Vera

When Homero S. Vera was laid off his job as a warehouse supervisor, the Premont native turned the blow into opportunity.
   Vera, who had studied journalism in college, now is editor and publisher of El Mesteño, a monthly magazine featuring historical accounts of people and places that make South Texas. The magazine has about 800 subscribers in Texas and 30 other states, as well as Mexico and Japan.
   "The mission of the magazine is to inform readers about the culture and heritage of people of Mexican and Spanish descent," Vera said. "The majority of Mexican-Americans who live in South Texas descend from the pioneers who settled the early villas of Mier, Camargo, Revilla, Laredo and Reynosa that the colonizer José de Escandón founded, but not enough of this local history is taught in our schools. I want family histories and the traditions of South Texas to continue for generations."

El Mesteno Subscriptions are $20 for 12 issues. To Subscribe, call (361) 348-3858. El Mestenos website is: www.el-mesteno.com. For other history, contact the South Texas Archives at (361) 593-4154.

   For his material, Vera hits the back roads and small communities, visiting old ranch sites, conducting courthouse research, poring over microfilm at town libraries or trekking through long-forgotten family cemeteries.
   "It's part detective work and a lot of listening," said Vera, also a part-time field historian for the South Texas Archives at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. "One day I might be having café with an old timer and the next day I might be making a trip to Mexico in search of church archives or to the actual site where a historic battle took place."
   Cecilia Aros Hunter, A&M-Kingsville archivist and preservation officer at the South Texas Archives, said Vera is "helping to bring pride to our people and our past. He knows more South Texas history than anyone I know and keeps working to learn more."
   Among the many gems Vera has found on the South Texas trail and featured in his magazine is the history of El Randado, a legendary 1800s Tejano ranch in southern Jim Hogg County that once encompassed more than 100,000 acres. Herds of cattle and horses there once numbered in the thousands.
   "I really hope that the history I'm preserving one day benefits the children in schools," Vera said. "We have tremendous backgrounds worth exploring and documenting."
  

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