A Gringo in Rural Mexico: Contemplations and Honours to one of the Top Ten of Texas

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Contemplations and Honours to one of the Top Ten of Texas

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Colonel Juan Nepomuceno Seguin's
Alamo Defenders' Burial Oration
delivered in San Antonio
25th February 1837

Eulogy published in the
Telegraph and Texas Register
of Columbia (later Houston), Texas April 4, 1837

"Companions in Arms!! These remains which we have the honour of carrying

on our shoulders are those of the valiant heroes who died in the Alamo.

Yes, my friends, they preferred to die a thousand times rather than submit

themselves to the tyrant's yoke. What a brilliant example! Deserving of being

noted in the pages of history. The spirit of liberty appears to be looking out

from its elevated throne with its pleasing mien, pointing to us, and saying:

"There are your brothers, Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and others whose valour

places them in the rank of my heroes." Yes soldiers and fellow citizens, these

are the worthy beings who, by the twists of fate, during the present campaign

delivered their bodies to the ferocity of their enemies; who, barbarously

treated as beasts, were bound by their feet and dragged to this spot, where

they were reduced to ashes. The venerable remains of our worthy

companions as witnesses, I invite you to declare to the entire world, "Texas

shall be free and independent or we shall perish in glorious combat."

Colonel Juan N. Seguin, Commandant
San Antonio, Bexar, Texas
Army of the Republic of Texas

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The term, Alamo de Parras, meaning "Cottonwood Tree of the Grapevines" was appropriate to the area at the time, and was one of the steadily evolving common, vernacular names of what would later become San Antonio, Texas. Almost all the barely spring-fed creeks in that area of Central Texas have stands of cottonwoods right up to the creek's edge. Then there are large cypress trees, along the standard flood line, and then walnut and pecans, growing wild, and backed by bramble and low growth. This low growth and the middling high trees would almost always be draped with skirts of wild mustang grapes that were used by Indians and then by the Spanish colonists for the making of a pretty fair wine. Mustang grapes can be adapted, after some effort, to a predictable husbandry, and they seem to enjoy the extremes of climate provided by Central Texas...very hot, very cold, very dry, very wet. Crummy rocky soil, but what there is can be very, very fertile is another characteristic of the geography of the area around the Balcones Escarpment, upon which San Antonio is situated.

The Sequin family was ensconced in the Walnut Springs Creek area, about 28 miles to the east of "downtown San Antonio" and they were well known in the San Antonio community. Juan's mother was from the very prominent Becerra family that had lived in and around San Antonio, as ranchers, for four generations. That was no mean task for those days. (As an aside, Becerra translated to the English means "heifer".)

After the establishment of an independent Mexico during the 1821 - 1822 period, various of the elements of previous Spanish military and civilian order simply took up their morning chores and military and civilian duties as the only source of stability and continuity in the northernmost outpost of the new nation's northeasternmost extensions.

Juan Sequin would become a fixture there and in adjacent places called La Bahia del Espiritu Santo and Goliad (The Bay of the Holy Ghost and Goliath) near what is in a triangle bounded by Goliad - Victoria - Central Gulf Coast of Texas. His social life would forever intertwine him with the names of Gonzalez, Navarro, and especially Zaragoza that were prominent in that area and also to a lesser extent up to and near San Antonio de Bexar. He married in 1825 at the age of 19....was known to be a literate person...a musician...and a hard worker.

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ACCOMPLISHMENTS

of a

True Texas Hero

1834 - - Appointed Territorial Governor (Jefe Politico) of Texas.

1834 - - Being the first to organize opposition to Gen. Santa Anna by preparing a circular inviting citizens to take part in a Texas Constitutional Convention.

1835 - - Appointed to the rank of Captain in the Texas Army by Commander and Chief Stephen F. Austin: Captain Seguin recruited fighters to defend against the invasion of Santa Anna's army; Juan Seguin personally provide his own troops with horses, food and shelter.

1835 - - Battle of Gonzales erupted over possession of a cannon wanted returned by Mexican troops; Gonzales citizens challenged the troops to "Come and Take It." They then used it to fire the first shot of the Revolution.

