Juan Cortina, Colossus of the Rio Grande

thank you guys for joining us here today we're excited to have you all here so my name is Antonio Coffey and I I am the educator here at Casa Navarro State historic site today our webinar will be Juan Cortina Colossus of the Rio Grande before we start I just want to give y'all some brief information about Casa Navarro so we're here in downtown San Antonio we are the 19th century home site of Jose Antonio Navarro who is most famous for being one of two tejanos to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence but uh what I personally find really interesting is he lived through many different periods of Texas history starting with the end of Spanish Texas going all the way to Texas rejoining the United States after the Civil War and so he got to see a bunch of different Dynamic and political shifts here in Texas and that's always been what's been most interesting about Jose Antonio Navarro to me but today excuse me sorry about that today we were talking about Juan Cortina and Dr Van Hoy from St Mary's University will be presenting on it so just a quick uh section about Dr Van Hoy so her term as the O'Connor share for the history of Hispanic Texas and the Southwest made her made possible her research on the role of Mexican Americans in defending twin republics Mexico and the United States in the mid-19th century those findings have been delivered at conferences and workshops from Texas to Harvard to Mexico City and recently published in a journal in Spain our current book is titled Cinco de Mayo and Civil War in the Borderlands Dr Van Hoy was one of my own teachers and gave us a lot of chances to do amazing projects like the national World War One Centennial commission where we were able to create micro documentaries and were even able to attend the Centennial ceremony and Remembrance there as well as working with a professional film crew based and Boston was filmed her students campaign to pay tribute to Abraham Lincoln as well as her attempt to get Santa Ana Santa Anna's leg returned to Mexico so all that Dr Van Hoy speak more about herself if she wants but here's Dr Van Hoy and her presentation as well welcome I'm uh I'm I'm so happy to be here and the beautiful thing is that I'm not alone today although I will hog most of it uh I have uh my colleague Dr Gonzalez Lara here with me from uh Tech de Monterrey and we'll be joined I hope by a couple of uh wonderful chronistas and Scholars of the history uh that I'm talking about they are here today at the end to help me launch with you the bicentennial of Juan Gordina so let me just um start sharing my screen got some pretty beautiful things to offer here um let me just see if I can get some of this Zoom stuff off it whoops so um um we this is his signature this is Juan cortina's signature which is a treasure because uh by most accounts he was unlettered he was an illiterate man but it turns out that that signature uh I found it in archives all over the world from New York City the Heron Paper art uh in the archive in the um public library in New York City to Washington DC to nonce France and Paris and all the way also to Mexico City so and of course Monterrey where my colleague is um on faculty so welcome to the big adventure that I've had for 13 years now of um of of hunting uh cortina's last traces [Music] um we want to thank uh Casa Navarro [Music] um and especially and Antonio who is uh Saint Mary's very own and and a fine um Masters uh recent alumnus so he's he's nicely poised to uh support Casa Navarro and the Texas historical commission and we are delighted um at the partnership so thank you very much well it turns out that it's a great pairing uh Jose Antonio Navarro and Cortina they shared a common cause um his um let me beef that up a little bit Jose Antonio uh they never met but they knew each other Jose Antonio wrote Cortina letter during the Cortina war sympathizing with uh cortina's grievances both Navarro and Cortina defended their people and did so at Great risk for San Antonio history fans here's a little known fact that's that links uh Navarro and Cortina uh cortina's grandfather was executed here in San Antonio over by Salado Creek over East of Casa Navarro Corp he was one of the 14 degoyados the 14 uh royalists whose throats were slit in April uh by folks who were fighting for freedom from Spain Jose Antonio Navarro was there that day April 1st 1813 when he was a teenager still when the executioners rode back into town galloped back into town with their victims bloody clothing and personal effects dangling from uh their saddle horns Navarro was only a teenager and he was pro-independence but he was horrified at the inhumanity and in 1857 so that's of course 40 almost 50 years later uh my bad math 43 years later Navarro published a list of the 14 de hoyados in the San Antonio Ledger where cortina's