This past Thanksgiving we got a chance to travel to the Austin area for our annual family get together.
As is the case for most extended families in the state, some had to travel from Dallas, from Corpus Christi, and from the Rio Grande Valley.
Those of us from the valley passed through towns like Refugio, Goliad, and Gonzales, skirting Victoria on the way up.
Goliad is an especially interesting and intriguing place from whence to contemplate the writing of history in this state.Some of our readers have pointed out that in 1829, the name Goliad replaced the settlers there proposed the name La Bahía be changed to Goliad, believed to be an anagram of Hidalgo (omitting the silent initial "H"), in honor of the patriot priest Miguel Hidalgo, the father of Mexican War of Independence. The Spanish authorities granted it, apparenlty not catching on to the ruse.
In 1836, when Texans declared their revolution against Mexico, the Mexican garrison there had to pull up stakes and head toward the nearest Mexican town, that being Matamoros on the Rio Grande. Among those who fled for their safety was an infantryman in the garrison. He was Miguel G. Zaragoza, who along with his wife María de Jesús Seguín, had several children, including one Ignacio Zaragoza.
His mother was a niece of Erasmo Seguin, and a cousin of Juan Seguin, the Tejano revolutionary who fought for Texas Independence from Mexico.
Yup, that's the same Ignacio Zaragoza who would defeat the French at Puebla and whose victory is commemorated every Cinco de Mayo. Ignacio attended the school of San Juan in Matamoros. The elder Zaragoza was transferred to Monterrey in 1844, and Ignacio entered a seminary there.
Ignacio left the seminary to enter the military on the Liberal side.
There is very little left in Matamoros to recall his attending elementary school there, and there are in Laredo, Monterrey and Mexico City (not to mention Puebla) several monuments dedicated to remember his deed.
He died when he was 33 years old, one year after his defeat of the French at Puebla.
When you enter Goliad from the south, you will come across the General Zaragoza State Historical Park that was established near Goliad to commemorate Zaragoza's birthplace. In 1980 dignitaries from the United States, Texas, and Mexico participated in the dedication of a ten-foot bronze statue honoring Zaragoza. The statue was placed in Goliad State Historical Park.
I was explaining to my kids that the state park was dedicated to a man who was persecuted by the early army of the Texas revolution and whose father would probably have been killed on sight if they had caught him.
How was it, they asked, that someone like that would have a state park named in his honor?
History, I told them, sometimes gives us unusual occurrences, as in Zaragoza's case.
A little later we drove into Gonzales and I was asked to explain what the "hanging tree" in front of the county courthouse was.
Ah, but that's another story that will have to wait for a later time.
3 comments:
TSC has its own hanging tree behind Gorgas Hall (El arbol del Colgado). During Halloween (ghost season) people say they see ghosts of people that were hanged (supposed bandits) when the U.S. army had the post.
In Puebla de Zaragoza (official name of the state in Mexico, to honor Ignacio Zaragoza)the two forts in the battle of cinco de mayo, one is a museum and there is a very big statue of Zaragoza outside of the museum. He is regarded as a heroe among "poblanos". I didnt know that his mother was a Seguin. I wonder if there is any relation between her and Juan Seguin.
All history is controversial these days....with each ethnic, racial, familial, business and academic groups trying to have history reflect their controbutions....even if they contributed nothing or little. History has become like our language, it changes to suit the times and the groups who have influence. You, like others today want history to reflect your interests, prejudices and ethnocentric definitiion of history...based on today's culture; not the culture of the past.
At that time when the Spanish-Mexican colonists colonized that area they named it Goliath. The colony could not name it Hidalgo since it was forbidden by the Spanish Crown to utter the name of Hidalgo. So the Colonists named their Colony , Goliathd. It has all the letters of Hidalgo.. The Spaniards never caught on.
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