TEJANAS IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF SPANISH AND MEXICAN TEXAS, 1735-1836 A ...

207 Pages·2015·0.87 MB·English

by  Marc A Gladman, Rincones, Cassandra

CONFRONTING THE UNKNOWN: TEJANAS IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF
SPANISH AND MEXICAN TEXAS, 1735-1836

A Dissertation
by
CASSANDRA RINCONES

Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of
Texas A&M University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Chair of Committee, Carlos Blanton
Committee Members, Cynthia Bouton
Kate Carté Engel
April Hatfield
Thomas Green
Head of Department, David Vaught

May 2015

Major Subject: History

Copyright 2015 Cassandra Rincones
ABSTRACT

Confronting the Unknown: Tejanas in the Transformation of Spanish and
Mexican Texas, 1735-1836 sheds light on Tejana legal and social roles in this
tumultuous period. Despite great strides in the field of Borderlands history in recent
years the field surprisingly lacks studies on women in early Texas. My goal is to help fill
that void by illustrating women’s roles during the construction of and transition between
empire to republic. Past studies place women in an overall narrative that includes them
as a minor element to colonial life in Texas. My study places women at the center of the
narrative, uncovering the major contributions they made to the Spanish and Mexican
frontier. In addition, I argue that Tejanas exerted a great deal of agency on the edge of
Spanish and Mexican society. Using court records I show that Tejanas were active
participants in the legal sphere of colonial life.
These sources reveal that Tejanas exercised more economic and political
freedom under Spanish and Mexican control then they did under the Republic of Texas.
They owned property, sued in court, and petitioned the government for land grants under
the Spanish and Mexican governments. Among these legal rights, land grants in
particular allowed Tejanas to aid in the establishment of a permanent presence on the
frontier and thus aided the Spanish and Mexican government in imperial expansion.
Because of these rights, Tejanas became strong matriarchs in a patriarchal dominated
society. Their position in society, however, changed dramatically when they became
Texas citizens. As Anglo Americans immigrated into Texas in large numbers, Tejanas
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appeared less in courts and conformed to the accepted Anglo American legal codes that
had been practiced in the United States that were unwelcoming to women. Anglo
American racist attitudes ultimately took a toll on the previous social hierarchy, forcing
Tejanos and Tejanas into second-class citizenship. Despite these circumstances, Tejanas
persisted and contributed greatly to the development of Texas.

