El Rrun-Rrun graphic. We thank Dr. Marie Theresa Hernández, PhD Professor University of Houston • World Cultures & Literatures Program Department of Modern & Classical Languages, for sending us a copy of the letter by Jose Antonio Navarro.
Navarro was born in 1795 in San Antonio de Béxar, at a time when Texas was still part of the Spanish colonial empire, and he would go on to live through Spanish rule, Mexican independence, the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas, and Texas statehood — witnessing and shaping nearly every major political transformation of the region in a single lifetime.
He was also one of only two native-born Texans of Mexican descent to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836, a decision that placed him at profound personal risk given his deep roots in Tejano society and his extended family connections throughout Mexico.
Cortina left Brownsville only 13 hours after his takeover September 28, 1859 at the urging of the Mexican military detachment in Matamoros – some of who were his relatives – after killing five Brownsville residents, including Peter Neale, son of Brownsville mayor William Neale, who he accused of murdering Mexicans and still walking free in the city with impunity. 
Navarro wrote Cortina that he had heard of his raid on Brownsville and told him that he understood his anger, but urged him to reconsider his quest for vengeance, counseling him that his revolution was "without object, without moral or physical force, destitute of any hope of success or glory..."
He sent his son Angel Navarro to deliver the letter to Cortina and a copy of it sent to Governor (General) Sam Houston. 
Navarro wrote that he had heard of several reasons for Cortina to have staged the takeover of the city looking for his enemies, but that one reason seemed to him to be his main drive and that it was "mainly a local disturbance, a matter of personal vengeance on his part and his followers, provoked by a few evil and malevolent (white) Americans of Brownsville, and "in my view, I have never believed that a man (like you) of good sense, noble, and obedient Mexican adopted son of this country (USA)" would launch such an enterprise.
Navarro's appeal to Cortina was soon overtaken by events that saw Houston send the Texas Rangers who were routed by Cortina and it wasn't until December 27, 1859 – two months after the September raid – that Major Samuel Heintzelman and the U.S. Army with a Texas Ranger detachment under John (RIP) Ford battled him in Rio Grande City and drove him into Mexico that the first Cortina War ended.
Navarro's life story complicates simple narratives about Texas history, showing a Tejano statesman deeply committed to Texas independence and statehood while remaining proud of his Mexican heritage throughout his entire life. His letter to Cortina shows that he considered Cortina and himself "adoptive" sons of the fledgling United States and he urged his compatriot to overlook the evil elements among the white men who were entering the country and place his hopes on the majority of Americans.
"Every once in a while there appear malevolent and avaricious speculators and imps whose thirst for the acquisition of lands that they could not acquire with their industry or good services to their country leads them to be evil persecutors of honest (Mexican) citizens who are illiterate and cannot defend their rights. Pero Señor Juan Nepomuceno, that class of evil men has noting in common with" the laws and good will of most Americans...
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