YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Declarations, Plural: The Meaning of Independence in Texas - Dr Raul Ramos, University of Houston

Declarations, Plural: The Meaning of Independence in Texas - Dr Raul Ramos, University of Houston — Transcript

by Lone Star College-Kingwood · 7,100 words · 1,265 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:19Thank you very [clears throat] much.
0:21Um
0:21good afternoon, or maybe I should say
0:23buenas tardes.
0:25Buenas tardes, muy bien.
0:37And I think we should do it in in in in
0:41a way that tells a complete story and
0:45and and you'll see some of the themes
0:47develop around that I'll be developing
0:50today around what I think is a very
0:52important question, which is
0:54why do we care?
0:56I used to have a professor who would
0:58always ask at the end of would always
1:00write on the top of my papers, "So
1:02what?"
1:05And I was I don't I mean, I was furious.
1:07I mean, "What do you mean so what?" And
1:09she would say like, "No, I'm saying you
1:11need to tell me why this is important,
1:14right?" And I think
1:17we see all around us that other people
1:20feel it's important important and
1:21sometimes we feel it's important, but
1:26actually explaining why it is and and
1:28how it works and how we how things might
1:31change around why history is important
1:33is is I think
1:36underlying some of the questions I'll be
1:38asking today.
1:39So, I want to begin by saying
1:42um
1:43Felices Fiestas Patrias, right? Today is
1:48September 15th. At midnight tonight
1:52the president of Mexico
1:54Claudia Sheinbaum is going to walk out
1:58onto the balcony of the the the Palacio
2:04No, the the the the president's
2:07uh
2:08the presidential building in the Zócalo
2:10in Mexico City and will deliver what is
2:13known as El Grito de Independencia.
2:16Right?
2:17Um
2:18So, today is tomorrow marks the day we
2:22celebrate Mexican Independence.
2:25Um most Let me see if I got this right.
2:28Here we go. Well, I'm going to skip
2:31this one to here cuz this is what I'm
2:32already talking about. Uh so, it marks
2:36the the 16th of September marks Mexican
2:39Independence. Let me be clear here.
2:42Not Cinco de Mayo, right? It's 16 de
2:45Septiembre.
2:46I I I like the way in Mexico a lot of
2:49usually you you name the holidays or the
2:53commemorative days after the day. Kind
2:55of like how we describe July 4th, right?
2:57We say Independence Day, but but if you
2:58call it July 4th, you know what you're
3:00talking about, right? Um
3:02it's one of those that the date never
3:04changes.
3:05It's not like Labor Day where you you
3:08never know what day it's going to be.
3:09Um the
3:12uh so, 16 de Septiembre marks the day
3:16that Father Miguel Hidalgo
3:18climbed the stairs to the top of the
3:21bell tower at his church in the town of
3:25Dolores
3:26now called Dolores Hidalgo. Right. And
3:28he uh delivered
3:30uh what is known as El Grito de
3:32Independencia, right? The speech of uh
3:37independence. So, it's a little
3:38different than a written declaration,
3:41but
3:42I mean, what does the word declare mean?
3:43To declare, to speak, to shout.
3:47Right? He shouted El Grito de
3:49Independencia. This is the declaration
3:52of independence.
3:53Um and he gave his
3:56uh famous um
3:58speech uh
4:00you know,
4:01condemning uh Spain and the Gachupines
4:05who are exploiting
4:07people in Mexico and calling for
4:09Mexicans to break the chains of of
4:12colonialism and start an independence
4:15movement. And this and and we recognize
4:17that moment as the start of a almost
4:21decade long or over decade long
4:26independence or
4:27revolution period. Also known as the
4:31insurgencia.
4:32So I'm going to come back I'm going to
4:34talk a little bit more about
4:37about the 16th of September, but I just
4:40felt I should start with that because
4:42that's the day we we recognize. But let
4:44me let me go back
4:46to
4:47the framing of this conversation.
4:50And particular let me start by saying,
4:53you know, I was invited and I've been
4:54asked on several occasions because we're
4:58we are marking the 250th anniversary of
5:01the American Declaration of Independence
5:04to talk about the connection between
5:07Texas and
5:094th of July.
5:114th of July, 1776.
5:14Now,
5:15if you look at this map,
5:17this map I like this map because it
5:19doesn't have any
5:22you know, it has kind of a rough line
5:25like where one thing where Mexico starts
5:27and ends and and and the United States
5:30starts and ends is is um
5:32you know, it's visible but it's sort of
5:35you know, kind of wide open. But let me
5:37just be clear here. In 1776,
5:40where we are sitting here right now in
5:43Kingwood, in Houston,
5:46this was
5:48part of the colony of New Spain.
5:51We Texas, this place, did not become
5:55independent in
5:57or did not declare independence on July
5:594th, 1776.
6:01Period.
6:02Right? This is happening somewhere else.
6:05It's happening over there.