1835 - - Juan Seguin fought alongside Jim Bowie in the Battle of Concepcion; then rushed to join the Grass Fight south of San Antonio in an effort to slow the pace of Centralist forces coming to establish a non-representative government.

1835 - - Siege of Bejar - Captain Seguin with his 160 Tejano ranchers and Texas volunteers attacked Gen. Perfecto de Cos troops then in control of San Antonio in a crucial battle that signaled no turning back by Texas freedom fighters.

1836 - - The advance guard of Santa Anna's troops was sighted near San Antonio which alerted the small detachment of defenders to quickly regroup on the grounds of the Alamo: Once there, the small unit of Texans immediately prepared their defense of the mission against the attacking troops of Gen. Perfecto de Cos that were soon to be dramatically increased by the much larger forces of General Santa Anna.

1836 - - The Siege of the Alamo commenced; Captain Seguin defended the mission alongside Crockett, Travis, and Bowie until ordered by Colonel Travis to break through Mexican Centralists' Army's lines in search of additional Texian troops.

1836 - - The Fall of the Alamo occurred while Captain Seguin was following his orders to ride to Goliad in search of reinforcements from the troops of Colonel Fannin.

1836 - - He next rushed to warn and help defend Texas citizens fleeing from the path of the Mexican Centralist Army during the ensuing Runaway Scrape.

1836 - - Captain Seguin commanded the Cavalry Company of the 2nd Regiment during the Texians' victory over Santa Anna Army at San Jacinto; soon after that brief struggle, he was ordered by General Sam Houston to enforce the orderly withdrawal ofGeneral Lopez de Santa Anna's troops from Texas.

1836 - - Captain Seguin with his army re-entered San Antonio to accept the surrender of the Mexican Centralist forces there under the command of Lt. Col. Francisco Castaneda, the same officer involved in the opening skirmish over the cannon at Gonzales.

1836 - - He was promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel by Republic of Texas President David Burnet, who expressed special trust in the courage, patriotism, and ability of Juan N. Seguin.

1837 - - He successfully appealed to his friend, Sam Houston, to rescind a prior military order to destroy San Antonio by fire, thus earning Colonel Seguin the respect for saving that city.

1837 - - Ordered by Sam Houston to bury the remains of the Alamo defenders, Colonel Seguin provided the martyrs with a Christian burial including full military honours.

1839 - - Senator Juan N. Seguin presented a bill that established a mail route from Austin to San Antonio.

1839 - - Colonel Seguin was honored by the citizens of Walnut Springs who voted to change the name of their community to Seguin because of his service to Texas during its heroic struggle for Independence.

1837 - 1840 - - The Biographical Directory of the Texas Conventions and Congresses states that Juan Seguin was an elected member of the Senate of the Republic of Texas 2nd, 3rd and 4th Congresses; Senator Seguin's legacy includes his strong leadership for adoption of a bill requiring all of the Laws of the Republic of Texas to be written in both English and Spanish. Senator Seguin held high his views that the Republic's law should protect all citizens and that there can be no doubt as to the rights an individual enjoys, and equally important what his responsibilities are, as a citizen of Texas.

January 19, 1840. Austin was selected as the official capital. Col. Seguin was on the joint Senate and House Committee to select the site for the Capitol of Texas which was named for his bosom friend Stephen F. Austin, It is related that the committee killed buffalo for their food while camped to locate the site for the capital of Texas.

1841 - - Juan Seguin is elected Mayor of San Antonio.

1842- - After considerable harassment by newly arriving, mainly German settlers, coupled with death threats against his family, Seguin leaves to Mexico, and resides in the Rio Grande area with relatives, from Laredo to Reynosa. He is arrested and given a choice between being jailed for treason against Mexico or serving in the Army against Indian depredations and possible Texian counter-offensives. He joins the Army and winds up serving in the Christmas Battle of Mier, where Gen. Pedro Ampudia and Seguin defeat a Texian force after a two-day battle, known in Texas as "The Black Bean Expedition". Later Seguin served in the Mexican defence in front of American Generals Taylor and Worth during their march to Monterrey in the Mexican War of 1847-1848.