grandfather's name appears so I can just imagine him as a teenager seeing um cortina's grandfather's bloody clothing um who is uh Juan Cortina there he is he um let me start with a mini bio he he juartina now that gets spelled differently his Basque maternal surname gets spelled differently here and there but it's uh the com most common way of um pronouncing it is and it was that grandfather uh Juan Manuel who was um whose throat was slit here in San Antonio in 13 1813. he was affectionately called Channel Cortina born in 1824 which is why we're so excited to be celebrating his um his Bicentennial in 2024. he was born to a family that owned thousands of Acres uh along both sides of the Rio Grande um all the way up some of them later to the Nueces all the way up to the other end of the um noises strip um so quite prominent uh early you know early founders of Camargo and and and all of these settlements along the Rio Grande but he died in 1894 after nearly 15 years in house arrest in Mexico City so he belongs to Mexico City too unfortunately and so how do we reconcile this prominence with this um with this dishonoring in his late life um for me who is he to me after 13 years and tracking him down uh Juan Cortina is uh is a key figure among the hundreds of Mexican Americans who risked their lives for 25 years to defend Mexico and the U.S expansion uh to defend Mexico and the U.S from expansionists and I would count on um Jose Antonio Navarro among those and also Angel his son um my Mexican colleagues will join me at the end to help us launch that Bicentennial celebration in Mexico so who is he in Mexico well in Mexico he uh is a juareista general he supported um the Republican calls the uh in in the 60s 1860s he was governor of damaribas he was hailed as a hero by President Benito Juarez for his defense against the French and I'll show you a document later where Juarez um honors him and and knows that he is the leader in tamilivas yet he was arrested by Mexican authorities and imprisoned by them uh in the 1870s in the U.S who is he well he was influential in Brownsville politics um prominent uh Texans in the 18th in 1868 uh petition for his pardon that included the then mayor of um of Brownsville where he had presumably attacked and outraged and it included rip board who was the one who gets all this credit for defeating him in the Cortina Wars so how do we reconcile that if he's if he's influential and his presumed biggest enemies are petitioning for his pardon then why do we still think of him 150 years later as a villain as a bandit why is that even still on our markers our historical markers so maybe this is our year to change that so he's a polarizing figure he's been demonized he's been regarded as the red robber of the Rio Grande um let me see if we have an image of that yep here is the uh here is a historical Mark erected in in this in 1970 I think it was um and it says crushing defeat for partisan leader Juan Cortina this is in Rio Grande City on the on the river uh in late uh 1859 laid waste the Lower Rio Grande Valley cortina's band of 450 were surprised here uh at Daybreak whoops um uh by heinzelmann and the U.S Army troops joined by Texas Rangers under under John rip Ford Cortina fled to Mexico my horseback um blah blah blah and and so we get the idea here this is the marker today in in um 2023 uh so after my presentation I'll be interested to hear your questions about that and how we might consider a revision oops wait others lionized him uh as the Robin Hood of the Rio Grande at the end of this presentation you'll see that the Mexico a museum in Mexico City um honored um Oscar Chavez who wrote a corrido who wrote a folk song about um about Juan Cortina championing him and especially in the Cortina Wars so you get these this Duality between the Texas marker and the Correo my students and I decided not to be um voting for one extreme or the other we have dubbed him uh the Colossus the Rio Grande and by the way big shout out to my students they are present today um the work I do draws heavily on their contributions and uh you you all can count on this squad to curate the um the sources of collect that I've collected in all these archives uh basically thousands of pages of sources and each student will choose his or her favorite uh small collection and make that more digestible to our public and so big shout out to them to the young people who are contributing so much [Music] uh we call him Colossus Rio Grande because like the Colossus of Rhodes in the ancient world uh Cortina straddled two Shores uh both classes were erected Larger than Life both were failed quickly and suffered terrible indignities yet both continue to Define an era and both um capture the popular imagination uh ever since so um to trace the rise and fall of Cortina as a Colossus I want to today give very brief discussion of three periods well