto M. Hinojosa, eds., Tejano Origins in Eighteenth-Century San Antonio (Austin, 1991);
23. Jesús F. de la Teja, San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (Albuquerque, 1995), esp. chap. 7;
24. Jesús F. de la Teja and John Wheat, "Béxar: Profile of a Tejano Community, 1820-1832," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 89 (July 1985), 7-34;
25. and Timothy M. Matovina, Tejano Religion and Ethnicity: San Antonio, 1821-1860 (Austin, 1995). On how municipal government encouraged local identities, see
26. Gilbert R. Cruz, Let There Be Towns: Spanish Municipal Origins in the American Southwest, 1610-1810 (College Station, 1988), esp. 127-70 .
27. Demographic data for Texas is from Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, Informe secreto sobre la presente situación de Texas (Secret report on the present conditions of Texas) [1834], ed. Celia Gutiérrez Ibarra (Mexico City, 1987), 20, 26, 31;
28. and David J. Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest under Mexico (Albuquerque, 1982), 159-62, 166-67. For New Mexico's demography, see
29. Lansig Bloom, "New Mexico under Mexican Administration, 1821-1846," Old Santa Fe, 1 (July 1913), 27-30.
30. The phrase "extended Mexican family" reveals how officials understood the relation of indigenous societies to Mexico: see Juan Nepomuceno Almonte to Manuel Armijo, Nov. 12, 1839, Mexican Archives of New Mexico (microfilm, 43 reels, State of New Mexico Records Center, 1970), reel 26, p. 135.
31. Since 1835 New Mexicans had had newspapers such as El Crepúsculo de la Libertad (Santa Fe) and La Verdad (Santa Fe). In Texas no Spanish-language newspapers were printed under Mexican rule, but Texans received publications from Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and New Orleans, where O. de A. Santangelo, an Italian expatriate and supporter of Mexican federalism, published Correo Atlántico. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London, 1983), 61-65.
32. The legislative body in New Mexico changed names: diputación provincial, 1822-1824; diputación territorial, 1824-1837; junta départamental, 1837-1843; asamblea departamental, 1843-1846. School statutes, Santa Fe, Nov. 4, 1827, Mexican Archives of New Mexico, reel 7, frames 3-5. See Josefina Zoraida Vázquez, Nacionalismo y educación en México (Nationalism and education in Mexico) (Mexico City, 1975).
33. For instance, each state militia had to carry a banner with designs and colors carefully planned. Decree on militias, Aug. 3, 1823, Mexican Archives of New Mexico, reel 2, frame 78.
34. Provisional Governing Junta to Governor of New Mexico, Oct. 6, 1821, Mexican Archives of New Mexico, reel ibid., reel 1, frames 171-74;
35. Gaceta Imperial de México (Mexico City), March 23, 1822. This document has been translated and annotated: David J. Weber, "An Unforgettable Day: Facundo Melgares on Independence," New Mexico Historical Review, 48 (Jan. 1973), 27-44.
36. On rituals in Mexico's history, see William H. Beezley, Cheryl English Martin, and William E. French, eds., Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico (Wilmington, 1994), xiii-xxii.
37. For the American case, see David Waldstreicher, In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776-1820 (Chapel Hill, 1997); and
38. Len Travers, Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic (Amherst, 1997).
39. On patriotic rituals in Mexico City, see Michael Costeloe, "The Junta Patriótica and the Celebration of Independence in Mexico City, 1825-1855," Mexican Studies/ Estudios Mexicanos, 13 (Winter 1997), 21-53.
40. Minutes of the patriotic committee for the celebration of Independence Day, San Antonio, Aug. 16-22, 1835, Béxar Archives (microfilm, 172 reels, University of Texas Archives Microfilm Publication, 1967-1971), reel 166, frames 363-65; Minutes of the patriotic committee for the celebration of Independence Day, Santa Fe, July-Sept., 1844, Mexican Archives of New Mexico, reel 37, frames 564-649.
41. On the political uses of the bullfight in Spain, see Adrian Shubert, At Five in the Afternoon: A Social History of Spanish Bullfighting, 1700-1900 (New York, forthcoming), 274-325.
42. New Mexico dutifully celebrated all of these occasions. Texas did not take part in the last two since it was an independent nation by then.
43. Col. José de las Piedras to Gen. Anastasio Bustamante, Dec. 10, 1827, item 2, folder 673, box 40, Herbert E. Bolton Papers (Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley).
