TEXAN-BORN ZARAGOZA WAS HERO OF CINCO DE MAYO AT PUEBLA AGAINST FRENCH WHEN ONLY 33

By Juan Montoya

Few people realize it, but the man who is revered by Mexicans and U.S. Hispanics in celebrations all over the world on May 5th was actually born in present-day Texas.

Ignacio Zaragoza, known as the general who defeated the French army at Puebla, Mexico, was born in January 14, 1829 to Capt. Miguel Zaragoza and his wife Maria de Jesus Seguin in the Bahia del Espiritu Santo. The site is near present-day Matagorda Bay, between Houston and Corpus Christi.

In fact, the State of Texas has included his birthplace in the Goliad State Park and the house where Zaragoza was actually born is still standing.

At the time, the Presidio de la Bahia del Espiritu Santo was approximately 900 miles from the Mexican capital and was part of the state of Texas-Coahuila. It must have seemed like the edge of the world to the young couple.

With fierce Comanches as neighbors and an incipient Texas Republic in the offing, the Zaragozas stay in Texas was relatively brief. When Ignacio was four, his family moved to Matamoros, and then moved on to Nuevo Leon.

In fact, Ignacio attended The San Juan elementary school in Matamoros, although little is known about his stay there. A street bears his name in Matamoros, but apart from that, there is little to indicate the hero of Puebla lived there.

Ingeniero Clemente Rendon, past director of the Casa Mata Museum, said few records were kept at the time.

"We do know that he lived here with his family and studied in the local schools," Rendon said. "But that’s about it."

Yolanda Gonzalez, ther former curator of the John Hunter Room for Historical Research at the University of Texas Library, said Zaragoza’s family originally came from Monterrey, where many of the settlers of the South Texas area originated. In fact, she said that the Nuevo Leon city was the launching point for many Mexican families who lived in then-Mexican Texas.

"When Texas declared itself a republic, the lives of the settlers were in danger and many of them left fearing reprisals from the new authorities," Rendon said. "It’s logical that the Zaragozas would come to Matamoros since it was the biggest city around the area," he said.

When the family moved to Monterrey, Ignacio entered the seminary, a traditional haven for young men who saw the church as a way to a profession.

However, he interrupted his clerical studies to enter commerce. He worked for Felipe Sepulveda, a prominent Monterrey grocer. However, his life as a store clerk was cut short when, in answer to the invasion of U.S. troops into Mexico, he joined the Mexican national guard.

While a member of the guard, he attained the rank of captain and was stationed in Victoria, Tamaulipas, the capital of the state. Later, one of Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana’s usurpations of the national presidency drew Zaragoza into the regular army and he served under the liberal generals who adhered to the constitution defended by Benito Juarez.

During the battles that followed, Zaragoza distinguished himself as a brave and able officer and he soon attained the rank of colonel. Soon, his performance on the battlefield and his knowledge of military tactics earned him the confidence and respect of his superiors.

In the Battle of Silao in 1855, Zaragoza – then only 25 – played a defining role in the Liberal’s victory. That battle is recognized as one of the bloodiest of the War of Reform. Zaragoza knew what stakes were in play in the three-year conflict.

At the heart of the civil war was the dispute between the constitutionalists who wanted the laws of reform followed, and the conservatives, who wanted to hold on to power. The church, a powerful institution, backed the conservatives.

Clerics feared the state would carry out the separation of church and state called for in the reformed constitution and financed the conservatives in their quest to retain their power.

The "Guerra de Tres Años," as the conflict is also known, started in 1857 when interim President Ignacio Comonfort refused to relinquish power and uphold the precepts of the constitution.

In battle after bloody battle, the liberals moved toward the Mexican capital as the conservatives delayed their progress by inciting peasants to battle the "devil-driven" liberals.

In one of these battles, General Jesus Gonzalez Ortega took ill with fever. The Battle of Guadalajara was to mark an important turning point in the war. The city – which lay between the Liberal Army and the capital – was an important tactical site and the conservatives fought hard to deny them a victory.

Gonzalez-Ortega chose Zaragoza over higher-ranking officers to lead the assault against the city. The Liberal siege of the city lasted for weeks and saw hand-to-hand combat in the city’s streets. Time and time again the Liberals charged only to be driven back by the determined defenders. With typhoid fever raging through the city, the weary defenders finally succumbed to Zaragoza’s Ejercito del Centro and ask for a truce that would allow them to retreat and abandon the city.

A truce was worked out and the defeated army was allowed to depart. But another surprise awaited the Liberal soldiers. Unbeknownst to them, another conservative army had arrived in the outskirts of the city and the two armies met at a bridge to the city.

Zaragoza’s army would not be denied their victory and the conservatives were defeated.

Now, before them, the road to the capital lay waiting. The date was December 22, 1860.

Gathering their forces, the Liberals organized around San Miguelito. They faced an army of 8,000 well-equipped men with supplies bought for them by frightened church prelates and clergy. They had at their disposal several dangerous artillery pieces.

The task of defending the most vulnerable site on the battle field was assigned to young Ignacio, then only 31. He was given the task of defending the hills overlooking the battle. If the high ground was lost, the result could very well decide the war between the Liberals and Conservatives – and the future of Mexico.

He did not falter. Bearing the brunt of the attack, Zaragoza’s troops held the hills as the enemy’s troops fought for their survival. Bloody and fierce clashes occured where the defenders of the hills foiled the attacks and Zaragoza aided his fellow generals to execute the battle plan.

Against this united effort, the "young valiant," as he is called in Mexican history books, gave honor to his name. His troops held. The Liberals prevailed. The next day, the defeated conservative generals came to secure guarantees for their remaining troops and officers.

With the city their for the taking, the Liberal armies gathered to enter it. General Gonzalez-Ortega, on December 25 – Christmas Day – ordered one of his generals and an escort to enter the city and assure of a peaceful takeover. The general he chose for this honor – and great risk– was Ignacio Zaragoza.

Thus, it is that on that day when the constitutionalist forces of Benito Juarez took the city, the man leading the takeover force was the same who was born a scant 32 years before in the rolling hills of Goliad, Texas.

On January 1, 1861, Benito Juarez and his constitutionalist armies joined Zaragoza in the city. Later in April, Juarez named him minister of War of Mexico. By then he was 33 years old.

He was to be tested again, but this time it would be by seasoned French troops who had entered the country under the pretense of getting debts repaid to their country. Having heard that the French had started their march toward Mexico City, Zaragoza led his troops to meet the most feared imperial army in the world of the day.

He left behind a gravely ill wife he would never see again.

On the hills of Puebla and the plains below, Zaragoza and his army withstood and defeated the French troops. For half a day, the soldiers repelled the charges of the imperial soldiers and left the field in victory.

"The national arms have been covered with glory," he wrote Juarez after the May 5th battle for Puebla.

Four months later, Ignacio Zaragoza died of typhoid fever. His victory, however, remains celebrated to this day.