first of all we're going to Wrangle this question of the Cortina Wars um and that'll take the longest time then I'll say something brief about before 1859 who was Cortina before 1859 and how was he uh helping defend Mexico in the U.S from expansionists and who what uh what did uh Cortina contribute after 1859 because it's a 25-year period that he risked his life and property and in the end honor uh for that defense of Mexico and the U.S so my book argues that the um that the contradictions in fact can be resolved this robber versus hero Robin Hood can be resolved once we get that 25-year um Long View that's my view so now let's listen to cortina's view what does he say in 1859 he says and a very long Proclamation that he published uh November 23rd 1859 but I will read you a brief excerpts in the English translation this was after Thomas Cabrera was lynched so I want you to um remember that name briefly because Thomas Cabrera is is important also as one of the Mexican Americans who defended the US and Mexico from expansionists so Cortina says Mexicans many of you have been robbed of your property incarcerated chased murdered and hunted like wild beasts criminals covered with frightful crimes appear to have impunity because they are not of our race which is unworthy as they say to belong to the human species I am ready to offer myself as a sacrifice for your happiness and Counting upon the means necessary for the discharge of my Ministry you may count upon my cooperation should no cowardly attempt put an end to my days that last part means look I fortunately have enough money and wealth that I can do this folks who are poor it's harder for them to to to to rise to the defense of others he kind of got the class issue um Cortina ends his proclamation of 59 by um assuring um the Mexican Americans that a secret society has been organized um that for their protection whose members are quote ready to shed their blood and suffer the death of Martyrs yet he reassures all residents all anglo-residents white residents everybody and that quote no honorable man need have calls for alarm so he's not threatening good white men or Mexican American men or any men or women um just those who are committing atrocities with impunity or theft so he um he closes by urging and this is actually pretty pretty odd he closes by urging the Mexicans of Texas to trust governor-elect Sam Houston Sam Houston is going to take office the next month and in December of 1859 he says trust Sam Houston to give them legal protection when he takes office um so um Jose Antonio and Navarro understood Cortina only two years earlier Navarro had likewise raised his voice and risk to safety by defending Mexican Texans he published a series of articles in the San Antonio Ledger in 57 that likewise condemned his people's loss of land and life let me quote Jose Antonio Navarro he said to complete a picture of misfortune the few descendants who survive in San Antonio are disappearing murdered in full view of a people who boast of their Justice and Excellence so it's not just Mexican Americans on the border far away from the centers of government and media it's also happening in Mexico in San Antonio so in 1860 Jose Antonio Navarre wrote to Cortina during the 14 Awards and he sent his letter with his son Houston had sent as a commissioner uh to solve the conflict on the Rio Grande and the Elder Navarro addressed Cortina as compatriot and acknowledge that cortina's uh that Cortina had legitimate grievances but he implored Cortina to restore peace on grounds that his resistance was destitute of every hope of success and Glory which is uh very sad to hear um likewise for us to understand so Jose Antonio understood Cortina but what about us well in order for us to understand Cortina we must understand two things the major threats to the Borderlands um which actually most of us don't know now and how delicately mexican-americans needed to handle their enemies in the Rio Grande and in the 19th century actually in San Antonio as well so look at this so this was a safe conduct and it was so dangerous for Mexican Americans that anglos had enrolled them saved conduct so they wouldn't be killed even wealthy you know people whom you would presume class might protect no they're they're equally targeted so as you can see this says executive office Austin and to all Texans whether in or out of service so he's saying yeah even the non-military people are likely to grab you and uh uh this will certify that Savas Cavazos is a good and true citizen and by virtue of this safe conduct he will be treated as such by the governor Sam Houston uh blah blah so so so he they have to bear a piece of paper signed by the governor in order to be treated as good and true citizens uh if you're if you're Mexican-American so that's just one hint about how dicey that thing is okay so then there's this