6:08Here in in
6:10in in 1776,
6:12we have other things going on. I mean,
6:14there it's there is an active
6:17you know, there's a lot of activity
6:19during this period in this area. If you
6:22were to walk around
6:24Texas in this period, you would
6:27come across
6:28Hispanos. You would come across
6:31Spaniards but who are either
6:34from Spain or or perhaps born in the
6:37colony so criollos.
6:39You would come across mestizo people.
6:41You would come across priests. You would
6:44come across dozens of native
6:47people of you would come across
6:50you know, thousands of native peoples
6:51from dozens of native groups. You come
6:55across Caddoan people, Comanche, Apache,
6:58Karankawa and and others, right? Um
7:02What did 1776 mean to them
7:06when this was happening
7:08so so far away?
7:10Um
7:13Now, what it meant was to be honest, it
7:17meant that it meant two things. One is
7:20that it was an example. It was like,
7:22look, there's another colony over there
7:25that's calling for independence as well,
7:27right? Perhaps it's something of a
7:29model.
7:31And you had Tejanos who uh
7:34who went to Philadelphia, who went
7:37to to to Washington, who went to New
7:39York and and talked about these
7:43political movements
7:45and brought some of these ideas back.
7:47So, that you know, to the extent that
7:50they were sharing a continent, sharing
7:53space, right? Of course, those events
7:56were meaningful.
7:58But they were again happening somewhere
8:00else.
8:01Uh
8:02What it did though is it started the
8:04process
8:06by which
8:07that new
8:09now
8:11uh independent nation
8:13on it you know so that started on the
8:15Atlantic seaboard
8:17started a a process of aggrandizement.
8:21What we usually call westward expansion,
8:24right? And the larger category here of
8:27manifest destiny.
8:29So something happening so far away
8:32was
8:34uh
8:35you know essentially the start of a
8:36cascade of events that would come across
8:39from the east and find its way to the
8:42doorstep
8:43of Texas.
8:45Um the perhaps the biggest leap in that
8:48direction was the Louisiana Purchase.
8:51So 1803 is when all of a sudden
8:57this
8:58these events happening over there
9:01all of a sudden are at your doorstep.
9:04Right cuz in with the Louisiana Purchase
9:07in 1803 you
9:09you automatically bring up the question
9:11you automatically bring up that Ameri
9:14that new American nation right up to the
9:16Sabine River.
9:19So that's in 1803.
9:20And already in 1803 uh you had uh
9:24people raising ques these these uh
9:27um colonists these these settlers who
9:31are coming from uh further east
9:34uh
9:34begin to settle in you know
9:37certainly we're looking at kind of even
9:38from Texas
9:39settling in in Mississippi uh in sorry
9:43Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
9:46and knocking on the door of Texas.
9:49Right and begin to to knock on the door
9:50of Texas in 1803. To the point that to
9:54the point that um
9:57Spain starts to say, "Hey
9:59uh
10:00you know turns to the United States and
10:01and says, "Hey, you got to do something
10:03about these
10:04these settlers. They keep coming into
10:06our lands."
10:08Right so so uh immediately uh the
10:10question arises about uh what Texas
10:14means to the Louisiana Purchase. And and
10:17right there you uh
10:19the defining moment for um
10:24for Texas comes with a treaty between
10:27Spain and uh the United States known as
10:31the Adams-Onís Treaty or sometimes known
10:33as the the Florida Concession or or
10:37sorry, secession or um the
10:39Transcontinental Treaty.
10:41But it uh commonly known as the
10:43Adams-Onís Treaty, a treaty between the
10:45United States and Spain that uh
10:48uh you know, did did a couple of things.
10:50One of the things it did is it
10:51transferred uh
10:53Florida from Spain from uh as from a
10:56being a Spanish colony to being an
10:58American
10:59uh territory.
11:01Uh and then it set the the border
11:04between Spain and the United States at
11:07the Sabine River.
11:09And if you talk to anybody in Missouri
11:13or the Louisiana frontier or or
11:15Arkansas, they were furious. They were
11:19furious at um
11:21at John Quincy Adams. They were they
11:23were they were furious
11:25uh with the the federal government for
11:30what they said was um for giving away
11:33Texas. They believed that Texas was part
11:36of the Louisiana Purchase.
11:39Um
11:41Again,
11:42uh but just because they believed it uh
11:45doesn't mean that made it so.
11:47Um we see that going on now, right? If I
11:50could believe Canada is part of the
11:51United States, but it doesn't make it
11:53so, right? So this is something that
11:56uh you start to see repeating in
11:58American history. But on this but on the
12:00other hand, uh things were already
12:02happening uh
12:04things were already happening in on you
12:07know, in the in the case of New Spain.
12:09As I said before, by this point um,
12:14Miguel Hidalgo had already climbed the
12:16bell tower and declared independence.
12:18And he had and uh,
12:20and at that point, to allow Let me go
12:22jump back to Miguel Hidalgo. He uh,
12:25makes his declaration. Uh,
12:27where he did this was very important.