44. Malcolm Ebright, "New Mexican Land Grants: The Legal Background," in Land, Water, and Culture: New Perspectives on Hispanic Land Grants, ed. Charles L. Briggs and John R. Van Ness (Albuquerque, 1987), 54; for the sermon by Martínez, see
45. Santiago Valdez, Biografía del Reverendo Padre Antonio José Martínez (Biography of Reverend Father Antonio José Martínez) (Taos, 1877), 54-56.
46. On the Santa Fe Trail, see Max L. Moorhead, New Mexico's Royal Road (Norman, 1958), 55-151.
47. For the data, see Lansig Bloom, "New Mexico under Mexican Administration," Old Santa Fe, 2 (Oct. 1914), 121.
48. Instructions to Deputy Refugio de la Garza, Jan. 30, 1822, pp. 8-17, file 190, box 2q297, Nacogdoches Archives Transcripts (Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas, Austin); and Refugio de la Garza to ayuntamiento of San Antonio, April 30, Aug. 8, 1822, Béxar Archives, reel 71, frames 494-96,
49. Refugio de la Garza to ayuntamiento of San Antonio, Béxar Archives, reel reel 72, frames 455-57.
50. For the decree of freedom of commerce, see José Antonio Saucedo to Juan Martín de Veramendi, April 13, 1825, Béxar Archives, reel ibid., roll 80, frames 548-49.
51. Manuel Alvarez to Secretary of State, July 1, 1843, Despatches from United States Consuls in Santa Fe, 1830-1846 (microfilm: roll M 199), Records of the Department of State, RG 59 (National Archives, Washington, D.C.).
52. The data on nuevomexicano merchants' trade is derived from statistical analysis of customs receipts, or guías, for 1843, the most complete yearly set available. Data and analysis in computer-readable form are available from the author on request. In the 1840s Anglo-American merchants often complained that the trade was falling into the hands of Mexicans. See Mark L. Gardner, ed., Brothers on the Santa Fe and Chihuahua Trails: Edward James Glasgow and William Henry Glasgow, 1846-1848 (Niwot, 1993), 200n12.
53. On the Chávez clan in the Santa Fe trade, see Marc Simmons, The Little Lion of the Southwest: A Life of Manuel Antonio Chaves (Chicago, 1973), 64-67.
54. See also Daniel Tyler, "Anglo-American Penetration of the Southwest: The View from New Mexico," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 75 (Jan. 1972), 325-38. Notes to the San Antonio census, San Antonio, July 31, 1826, pp. 41-43, file 197A, box 2q298,
55. Nacogdoches Archives Transcripts; and José María Sánchez, Viaje a Texas en 1828-1829 (A journey to Texas in 1828-1829) (Mexico City, 1939), 29.
56. Philip Dimitt Collection (Barker Texas History Center).
57. On interethnic marriages, see Jane Dysart, "Mexican Women in San Antonio, 1830-1860: The Assimilation Process," Western Historical Quarterly, 7 (Oct. 1976), 365-75;
58. Janet Lecompte, "The Independent Women of Hispanic New Mexico, 1821-1846," Western Historical Quarterly, ibid., 12 (Jan. 1981), 20-37;
59. Rebecca McDowell Craver, The Impact of Intimacy: Mexican-Anglo Intermarriage in New Mexico, 1821-1846 (El Paso, 1982);
60. and Ramón Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846 (Stanford, 1991), 271-97.
61. Compadrazgo (ties established by godparenthood) was often used to promote trading partnerships. See Sandra Jaramillo, "Bound by Family," unpublished paper, 1994 (in Andrés Résendez's possession).
62. Mary Virginia Henderson, "Minor Empresario Contracts for the Colonization of Texas, 1825-1834," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 31 (April 1928), 295-324;
63. Reichstein, Rise of the Lone Star;
64. Malcolm D. McLean, Papers Concerning Robertson's Colony in Texas (16 vols., Fort Worth and Arlington, 1974-1990);
65. Vito Alessio Robles, Coahuila y Texas desde la consumación de la independencia hasta el tratado de paz de Guadalupe Hidalgo (Coahuila and Texas from independence to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo) (2 vols., Mexico City, 1945). Important work on this subject remains unpublished, for instance,
66. Ricki S. Janicek, "The Development of Early Mexican Land Policy: Coahuila and Texas, 1810-1825" (Ph.D. diss., Tulane University, 1985); and
67. Ricki S. Janicek, "The Politics of Land: Mexico and Texas, 1823-1836," paper presented at the meeting of the Texas State Historical Association, Austin, Feb. 1996 (in Résendez's possession).