question of how delicately Mexican Americans have to handle it well um remember that they live on the Rio Grande they live in the valley so they've got enemies on both sides uh Cortina does and and his people they've got enemies among the Texans who are um trying to force them off a land or even accusing them of things and and lynching them and murdering them and in Mexico it gets just as bad because the French had invaded by the by 1861 the front of it mated and they are um they are killing uh those who resist the Empire maximilian's Imperial rule and the biggest resistance is coming precisely from Rancheros from regular Mexicans especially along the north so if you can just imagine the French are trying to kill you on one side and uh the Confederates and them and the um and and other kind of Vigilantes are trying to kill you on the other side and there are no mountains that's that's a small River to hop and so your families are living there too you're elderly and your children so so this is a very delicate uh position sometimes they do resort to divide and conquering their enemies um by allying with a friendlier faction so that for example that thing about Sam Houston Sam Houston did threaten Mexico uh yet uh Sam Houston been pushing U.S Congress uh to give him money man and permission to invade Mexico uh to make it a protectorate all of that you can you can Google those documents they're all in in the Congressional Record and those are digitized some people can't imagine that I'm telling the truth here but this is definitely true some Sam Houston was was struggling in the 50s um to to make Mexico protectorate well part of the reason unfortunately not only was he an expansionist but he was a slaveholder and and two at least of his slaves Sam Houston slaves had run away to Mexico so he wanted the Border much further down so that slaves from enslaved people from Texas could not Escape on the other hand that's bad stuff but on the other hand Houston um was their best hope uh he honored Angel Navarro um as his commissioner and um he even outraged anglo-texans that he chose Angel Navarro and as you saw Houston signed a safe conduct okay let's consider this Cortina War thing so the first Cortina War uh starts in 1859 the standard Narrative of the war July 13 1859 Cortina Shot the Sheriff sounds like a song um let me see I think we have something in the chat but maybe in the Q a but I think maybe um Antonio's monitoring that on September 28th um Cortina raids Brownsville with his man and ravaged the town is the way The Story Goes and then throughout the fall until Christmas uh Cortina kept the Rio Grande in a turmoil uh until the U.S army and Texas Ranger combined forces heroically defeated him in restored order so that's the traditional narrative now here is a judicious Narrative of the war and in fact I can't even give the full treatment of it because we'll run out of time but let me just uh speak to two points uh the judicious narrative recognizes that what cortin is doing in that first war is acting as a long-term Defender and anti-expansionist so let's um let's have a look at those two pieces of evidence okay first of all Cortina did not ravage the town and in fact um no looting or destruction happened at all in fact he stopped at the pawn shop before the to buy the you know to get the arms and ammunition that his men needed and he paid for them he targeted only a short list of men who had committed abuses with impunity and his vigilante action was modeled after Frontier Justice very popular all over the United States in 19th century um sounds you know it's very bad to our modern sensibilities um but that was the standard uh of the day on the contrary it was Brownsville's citizens and Rangers who committed atrocities along the Rio Grande under the pretext of punishing cortina's supporters uh quarantine himself did not lead any further attacks until the Tobe till Tobin's Rangers um hanged Tomas Cabrera so we're back to Thomas I'm gonna get to him in a second so what threat was Cortina defending against in 1859 then if he's not just rescuing a dude Cabrera when the sheriff is beating him then what is he doing um we can get a hint in um from cortina's Proclamation if you recall what I read Cortina refers to a secret society that hints um he's forming a secret society to find another secret society that secret society's uh threat is mounting against Mexico and and Mexican Americans in this time in 1859 and that the name is um the Knights of the Golden Circle my students are probably one of the a few sets of students in in the United States or Mexico who even have heard of that group but Google those folks that's that those guys were a piece of work the KGC as they as the Knights of the Golden Circle were called was not just a marginal group not just a bunch of folks who were down on their luck and looking for something it