1850- -Seguin returns to Texas and is restored to his possessions and rights of citizenship. He returns to business as usual.

1852 - - Won election as Bexar County Justice of the Peace; re-elected for a second term two years later.

1869 - - Elected Wilson County Judge.

1874 - - Juan Seguin was declared a hero of the Texas War for Independence by the Texas Legislature and provided a lifetime pension by the state. With this pension, his age, and complications during the 10 years of Military Governor Edmund Davis's brutal Reconstruction administration, and due to his bad treatment because of his service to the Confederacy as a elected civilian officer and as a reserve officer in the Partisan Rangers, Juan decided to return back to his remaining relatives in Laredo. He would return to visit various friends at times, but spent his remaining days writing his recollections, explaining his life's decisions to people who wrote or visited him, and living comfortably with his assets and his Texas pension for service during the War against C. Gen. Presidente Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, (war criminal extraordinaire) and the Mexican Centralists, the majority of whom were patriots in their own wrought and right, doing a job they felt needed be done.

1890 - - Juan Seguin dies in Laredo, Tamaulipas at the age of 84.

1974 - - The remains of Juan Seguin, Hero of the Battle of San Jacinto, are returned to Seguin, Texas and interred with all honours, and to this day his Spirit receives visitors from friends, relatives, and those interested in the life of this brave...and in ways at times hard to understand...and very loyal Friend of Texas.

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This is enough to digest. It depresses, as well as inspires, as well as comforts an old Texan to know that there was another fellow who was dealt some hands whose cards had a lot of low numbers. But he was very much a man of honour....who protected his family first....and always considered himself a Texan. I bear no rancour against him, only respect and a preference that all should deal with his life and legacy in a positive way. He truly was integral in the 13 Days of Glory, and the 22 minutes of retribution that would take place a month and three weeks after the Fall of the Alamo, in a place called San Jacinto.

El Gringo Viejo

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Click to visit our little Adobe Hideaway…

This is our rustic, but very comfortable place, out in the rural area to the northwest of Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas…the State's Capital. From a bustling city of 400,000, we placed our domicile a bit more than 20 miles into the scenes of mountains, citrus groves, spring-fed creeks and rivers with crystal clear waters, and an abundance of bird species that make veteran birders shake their heads in wonder.

We are all but adjacent to the venerable Hacienda de Santa Engracia (about 500 yards away), which dates to the 1720s and has ancient structures still in use, very elegant, and mystical in many ways. It has operated as a guest hotel since the 1970s.

Our little place rests on three and a fraction acres, fronting on the Rio Corona, which is lined with over-1,000 year old cypress trees. The nearby Sierra del Cautivo…a major segment of the overall Sierra Madre Oriental that dominate most of eastern Mexico, lies to the west by about three miles. guards the many springs that maintain the almost perpetual flow from those heights (up to 12,000 fasl) while our place is situated right at 1,000 feet above sea level.

Give us a call, come by and visit…it is truly a different venture in the most positive sense. We can be reached by our email - privatouring@gmail.com - which is our preferred method of communicating.

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What is an OROG?

Once a person lands on our page, that individual becomes a member of the Order of Readers of the Old Gringo, (OROG). There are no dues or assessments to pay, no meetings, no requirements. We are not associated with the KKK, the WCTU, the French Masons, or the Global Warming Glacier

Protection Committee.

We do have a distant connection with the Knights of the Golden Circle and hold the maps to the internment sites of 34 tonnes of Confederate Gold, and 1,000 tonnes of Mexican Imperial Silver (bar and coinage) derived from the collapse of the Reign of Maximillian von Hapsburg, Emperor of Mexico (1863 - 1867). I think we can remember where we put it.

All kidding aside, we are acerbic, but we do not bite. We do believe in our antiquated philosophy, but we try to not impose our quirks and beliefs so far as to be disrespectful.

El Gringo Viejo

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Wise Words

Communism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Winston Churchill

oooooooooo

Be sure you are right, then go ahead.