68. G. Emlen Hall and David J. Weber, "Mexican Liberals and the Pueblo Indians, 1821-1829," New Mexico Historical Review, 59 (Jan. 1984), 5-32;
69. G. Emlen Hall, "The Pueblo Grant Labyrinth," in Land, Water, and Culture, ed. Briggs and Van Ness, 67-138.
70. For specific cases, see G. Emlen Hall, Four Leagues of Pecos (Albuquerque, 1984); and
71. Myra Ellen Jenkins, "Taos Pueblo and Its Neighbors, 1540-1847," New Mexico Historical Review, 41 (April 1966), 85-114.
72. On December 9, 1843, Governor Armijo approved a grant for Cornelio Vigil, alcalde of Taos, and Ceran St. Vrain, a Santa Fe trader. A few weeks later, Armijo approved a grant of close to 1,000,000 acres to Beubien's son Narciso and Stephen L. Lee, an Anglo-American distiller of Taos. This grant became known as the Sangre de Cristo. See Harold H. Dunham, "New Mexican Land Grants with Special Reference to the Title Papers of the Maxwell Grant," New Mexico Historical Review, 30 (Jan. 1955), 1-22.
73. See also Malcolm Ebright, Land Grants and Lawsuits in Northern New Mexico (Albuquerque, 1994), 27.
74. Lucas Alamán to Gen. Manuel Mier y Terán, Feb. 13, 1830, p. 4, folder 673, box 40, Bolton Papers. On centralism in Goliad, see Ana Caroline Castillo Crimm, "Finding Their Ways," in Tejano Journey, 1770-1860, ed. Gerald E. Poyo (Austin, 1996), 119-20;
75. Andrés Tijerina, "Under the Mexican Flag," Tejano Journey, 1770-1860, ibid., 44-46;
76. Andrés Tijerina, Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (College Station, 1994), 123-24;
77. and Paul D. Lack, The Texas Revolutionary Experience: A Political and Social History, 1835-1836 (College Station, 1992), 163.
78. On the San Antonio volunteers, see Paul D. Lack, The Texas Revolutionary Experience: A Political and Social History, 1835-1836 (ibid., 165-66.
79. Antonio José Martínez to José Antonio Laureano de Zubiría, Sept. 2, 1845, in Valdez, Biografía del Reverendo Padre Antonio José Martínez, 42. Martínez had apparently changed his opinion, for in his youth he had supported freedom of religion in Mexico.
80. Antonio José Martínez to José Antonio Laureano de Zubiría, Biografía del Reverendo Padre Antonio José Martínez, Ibid., 14.
81. See, for example, Eugene C. Barker, Mexico and Texas, 1821-1835 (New York, 1965);
82. Samuel H. Lowrie, Culture Conflict in Texas, 1821-1836 (New York, 1932); and
83. William C. Binkley, The Texas Revolution (Baton Rouge, 1952). For a sample of the historiography on Manifest Destiny, see n. 3, above.
84. Lack, Texas Revolutionary Experience, 156-207;
85. Jesús F. de la Teja, ed., A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguín (Austin, 1991);
86. and Tijerina, Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 137-44.
87. On Indians in the Texas Revolution, see Dianna Everett, The Texas Cherokees: A People between Two Fires, 1819-1840 (Norman, 1990);
88. and Mary Whatley Clarke, Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees (Norman, 1971).
89. Weber, Myth and the History of the Hispanic Southwest, 144. Ethnicity did play a crucial part in the conflict, especially once the rebellion started. For ethnic and racial thinking, see
90. James E. Crisp, "Anglo-Texan Attitudes toward the Mexican, 1821-1845" (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1976); and
91. Arnoldo De León, They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes toward Mexicans in Texas, 1821-1900 (Austin, 1983).
92. As a political system, "centralism" was not instituted until 1835, but the label had been in use since the late 1820s. On the rise of centralism, see Reynaldo Sordo, El congreso en la primera república centralisa (Congress during the first centralist republic) (Mexico City, 1993).
93. On the centralist regime, see Michael P. Costeloe, The Central Republic in Mexico, 1835-1846: Hombres de Bien in the Age of Santa Anna (Cambridge, Eng., 1993).
94. The case of Texas was hotly debated in Mexico City. See Nettie Lee Benson, "Texas As Viewed from Mexico, 1820-1834," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 90 (Jan. 1987), 219-91.
95. See Law of April 6, 1830, translated in McLean, Papers Concerning Robertson's Colony in Texas, III, 494-99.
96. See also "Representación dirijida por el ilustre Ayuntamiento de la ciudad de Béxar al honorable Congreso del Estado" (Representation sent by the illustrious municipality of the city of Béxar [San Antonio] to the honorable state congress), edited and translated, in Troubles in Texas, 1832: A Tejano Viewpoint from San Antonio, ed. David J. Weber and Conchita Hassell Winn (Austin, 1983), 58.
