Tejano Tiger: Jose de los Santos Benavides and the Texas-Mexico Borderlands, 1823-1891

by Jerry Thompson

Overview

Riding the rough and sometimes bloody peaks and canyons of border politics, Santos Benavides’s rise to prominence was largely the result of the careful mentoring of his well-known uncle, Basilio Benavides, who served several terms as alcalde of Laredo, Texas, and Chief Justice of Webb County. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Basilio was one of only two Tejanos in the state legislature. During Santos’s lifetime, five flags flew over the small community he called home—that of the Republic of Mexico, the ill-fated Republic of the Rio Grande, the Republic of Texas, an expansionist United States, and in March 1861, the rebellious Confederate States of America. It was under the Confederacy in the disputed Texas-Mexico borderlands that Santos Benavides reached the pinnacle of his military career as the highest-ranking Tejano in the entire Confederate army. In the decades that followed the Civil War, he became an esteemed political leader, highly respected on both sides of the border. This is the first scholarly study of this important historical figure.

At the pinnacle of his political career in 1879, Benavides held the distinction of being the only Tejano in the Texas legislature. Through strife, sweat, blood, and heroism in defense of the border, Benavides rose to economic and political heights few could dream of. As a friend and confidant of two Mexican presidents, he was one of the single most influential individuals in the nineteenth-century history of the border. His life was one of enduring perseverance as well as binational leadership and skilled diplomacy. He was without doubt the single most important individual in the long and often violent history of Laredo. The niche he carved in the tumultuous transnational history of the Texas-Mexico borderlands seems secure.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875654072
Publisher:	TCU Press
Publication date:	02/24/2017
Series:	The Texas Biography Series
Pages:	414
Sales rank:	961,507
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

JERRY D. THOMPSON is Regents Professor of History at Texas A&M International University in Laredo. Thompson is recipient of numerous awards and honors from the Arizona Historical Society, Historical Society of New Mexico, and the Texas State Historical Association. Thompson received his BA in history from Western New Mexico University, his MA in history from the University of New Mexico, and his doctorate in history from Carnegie Mellon University. He is past president of TSHA. 

Table of Contents

Editor's Foreword vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Chapter I Revolutions Without End 5

Chapter II "Mexico Has Lost Laredo Forever." 35

Chapter III Secession and Civil War 80

Chapter IV Cotton and Blood 135

Chapter V Forsaken Corner of the Confederacy 159

Chapter VI Peacemaking on the Border 208

Chapter VII Ballots and Bullets 230

Chapter VIII Beyond the Memory of Living Men 279

Chapter IX International Diplomat 311

Epilogue 325

Notes 333

Bibliography 379

Index 393

Interviews

Laredo, TX