I bark at no man's bid. I will never come and go, fetch and carry, at the whistle of the Great Man in the White House, no matter who he is.

I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done. But, if such was not to be, then you may all go to Hell, and I shall go to Texas!

David Crockett

oooooooooo

And on and on it goes. The more the Government gives away, the more it takes, and the less Americans do for themselves, until finally, like Europe, there is nobody left to do anything, and there is nobody left to pay for, the nothing that is not done.

And, yes, Virginia, there truly is a Santa Clause, and he and Mrs. Clause and their helpers care greatly for the good children of the Planet. So long as there is happiness, kindness, charity, generosity, and the Spirit of Fellowship, Santa Clause will be there, representing those noble things, and he will always move in a spiritual way so as to provoke humankind to goodness.

El Gringo Viejo

oooooooooo

“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”

Booker Tallaferro Washington

oooooooooo

It is impossible to make a poor man rich by making a rich man poor.

Abraham Lincoln

oooooooooo

El Gringo Viejo: a fair description

Life for El Gringo Viejo began on the Texas-Mexico frontier, near McAllen, Texas literally on a real, live farm. The farmer, as one might imagine, was his father, who had moved with his parents from Gwinner, Sargent County, North Dakota in 1915 - 1916 period, down to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. (And yes, Virginia, that is the way Sargent County is spelled.)

His parents farmed in an area close to the new community named after its founder, called Ed Couch, in Hidalgo County of Texas. My grandfather is buried in the Weslaco Municipal Cemetery about 10 feet away from his friend, Ed Couch.

After studies, and a stint in the 1st Cavalry, 12th Regiment (mounted), Headquarters Squadron of the United States Army...riding warhorses back and forth along the Rio Grande from the late 1920s and early 1930s. He did not speak much about his service, but we determined that he apparently made rank of 1st Lieutenant.

El Gringo Viejo's Father established his farming and citrus grove-care operation just north of McAllen, Texas. Mother was a housewife and a professional woman....a learned, eloquent, well-read woman.

They were educated people, my father winding up as a Superintendent of a major school/facility of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation in Austin, Texas after a twenty year career in education at the secondary level. He had degrees in History, Psychology, and Education Administration.

El Gringo Viejo is the last of three children, all males. Number one was Milton Birchard, Jr. who was born in 1936 and died in a vehicular incident in 1988. He was narcoleptic. He held a doctorate in geography from Louisiana State University and was head of the Department there for a good while.

Number two is Norman Francis, who was born during the WWII situation in 1942 and became an important Republican political engineer and fundraiser. He served as Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas during the late 1960s and early 1970s and as Senator John G. Tower's immediate Executive Assistant. The Senator is the Godfather of Norman's first son.

Norman died at age 77 in Austin, Texas and I was one of four eulogists who was chosen to speak at his en memoriam at the Austin Club in downtown most Austin…within sight of the State Capitol.

It was a personal duty and very rewarding

in every way.

My arrival was in 1947, and I was destined to confound my parents and all those around me. Educated entirely in public schools in McAllen, skipping the third grade, and stumbling out of my high school in the upper 90% of a class of 606. I

attended and graduated from Southwest Texas State University (now named Texas State University, unfortunately), being one of the few conservatives to graduate out of the School of Sociology, although my treatment at the hands of my tormentor-professors was not so unpleasant in those days. Emphasis of studies were social demography, and Latin American Affairs with a concentration on Mexico's history and current political evolution, with a minors in History, Geography, and Political Science.

El Gringo Viejo is one of the old, unreconstructed high-church Episcopalians. Politically, he is very fundamentally conservative. He prefers Baseball to football, and considers that baseball with a designated hitter for the pitcher should be called "poofy-ball". Favourite major league team of all times? The Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s. It will never be the same again.
El Gringo Viejo's father was born to a Hudson Valley-type girl and a man who had lost two older brothers who served in the Pennsylvania 96th Regiment of Volunteer Infantry during the War Between the States.