included prominent Texans including Lubbock himself and they were openly members so what uh what do they want what does the KGC want well it's explicit purpose was to take over Mexico and Central America and the southern U.S and Cuba to make us Golden Circle as an empire for slavery so um this was no Idol threat after Cortina was defeated the Grand Marshal of the KGC in Harrison County in Marshall Texas and his name was Greer if you want to look things up offered Sam Houston mounted troops to invade Mexico because Sam Houston wasn't getting support from Congress for his protectorate so Greer says hey we got we got men they'll do it for you so in the spring of 1860 the kgcb actually gathers at the river to prepare their invasion a lot of things happen a long story including Houston saying forget it dudes come on back but the upshot is that they gathered a couple of times but did not invade now the Cliffhanger who's Thomas Cabrera um we have time for just one piece of evidence that the Cortino war was Mexican Americans defense against expansionists whereas most historians dismiss um Cabrera the guy who was getting pistol whipped by Sheriff shears they dismiss him as Martinez servant or his ranch hand or maybe his father figure or something like that and but let me show you this um this document this you can also Google online because it's also Congressional Record so uh what you have here is a list of Tejano actually now tejanos um people from the Rio Grande Valley who were originally from Tamaulipas not to Texas uh asking Congress so I'm going to toggle between these two they're asking Congress to establish the Nueces strip former damoribas as a federal territory like New Mexico they're saying look we do not want to be part of Texas we've been part of Texas since 1848 and in fact it was kind of ugly after the in the Republic period and it's not going well please please please make us a protect uh um a a um territory not part of the State of Texas so that's all these guys there's a lot of folks you whose names you might recognize including um let me see if I can drag this stuff off oh yeah it's right behind my participant uh message let me get rid of that uh so they misspelled it and things are messy in the in the 19th century but that is um is um is one you can see in this name if you know this history there's a lot of prominent people uh and then there is um let's see am I having trouble getting to the next one I don't know why for some reason it's not letting me go to the next one I might have to oh there we go and then look at the second page uh there is Cabrera Thomas partner is right there and so is um so is uh so are some of the um Cortina people including or Cortina so they are Thomas Cabrera is not just some ranch hand he's actually sticking his neck out because if you're contesting Texas this authority over the Rio over the river you're already in big trouble and you're in trouble for a second reason because they are petitioning they're asking Senator Seward they're asking sinned or Seward to to put their petition on the senate floor now Senator Seward is the most hated of all the elected officials in 1850 for two reasons one he's abolitionist and two he he's leading abolitionist actually in the in the Congress and two he has he is in 1850 precisely going to defend Mexican Americans in California as well when they try to strip them of their citizenship rights so wow not only are they asking for federal territory but these dudes are asking also Seward so that's going to guarantee you to get uh in the crosshairs of Texans who are not for the most part feeling uh favorable to the Abolitionist position nor to the advocacy for the rights the full rights as established by the Treaty of Guadalupe all right so um so I invite you to consider the cabareta was co-petitioner and um and that the hyper personalistic labeling of um Mexican Americans has just doing stuff for because they're buddies or family or servants um suggests that they're not fighting for justice uh that that rather they're kind of embroiled as casitasina in a prophet or power play um the second Cortina award let's move real quickly to the second Cortina War um well that that starts in April of 61. now I want you to remember that um that's when the Civil War breaks out but even before the surrender of Sunter Fort Sumter tejanos were defending the Union on the Rio Grande they never get credit for that already armed tejanos and Mexicans under Ranchero Antonio Ochoa um and I hear I'm quoting the Corpus Christi Ranchero uh publication of a document from 20 from April 20th 61 quote directed by or under the influence of Cortina moved to seize the county seat of carniso a quote attempting to keep the county officers from taking the Confederate oath of office end quote when they decided to back down they issued a pronunciation Proclamation against the Confederacy