97. On the federalists' policies toward Coahuila and Texas, see Robles, Coahuila y Texas, I, 483-97.
98. Reichstein, Rise of the Lone Star, 181-202;
99. McLean, Papers Concerning Robertson's Colony in Texas, esp. XIII, 71-124.
100. As David Montejano put it, how Mexico's Far North became the American West "would be incomprehensible without merchants and lawyers." David Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986 (Austin, 1987), 15.
101. On trade in Mexican Texas, see Weber, Mexican Frontier, 338n34;
102. and Barker, Mexico and Texas, 107-8.
103. On tejano merchants during the revolution, see Andrés Reséndez, "Traitor Merchants? Tejano Merchants in the Texas Revolution," paper presented at the meeting of the Texas State Historical Association, Austin, Feb. 1996 (in Reséndez's possession).
104. Report of Stephen W. Kearny quoted in E. Bennett Burton, "The Taos Rebellion," Old Santa Fe, 1 (Oct. 1913), 176.
105. For narratives, see Howard R. Lamar, The Far Southwest, 1846-1912: A Territorial History (New Haven, 1966); and
106. three classics: Ralph Emerson Twitchell, The Military Occupation of New Mexico, 1846-1851 (Denver, 1909);
107. Ralph Emerson Twitchell, The Leading Facts of New Mexican History (2 vols., Cedar Rapids, 1911-1912); and
108. Hubert H. Bancroft, History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888 (San Francisco, 1889).
109. Michael McNierney, ed., Taos 1847: The Revolt in Contemporary Accounts (Boulder, 1980).
110. Alvarez to James Buchanan, Sept. 4, 1846 (toll M 199), Despatches from United States Consuls in Santa Fe. On the Spanish-born consul, see Thomas E. Chávez, Manuel Alvarez, 1794-1856: A Southwestern Biography (Niwot, 1990).
111. J. W. Magoffin to W. L. Marcy, Aug. 26, 1846, Magoffin Papers, Twitchell Collection (New Mexico State Records Center and Archives); Testimony of Lt. Manuel García de Lara, Proceedings against Armijo, Mexico City, March 1847 (microfilm: file 2588, roll 11) Archive Histórico de la Defensa Nacional (Bancroft Library). A fuller collection of the original documents is in the Archivo Histórico de la Defensa Nacional, Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, Mexico City. Robert B. McAfee to James K. Polk, June 22, 1847, Magoffin Papers.
112. Many nuevomexicanos spoke about outright treason and claimed that Armijo had sold the department for 25,000 pesos. See Proceedings against Armijo (file 2588, roll 11), Archivo Histórico de la Defensa Nacional, Bancroft Library. On Armijo's options and constraints at that juncture, see Daniel Tyler, "Governor Armijo's Moment of Truth," Journal of the West, 11 (April 1972), 307-16.
113. Surveyor General Report (microfilm: 15, reel 14), frames 141-80, Land Grant Records (New Mexico State Records Center and Archives).
114. Alvarez to Buchanan, Feb. 9, 1846 (roll M 199), Despatches from United States Consuls in Santa Fe, 1830-1846. For a warning against interpreting Martínez as simply a staunch Mexican nationalist, see Angélico Chávez, But Time and Chance: The Story of Padre Martínez of Taos (Santa Fe, 1981), 81-87. Charles Bent to Alvarez, Feb. 26, 1846, file 74, Read Collection (New Mexico State Records Center and Archives).
115. "Historia de Montezuma," May 25, 1846, folder 788, box 2q240, Bandelier Transcripts (Barker Texas History Center). On the sources, see Charles H. Lange, Carroll L. Riley, and Elizabeth M. Lange, The Southwestern Journals of Adolph F. Bandelier (4 vols., Albuquerque, 1984), IV, 513-17. See also
116. Twitchell, Leading Facts of New Mexican History, I, 401-3.
117. "Historia de Montezuma."
118. José Miguel Vigil and Pedro José Medina interview by William G. Ritch, n.p., Dec. 4, 1877, Ritch Collection, roll 8 (New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe). For the later role of Montezuma in New Mexico, see Ramón A. Gutiérrez, "Aztlán, Montezuma, and New Mexico: The Political Uses of American Indian Mythology," in Aztlán: Essays on the Chicano Homeland, ed. Rodolfo A. Anaya and Francisco Lomelí (Albuquerque, 1989), 172-90.