Contributors

Monday, March 6, 2000

Juan Seguin: forgotten Texas hero

The Alamo always symbolized to me the battle between Anglos and Mexicans. This all changed ever since Fred Garza, a Harlingen accountant, lent me his copy of "Viva Tejas," by Ruby Rendon Lozano, which tells the story of the Mexican-born patriots of the Texas Revolution.
   I know now there were many Tejanos who fought courageously side by side with their Texas comrades against General Santa Anna. There were Ambrosio Rodriguez, Manuel Flores, Placido Benavides, Salvador Flores, and Antonio Menchaca, who were lieutenants and captains. And there was the highest ranking Tejano, Col. Juan Seguin.
   All the Texas history books remember the courage and bravery of Col. William Travis, James Bowie, Davie Crockett, and Gen. Sam Houston, but they all seemed to forget the bravery and courage of Tejano soldiers and officers, especially Juan Seguin.
   At the onset of the Texas War for Independence, Stephen F. Austin commissioned Seguin as captain in the Texas Army after Juan had personally organized 37 Mexican ranchers into a cavalry unit that would serve as scouts and messengers at five Texas battles, including the Alamo and San Jacinto.
   Juan Seguin's life was spared at the Alamo when Travis sent him out as a messenger to Goliad for reinforcements. The seven Tejanos who were killed at the Alamo were all from his company. After the Alamo fell, Seguin served as part of the rear guard as Houston's army began its retreat eastward.
   During the battle of San Jacinto, Seguin commanded the Ninth Company, the only Tejano regiment of volunteers, and was soon promoted to colonel by Houston. When Seguin took command of the military garrison in San Antonio, it became his responsibility to bury the remains of his fellow patriots of the Alamo with a military funeral. Seguin in his eulogy said, "These remains which we have had the honor of carrying on our shoulders are the ones of the brave heroes who died in the Alamo. Yes, my friends, they preferred a thousand deaths rather than surrender or serve the yoke of a tyrant."
   After the military, Seguin was elected to the Texas Senate from 1838-1840. He resigned his seat to become mayor of San Antonio.
   In 1842, new Anglo settlers came into Texas with prejudice and racism and generally abused Tejanos by robbing their livestock and stealing their land. Mayor Seguin tried to defend the property rights of all Tejanos by standing up to the new settlers.
   His defense of Tejano rights led to charges of treasonous correspondence with the Mexican army. Fearing for his life and his family's safety, Seguin and his family fled to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where he was promptly arrested and thrown in prison. He was given a choice of serving in the Mexican Army or staying in prison. His choice would be to lift his sword for the Mexican army against the United States during the Mexican-American War. In 1858, Juan Seguin wrote his memoirs to justify his action. The memoirs were later translated and edited by Jesus De La Teja in his book, "A Revolution Remembered."
   After the war, Seguin was permitted to return to San Antonio, but because of prejudice and harassment of being called a traitor, he was forced to return to Mexico in 1867, until he died a forgotten man with a broken heart in 1890.
   Why has Texas history chosen to forget Col. Juan Seguin and his fellow Tejano patriots? Was Seguin a real Texas hero or Texas' Benedict Arnold?
   I believe he was a Texas hero who was denied his rightful place with Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and Houston. He should have been able to live out his life in Texas with the fame, honor, and respect from his fellow countrymen and not forced to move to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, a man without a country.
   I can only imagine his despair and frustration in Nuevo Laredo where every morning he would look across the Rio Grande River to see the Texas that he and his fellow patriots had risked their lives for to become a country, free and independent with liberty and justice for all, but not for the Tejanos. What the Anglo settlers did to Seguin in 1842 was a crime. What Texas did to forget his memory and his contributions was a sin.
   We citizens of Texas should remember the Alamo as the battle site where freedom-loving patriots, both Anglo and Tejanos, risked their lives, their honor and their fortunes to fight side by side for Texas independence rather than to live under the tyranny of a dictator.
   (Jack Ayoub, a pharmacist, lives in Harlingen. He can be reached by email at ayoubrx@echisp.com.)
  
  

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