Featuring 363 expanded entries about Spanish and Mexican land grants in South Texas, this work is the new standard for this intriguing and sometimes controversial subject. The Guide includes a synoptic history of the issuance and confirmation of these grants, four appendices on related topics of interest, and details on mineral rights, patents, and other legal aspects of the tracts.

A publication of the Texas General Land Office: Garry Mauro, LandCommissioner--Austin, Texas.

That They May Possess the Land: The Spanish and Mexican Land Commissioners of Texas (1720-1836) by Galen D. Greaser (author) The grievances accumulated by Anglo-American settlers in Mexican Texas in the 1830s did not include complaints about the generous land grants the government had offered them on advantageous terms. Land ownership is central to the history of Texas, and the land grants awarded in Spanish and Mexican Texas are intrinsic to the story. Population in exchange for land was the prevailing strategy of Spain’s and Mexico’s colonization policy in what is now Texas. Population was the objective; colonization the strategy; and land the incentive. Spain and Mexico defined the formal procedures, qualifications, and conditions for obtaining a land grant. Colonization was a two-part process involving, first, the relocation of colonists from their place of origin to the new site and, second, the placement of colonists on the land in conditions that would enable them to become productive citizens. The colonization effort featured the use of private recruiting agents – empresarios - to assist with the first task. Government agents - land commissioners –oversaw the second objective. Title to some twenty-six million acres of Texas land, about one-seventh of its present area, derives from the land grants made by Spain and Mexico to its settlers. A land commissioner played a part in every case. The story of the empresarios who contributed to the colonization of Texas is a staple of Texas history, but an account of the land commissioners engaged in this process is given here for the first time. The cast of commissioners features, among others, a Spanish field marshal, a Dutch baron, a cashiered United States army colonel, a philandering state official, a self-serving opportunist, an Alamo defender, and a Tejano patriot. Drawn largely from primary sources and richly documented, this sometimes contentious story of the Spanish and Mexican land commissioners of Texas helps complete the narrative of the colonization of Texas and the history of its public domain. This study is a reminder of another lasting legacy of Spanish and Mexican sovereignty in Texas, their land grants.

A historical overview of Mexican Americans' social and economic experiences in Texas For hundreds of years, Mexican Americans in Texas have fought against political oppression and exclusion—in courtrooms, in schools, at the ballot box, and beyond. Through a detailed exploration of this long battle for equality, this book illuminates critical moments of both struggle and triumph in the Mexican American experience. Martha Menchaca begins with the Spanish settlement of Texas, exploring how Mexican Americans’ racial heritage limited their incorporation into society after the territory’s annexation. She then illustrates their political struggles in the nineteenth century as they tried to assert their legal rights of citizenship and retain possession of their land, and goes on to explore their fight, in the twentieth century, against educational segregation, jury exclusion, and housing covenants. It was only in 1967, she shows, that the collective pressure placed on the state government by Mexican American and African American activists led to the beginning of desegregation. Menchaca concludes with a look at the crucial roles that Mexican Americans have played in national politics, education, philanthropy, and culture, while acknowledging the important work remaining to be done in the struggle for equality.

Hispanic culture is woven into all aspects of Texas life, from mission-style architecture to the highly popular Tex-Mex cuisine, from ranching and rodeo traditions to the Catholic religion. So common are these Hispanic influences, in fact, that they have been widely accepted as a part of everyone's heritage, comfortingly familiar and distinctively Texan. This new edition of Hispanic Texas contains all the guidebook entries of the original volume in a compact format perfect for taking along on trips throughout the state. Entries are arranged by region: San Antonio and South Texas Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley El Paso and Trans-Pecos Texas Austin and Central Texas Houston and Southeast Texas Dallas and North Texas Lubbock and the Plains Within each region, a city-by-city listing details the historic and modern sites and structures that bear Hispanic influence. Descriptions of local festivals and events, public art, museums, natural areas, and scenic drives enhance the entries, which are also profusely illustrated with historic and modern photographs and other illustrations.

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