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DEDICATION

For the loves of my life—Joe, Caley, and Christian

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Carlos Blanton, and my committee
members, Dr. Cynthia Bouton, Dr. Kate Carté-Engel, Dr. April Hatfield, and Dr.
Thomas Green for their guidance and support throughout the course of this research. I
would also like to thank Dr. Lisa Y. Ramos for her advice and suggestions for this work.
Thanks also go to my friends and colleagues and the History department faculty and
staff for making my time at Texas A&M University a great experience. I would like to
thank my colleagues in the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities at Lone Star
College-Kingwood for their words of encouragement and support as well. A special
thanks goes out to Blanca Nieves who helped me with the translations of the Spanish
documents. Thank you to Dr. Trinidad Gonzales who not only gave me words of
encouragement throughout the years, but also offered invaluable suggestions (in
particular Chapter Four). There is no way this work could have been completed without
the help of my dear friend, Naomi Lockwood, who not only edited several versions of
these chapters, but also provided the much-needed laughs through the stressful times! I
am in your debt.
I was fortunate enough to receive several fellowships that allowed me to
complete the coursework, research and writing of this dissertation. I would like to extend
my sincere gratitude to the following: Texas A&M University History Department for its
awarding of a three year Diversity Fellowship and various travel grants, the Texas State
Historical Association for the Catarino and Evangelina Hernández Fellowship in Latino
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History, the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute from Texas A&M University for its RESI
Fellowship, the Center for Humanities Research at TAMU for a Melbern G. Glasscock
Research Matching Grant, and Lone Star College for the Chancellor Dissertation
Research Grant. Thanks to the staff at the Center for American History in Austin (in
particular Mr. John Wheat, whom I never met in person but always took the time to
email with answers to all my questions!), and Dr. David C. Carlson at the Spanish
Archives at the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio.
I would also like to take a moment to give thanks to a couple of special friends,
Dan and Susan Beaver for their friendship over the years. I appreciate all your help with
the kids! I am so lucky to have friends like you guys. Also, a big thanks to Delma Ramos
and John Paul Anguiano for letting me crash in their guest room while I did research in
Austin. I will never forget your kindness and love (and for the reminiscing and eating
good Austin food)! Thank you to Henrietta Rincones who helped me with the kids more
times than I can count! Words cannot express my gratitude to you all.
A final thanks to my family, especially to my mother and father, Maria A. Leal
and Carlos Sauceda; to my brothers and sister, especially my brother Chuck who made
countless trips with me from College Station to the Valley and back. Thank you big
brother! And last but not least, thank you to my husband Joe and our wonderful children,
Caley and Christian, for their patience, sacrifice, and love (and Grover and Chelly, our
dogs, whom my daughter demanded I include).
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................ii
DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW ................................... 1
Sources ........................................................................................................................... 6
Secondary Sources/Historiographical Essay ................................................................ 11
CHAPTER II TEJANA LAND GRANTS: GENDER AND THE BUILDING OF
AN EMPIRE .................................................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER III TEJANAS IN THE COURT .................................................................... 59
Wills ............................................................................................................................. 71
Outstanding Debts ........................................................................................................ 85
Military Pensions.......................................................................................................... 87
CHAPTER IV TEJANA AGENCY IN A PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY ......................... 93
Challenges to Patriarchy............................................................................................... 95
CHAPTER V TEJANOS IN THE TEXAS REVOLUTION ......................................... 120
Before the Revolution ................................................................................................ 123
Immigration ................................................................................................................ 135
The Texas Revolution ................................................................................................ 137
CHAPTER VI THE TEJANO FAMILY ....................................................................... 151
The Family ................................................................................................................. 152
American Immigration and Marriage ......................................................................... 157
The Impact on the Tejano Family .............................................................................. 171
CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 181
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REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 190

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

As a student of history I have always been most intrigued by the history of
American colonialism and the early republic. There is something about the creation of
the United States that strikes a cord with me. The trials and tribulations of the republic in
its beginning fascinate me. My passion for history lies in the exploration of those
narratives which reveal the story of early American development. The whole of colonial
American early republic history speaks to me and who I am. In perhaps less obvious
ways, this has spurred interest in my own roots. I am also fascinated in where Mexican
Americans fit into this national origin story.
As I studied the early republic period, I looked closely at the role women played
in the building of the republic. Mary Beth Norton’s Liberty’s Daughters and Linda
Kerber’s Women of the Republic, Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America
showed me that the women of the Revolutionary era were instrumental in the creation,
success, and implementation of the principles of the Constitution in the early republic. In
terms of historiography, Norton’s work introduces women as a part of the revolution
itself and argues that women redefined their roles using the tools afforded to them. This
primarily centered on family life, including the rearing of children and domesticity.
Norton further argues that in eighteenth century America, the roles of women and men
1
1
were clearly defined by their sex. She argues that women’s roles were contingent on
men’s public place in society and thus relegated to a confined, feminine, and private
sphere. Previous scholars had argued that women were virtually “equal partners within
2
the home;” Norton proves otherwise in her groundbreaking work.
Kerber’s work, published shortly after Norton’s, argues that women responded to
the new revolutionary situations by reinventing themselves as “political character[s]”
who were also mothers in the early republic. “This new identity,” Kerber asserts, “had
the advantage of appearing to reconcile politics and domesticity; it justified continued
3
political education and political sensibility.” Regardless of how Norton and Kerber each
saw women in the revolutionary period, both reveal that women’s roles were vital to the
success of the early republic. Both look at women’s personal experiences in their own
words as opposed to previous scholars who instead evaluated how men saw women.
Norton and Kerber both make clear that women did in fact create new roles for
themselves as a part of the citizenry of the new nation.
As I also studied the history of Texas, particularly during its Spanish colonial and
Mexican republic phases, I could not help but see some major similarities to this familiar

1
Mary Beth Norton. Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800.
(Boston-Toronto: Little, Brown, and Company, 1980), p. xviii.
2
Ibid., p. xviii.
3
Linda Kerber. Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. (Williamsburg,
Virginia: University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1980), p. 12.
2