now that's just suicidal in April of 1861. to be uh 40 dudes uh going for the union even white pro-union people got killed for that as we all know from the hanging of the German Hill Country unionists more stuff happened uh Cortina comes over in May to help these folks he rendezvous with 50 men with Ochoa more more things happen it's a it's a it's a big big deal um somebody who would promise him something later kills one of them there's retaliation it's a mess but um but I want you to hold on to two facts one is it was Pro Union not just a rampage and two um Cortina was not defeated he just crossed the river and in fact let me quote you here from heinzelman's or maybe it was Ford's memoirs Cortina quote gained the opposite side of the river in safety and in an ascending its banks faced about turned around took an apparent disdainful view of his recent antagonist and master uncovered his head and with characteristic dignity waved his hat bidding them in the blandus tone a courteous temporary edger informing them he would give them another call in a few days so what what you read about you know rip board and heinzelmann in the U.S army just crushing him is not at all true he crossed the river and uh and and reappeared so back story um backstory real quick because now we're getting into the Civil War piece well in February 15 1861 so before this brouhaha on the river this second Cortina War um and February 15th was one week before the referendum in Texas Texas Texans were supposed to vote if they wanted to um leave the union but this was a week before the Texas Volunteer forces including 150 KGC members including John Robert Baylor Force the surrender of the federal troops and Arsenal at San Antonio that is an act of treason that's Americans attacking the U.S army uh and especially because they had no Authority from the referendum the people of Texas they couldn't even say they were acting in their names uh following that quick Victory the volunteers who were mostly from the KGC companies forced the surrender of all federal posts between San Antonio and El Paso and who else was out there Robert E Lee they forced his surrender they invited him to join them and he said absolutely not in fact that afternoon he went to see his pro-union pal right here in San Antonio a guy named Charles Anderson but that's another story the argyle club today is Charles Anderson's home um if you need further Evidence about the nature of this as a hostile takeover uh active treason look at the March 4th and by the way this was the biggest Depot of resources in the US Army in the entire nation of the United States so they just really made off big with a lot um I know you've been told that Civil War wasn't important in Texas but that's not true so March 4th 1861 says a couple weeks later Lincoln gives his inaugural address so you can Google that as well he refers to the Hostile takeover of San Antonio by warning you'll see he doesn't say San Antonio he doesn't say anything explicit but you can see that he's warning that the federal government will defend its military uh installations and soldiers and supplies so um so he is paying attention to this aggression quickly before 1859 because I think I want to wrap it up in five minutes so that I can bring my colleagues to join us before 1859 I'll mention only one other instance um and that's the Mexican-American War the U.S Mexican war Cortina organized he was only 22 years old but he organized in 46 a company of rancheros that he whom he named tamalipus because he's reminding people that this is not Texas this is Tom moribas another state in Mexico and he joined Arista General Arista was leading the defense of Mexico along the border in 46. they lost as you know he saw it it was almost on his mother's own land his mother's land was split um by the Treaty of guadalupidalgo and she was forced to sell her land that is today Brownsville that used to be cortina's mother's land she was forced to sell it for one dollar uh let's see here's Brownsville um oops wait let me see if I can there's Brownsville uh you can see how close Matamoros and Brownsville are but that was all his mother's land right there uh 1850 well that was the separatist movement as you heard so what about after the 14 Awards what hap what does Cortina do to contribute and his his people what do they contribute to defending Mexico in the U.S well I'm kind of running out of time but um uh you know we've got a year we've got 16 months until his birthday so my students and I'll be uploading uh more videos and more resources for you to track what the Cortina contributed um uh but let me just say who are who's Lincoln to Mexican Americans who's Lincoln to Cortina link and they know Lincoln in the 18 in 1840 uh seven Lincoln is a freshman representative in Congress from Illinois and he stands up barely had his seat for a couple weeks first thing