The surnamed line (Newton) originated from East Anglia, not far from a place called Washington in northeastern England. They came into Boston Harbour, Massachusetts in 1642 (the 1st voyage of the Mayflower had overbooked), and settled there and in Maine as well as spreading out to Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania, over the generations for the first 220 years.
Another batch of folks, mainly Anglo, settled in the middle Hudson Valley. There was another group of Celto-Teutonics types from Saxony and Prussia, establishing and settling along the Hudson River from around what is Catskill County northward to Duchess and Rennselaer Counties around a place named Red Hook. The main group came in during the early 1650s.

My mother's people were another English line of long-term Southern and Tennessee people, from the Eastern part of that State, who originally came in during the 1660s through Virginia and North Carolina, and finally into Eastern Tennessee, settling in and around a county to be named Franklin, and helping to establish the city of Winchester. Almost all of these people originated from southwestern England, near the frontier with Wales.

Only recently did we verify that she had many people involved in the service of the Confederacy. One died in northern Mississippi, another Captain Asa Grant, 2nd Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, was severely wounded and succumbed to his wounds finally in 1869, and another hung around in an Ohio POW camp (Camp Chase) for about 13 months, while three others were either wounded or died in action, including David Limbaugh, Lieutenant, 42 Tennessee Infantry. Another five made it through relatively unscathed.

Almost all were, oddly enough, related to the great-grand uncles and gggg-grandfathers down to gg-grandfathers of Rush Limbaugh. The gggg-grandfather came into the Colonies in the early 1740s from a Prussia and Saxony background, and served in both civilian and military capacities to the Continental government and Army. He was the XO of a Militia Battalion of 3,000 Pennsylvania effectives. They honed their military readiness under the supervision of Gen. von Steuben and someone named Washington at some place called Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

A grandson of his, Isaac, settled in Tennessee after the War for Independence against King George III. So Rush and I share grandfathers, four generations deep on the American Continent.

It should be stated here that were I to be called to declare, my allegiance would still be with the Southern Cause, although I bear no rancor against those who feel the same about their instinct to maintain the Union. Oddly enough, both my mother (a Southerner) and my father (a true Yankee by blood) believed that we would have remained closer if we had separated, and each side gone the ways of their own yearning, but amicably.

The last of the English (El Gringo Viejo's) line came during the time between the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. They left County Wicklow, where they had been involved, apparently, in that peculiar Anglo - Scots/Irish practice of making whiskey by the use of peat for fuel. They were also involved in the business of production and processing of various types of grains as well as the production of whiskey, gin, and beer. By their surnames one would know that, while coming out of Ireland, they were actually English, one with the surname of Christian and the wife, Webster. They had, in fact, married in Christ's Church Cathedral, Anglican, in downtown Dublin in 1796. They landed in New York, set up shop in the City among previously arrived relatives, and then in Albany. We have some record that this Christian who married the Webster had actually lived in the colonies, but travelled several times back and forth between the Spirits businesses in England and Ireland and the New World. They wound up as the generations progressed in and around Minneapolis (St. Anthony) & Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Racine, Wisconsin. My particular line went from New York to Alabama, then North Carolina, and then Wisconsin to join up with the rest of the extended family, finally in Minnesota, before the War Between the States.

The Time Line of entry of all lines of my children's blood ancestry on their mother's side in the New World begins in 1578, when Spaniards of mixed Hebraic and Iberian peoples, and others of ancestry from Portugal, Galicia, and southern Spain entered into what was to become Monclova and Saltillo, Coahuila. They are brought under the auspices of the Explorer, Conquistador, and Colonizer Jose Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva, with elements settling in Lampazos and Cerralvo (Nuevo Leon), in Palofox (Texas), and Revilla (Tamaulipas) on the Rio Bravo.
Also, the Count of the Sierra Gorda, Col. Jose de Escandon brought another group of mainly Spanish, Portuguese, and Azoreans in the early 175os, settling along the Rio Bravo (Grande), and then on the north (Texas) side, spreading up to what is now Yorktown, Texas (near and southeast of San Antonio de Bexar, more or less) before and during the Texas Republican period.