he does stands up and condemns the U.S invasion of Mexico as illegal Mexicans didn't forget that it ruined his career there for a while but but they remember um Lincoln also in the 1860s when he's president recognizes beneath the juarez's government and refuses to recognize the Empire the French invasion so they they appreciate that too Lincoln stayed in solidarity with Mexico [Music] more about Corwin also I could say and Seward but we'll we'll let that go so let me show you a little bit of um how Cortina defended the Union during the Civil War this is a complaint from a French Commander uh writing to Seward who's Secretary of State under Lincoln and you see that he's saying here's what Cortina is doing doing um you know they're for they're Furnishing arms the union is Furnishing him arms and Munitions and all of this here's another one again with Cortina uh the French ambassador to the U.S is complaining to the Secretary of State about all the stuff that Cortina is doing to help the Union uh and attack the French in Mexico Cortina helps Mexico defeat um the French first of all um Cortina goes to Puebla in in 1863 and helps resist um the French invasion um he loses but as you know he he does become um high ranking he becomes General and uh under the juanistas and here is Benito Juarez Juarez writing Ignacio mariscal his um and he's saying who are the commanders Escobedo Mendes Cortina Etc in these all these states in the north well if you ask Mexicans and ask them okay who are the heroes who are the what is the generals and heroes in the north they're going to name only Escobedo why because Escobedo wrote the military reports reports and I have the document where he says well I wish I had time to name everybody who did a wonderful job out here but we're in the middle of a battle and I don't have time so that is why they get ignored and that's what I'm hoping Mexico will um forgive this is uh this is a piece about how Confederates are going to Mexico they'd reached Monterey they had they offered the emperor uh to raise a battalion of Texans for Guerrilla service promising them ten thousand so the Confederates are going across the border in 1865 trying to help the French so cortina's stopping those guys too and here they are this is a battle map of um the Santa Gertrudis and here here are the Confederate counter guerrillas they're in pink down here as you can tell by this um this um thing so here's a question if if um equation and Mexican Americans defended so well against threats so great why don't Mexico and the U.S honor this history that's the question right Cortina gets discredited um his but his rip board and uh and a bunch of people try to get him exonerated During the Reconstruction government um but the ex-confederates especially Richard King and Mifflin Kennedy want to pin on him uh the cattle theft the the the the cattle the loss of their cattle because by then he's high ranking general and in in in in Mexico and they figure that they can if they pin it on him they can force Mexico to pay their claims for the loss in this Claims Commission of 1868 that really didn't take off until early 70s and so here is some testimony from that Claims Commission I'm Francis Campbell I'm acquainted with Midland Kennedy yep he did it in in I was coming down the river Rio Grande in um in 1860 see I just keep blaming about that Cortina War thing we were attacked by Cortina and his man blah blah blah so so they just keep blaming him this is actually a testimony of Mifflin Kennedy who's also blaming Cortina um all of those charges were proven false but the point is that they riled people up so badly that court that Mexico was just forced to get him off the border so first he was arrested by alert Tejada who held him in prison in Mexico City and never charged him was overthrown uh Benny the waters is already dead by by Porfirio Diaz Diaz um lets him go he's up in the Border again Texans um threatened to invade Mexico again if they don't get rid of Cortina and Diaz sends him back to prison and then when Texans aren't looking anymore he gives him an Hacienda and lets him live in house arrest where he dies okay so let me just introduce my colleagues I'm going I'm hoping that um well we have here um already present uh my colleague Dr Gerardo Gonzalez Lara from El Tech de Monterrey good afternoon uh Dr Gerardo and also I don't know if we we're still waiting and hoping that um Salinas Rivera is going to be present he is uh an ex he's a UT PhD and he is a an extraordinary historian doing the digging in those archives remember the archives that I was talking about I haven't gotten to eight I haven't been able to get to any of those so I'm counting on investigator Antonio Guerrero and Dr Martin their expertise and their um deep work on Cortina and cortinistas and all the folks who contributed so while we're waiting for them to come in