My children and theirs are qualified to join the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons of Liberty, The Sons of the Grand Army of the Union, The Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the Daughters of the Confederacy. By my side they are 16th generation English Colonial - American and 6th generation Texian. By my wife's side, my children are 23rd generation northernmost New Spain, Texian, and American. Isolating Texas alone, my grandchildren are 15th generation Texian.

LIKE?

Cats, and then dogs.

Fishing, even a bit of bird watching, now and then.

Really good music..antique, old, 1950s and early 1960s rock and roll, classical - Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, both Strauses, and many others, African tribal sounds en chorus, Mexican bolero...mariachis when they play out-of-doors, some country and quite a bit of the old western (Sons of the Pioneers, the Texas Ploughboys, Marty Robbins "Gunfighter Ballads, for instance.), even some of my own piano works, bagpipes, Enya, marimba, Caribe.

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess always seemed to me to have been, and remains, a true masterpiece of Americana.

Well maintained Firearms, smooth running small equipment, old autos that respond to repair and upkeep and keep going. Used to have BMWs and so forth, but being old helps tone things down a bit.

Antiques, and antiquities...Meso-American archeology...and religious history. Formal religious services among the Orthodox..as in Anglican, Roman, Orthodox and Conservative Jewish services and celebrations. Hard to find, now.

Overnight radio, rightwing talk radio until it becomes overly tedious and repetitive.

Weather and climate.

And strangely during the past few years,cooking. Not just barbequeing...but actually dishing up gourmet-type stuff...and gardening to a purpose.

We grow a lot of our own spices for our little bed and breakfast and we specialise in flowerng plants, bushes, and trees that attract bees and literally hundreds of species of common to extremely rare birds to our place.

Lifelong Republican, honourably discharged - United States Army (conscripted).

Now drifted into the position of favouring the amicable withdrawal of Texas from the American Union. My grandchildren are 15th generation Coahuila/Texas by my wife and 8th generation Texas by me and my will is to have them answer for the debt of Texas and not for the debts incurred by the National Socialists who have taken possession of the central government in Washington, D.C.

DISLIKES?
Any kind of socialism...bolshevik, national, marxist, social democratic, Trotskyite, progressive, ....and any kind of socialist.

The Ku Klux Klan and such types who figure that they have to hate somebody because of how he/she was born. They are just role players, resucitated by the Communist Party USA in the 1920s, whose members are fueled by a well deserved sense of inferiority.

And almost all social activism.

Almost all labour union officers and almost all labour unions. (There are some exceptions.)

Public assistance of any kind. All welfare and/or charity should and must be privately handled in order to avoid the trap wherein we have fallen, that being the multigenerational slide into the abyss of forlorn hopelessness that is government slavery and dependence. That slide is cheerfully supported by politicians who love to buy votes with other peoples' money.

Lotteries operated by governments.

Litter, filth, graffiti, gangs, and waiting in line for people using food stamps whil'st they argue with the cashier about how they "need" this or that to be covered...when they have three carts with 450 USD of snacks and things we cannot afford because we are in an 'upper income" category.

Church reformers who want to change my church instead of them going to another church and just leaving me alone.

Medications for boys who are over-active, and medications in general.

Lite beer, lite Coca Cola, fat-free, lo-cal, artificial sugars and sweeteners, anything marked "healthy" on food packages, sugar-free, margarine, and driving 23 miles to buy gasoline over there because it is 2 cents per gallon cheaper.

Any government programme designed to help anybody; 94% of the time the programme winds up morphing into some kind of monster. Then liberals and do-gooders will propose another programme, twice as costly, to cure the ills caused by the first cure-all.

Officiousness, and the term "non-profit", as if there is some kind of moral superiority in the failure to produce wealth.

Physical abuse of an animal, an extraterrestrial, a child, slave, woman, or anything like a tractor or power tool, firearm, sewing machine, or an auto, etc.
Loud and/or sharp noises, especially when such noises have no particular purpose.

Wasting anything, from paper towels to Clorox to cake and cookie batter...anything. And....waiting in a line.