um Dr Gerardo can you um can you tell us I think you were talking to me about a possibility of um of working out some initiatives between el Tech de Monterrey and uh and the in the mayor's office here in San Antonio this information is very important too to the school read to meet uh this different man different optic but you have some question of the students can you see these questions I I don't think I can let me see let me see if I can oh that oh wait uh maybe in English you have four questions for Solomon oh whoops yeah all of that okay there are some of the questions we're gonna sorry touch on them at the end or if you're ready for questions uh now Dr Ben White well actually let me just quickly uh I just want to introduce you then to my colleagues uh also um um Guerrero is here and I'm so happy to see you thank you so much for joining us uh he is also uh leading our team so it's uh it's the four of us so far and um and so we're just very excited about the bicentennial um foreign foreign [Music] [Music] instruments [Music] Baghdad so so when it is sequence [Music] fundamental price indicuentes foreign thank you thank you well I I translated in the chat but I don't know if all the participants can see it so this is this is great thank you so much Antonio and I'm looking forward to our team we got an awesome team here um now uh what we want to do real quick before we open it up to questions is uh well here is the um here's here's the Museo nacionanda Las intervention is in Mexico City and they're talking about Cortina and playing the Korea so we're looking forward to teaming up with them but also I want everybody to see our uh QR code so those of you who might be interested in joining us um uh this may for his 199th birthday you can we'll we'll send you an invitation we will send you what the students curate uh and my student Santos mencio is building the website so we're all gonna figure out a plan to make Cortina the hottest thing in the U.S and Mexico so please uh please take a picture if you're interested um because this is the moment that um and THC has offered us and if we fail well we'll just keep building our list of uh and and and lighting our candles for the people who did risk their lives and here are some of them um to defend the United States and to defend Mexico from the expansionists so I really appreciate it so happy to have my team looking forward to adding all of you and let's have those questions Antonio we turn it back over to you awesome thank you Dr Van Horn we actually only have time for maybe one or two questions because we do have to end here at one um but we had someone asking what was cortina's view on the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo well he was heartbroken of course because uh it gave uh not only Texas to the U.S it gave tamolibus too because the area between the Nueces river that dumps out in Corpus and and the Rio Grande is so they're saying why are you taking time I'll leave us but that's how it happened so but he did appreciate that the rights were supposed to be respected the problem was that they weren't right and then the other question um was it ever difficult to read primary documents or understand what was being said while you were doing the research for this wow yes there's no typewriters ladies and gentlemen so so except for the Congressional records that was all nicely typed out but most of the stuff was handwritten but beautiful handwriting and you get the hang I'll share my students and I'll be sharing that with everybody some I think we have time for maybe just one more question as one uh I wanted to ask you I know you mentioned that he was upset about his mom being forced to sell the land for one dollar I remember hearing that was from his family's lawyer that he also had a grievance with is that correct absolutely and his brother-in-law who uh kind of strong-armed her into doing that in fact his brother-in-law was one of the ones on his list whom he had hoped to kill that night September 28th 1859 a lot of a lot of bad blood and weird stuff on those land deals as as a lot of people know yeah all right well thank you Dr Van Hoy the Texas historical Commission in Casa Navarro really appreciates the talk I hope all of y'all listening here today were able to get as much out of it as I was we hope to see y'all again at our next and our continuing webinars as well and Dr Van Hoya once again thank you to you and your colleagues for everything that you've done for us y'all take care and y'all have a great day thank you and thank you also to my colleagues for joining us and I hope we get all y'all big team thanks to Casa Navarro bye Antonio bye uh

Channel: Texas Historical Commission

Views: 1,033

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Id: v8kPUN4lvUo

Length: 58min 5sec (3485 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 27 2023