12:30Uh, Dolores is in the Bajío region of
12:34uh,
12:35the Bajío region region of Mexico. It's
12:37uh, between uh, Querétaro and uh,
12:42and um,
12:44uh,
12:44uh, Guanajuato. And in Guanajuato in
12:47particular, you had some of the most
12:49productive silver mines
12:52in the world. Right? Not just in in the
12:55Americas, not just uh, in Mexico, in the
12:58entire world. At one point, uh, more
13:02than half of the silver in the world was
13:04coming out of that those mines. Right?
13:07So, this was a very valuable place. And
13:10so, you could see why this was a
13:12particularly
13:14um,
13:15uh, this you know, this threat was taken
13:18very seriously uh, by the Spanish
13:20because they saw this as a threatening
13:23that, you know, that the the golden
13:25goose, if you will, that that Spain uh,
13:27that that New Spain was uh, providing,
13:30that Mexico was providing. So, um,
13:34so,
13:35uh,
13:36uh,
13:37Father Hidalgo uh,
13:39gives his grito, climbs down the bell
13:41tower, gets on a horse, and and
13:43hightails it. Where does he go?
13:46He goes north.
13:47He goes to the borderlands. He goes to
13:50uh, he goes to Chihuahua. He goes
13:52through uh, he he's heading into this
13:56vast expanse between um, New Mex you
13:58know, New Spain the New Mexico, Santa
14:00Fe, and Texas. Right? Texas represents
14:05uh, extra amount of freedom in this
14:07case. He's captured
14:10and uh, taken put in prison, and then
14:13executed.
14:14And uh, the leaders of that rebellion
14:17are all executed and their heads are put
14:20on pikes in the in front of the armory
14:23in Guanajuato
14:25as a warning
14:26to anybody who who declares
14:28independence. But
14:30it was clear in retrospect that the
14:33match had been lit.
14:35And the insurgency had started. And and
14:38these actions
14:39uh these actions inspired others to uh
14:43to to join the effort to oppose
14:46uh the Spanish colony and the royalist
14:49forces. In fact,
14:51in Texas you have two battles.
14:55You have um
14:56uh a series of battles in 1811 and you
14:59have what is perhaps the most important
15:02battle in the entire history of Texas,
15:06uh which is the Battle of Medina in
15:081813, in August of 1813.
15:11So here we have two battles very early
15:14on in the independence movement taking
15:15place in Texas in the frontier. So
15:18clearly Texas was important to Spain.
15:21Texas was an important uh that that the
15:23Tejanos uh the
15:25that lived in this area were
15:28um
15:29were inspired to oppose Spanish forces
15:33and they organized themselves and uh and
15:35fought against uh the Spanish.
15:39Let me just say one uh one thing about
15:41the Battle of Medina.
15:43The Battle of Medina
15:45uh is to this day the single
15:49uh
15:50the the the the the battle with the the
15:53single highest number of casualties of
15:57of of injuries and deaths
16:00um
16:01in the history of Texas.
16:03Period. And think about it. You know, uh
16:05you know, more over 2,000 men died in
16:09the Battle of Medina
16:10um opposing the Spanish forces. Uh
16:14this is higher than any battle in the
16:16Texas Revolution, in the Civil War, or
16:19any other conflicts that took place in
16:22Texas.
16:23Right? So, let me just pause here for a
16:25second.
16:26Do we, you know, you know,
16:28this you would think that a battle so
16:33um that was so uh impactful would be
16:36part of our Texas history.
16:39Right? Um
16:40but we generally don't hear about the
16:41Battle of Medina
16:43in in the in the
16:45many years of Texas history you get in
16:47elementary school and middle school for
16:49sure.
16:50Uh and it it is now mentioned in
16:52textbooks.
16:53Uh and and you know, if you take college
16:56Texas history, you probably learn about
16:58it, but it's not part of our general
17:00state history.
17:02Um
17:02and so, this goes to part of my
17:04question, you know, part of the question
17:05I'm asking. Why not?
17:09Why don't we talk about the Battle of
17:10Medina?
17:11What What's What is uh
17:15you know, is it Is it thought of as not
17:17you know, is it thought of as a
17:19different chapter in Texas history? Is
17:21it not the version of tech Does Texas
17:23history start some other time?
17:26Um this is This is the question and in
17:29many ways the focus that Texas
17:32historians have um
17:34taken to emphasize
17:36a different declaration of independence,
17:38that one in 1836,
17:41has made it so that uh this first
17:44declaration of independence that took
17:46place on Texas soil
17:48um
17:49gets
17:50relegated to uh obscurity.
17:53Right? Gets relegated to obscurity.
17:57Um
17:59what In In some ways, I
18:02if what I would propose is one of the
18:03reasons that uh we don't talk about
18:06Mexican independence in Texas is that it
18:10would
18:12legitimize
18:14Mexican sovereignty in Texas.
18:18Uh Uh,
18:18I mean, Texas then Mexico becomes
18:22independent in 1821.
18:24There's a brief
18:27locura that takes place between 1821 and
18:291824 when
18:32um
18:33when Iturbide declares himself emperor
18:35and there's a
18:37essentially a conservative
18:39takeover of the government
18:42um
18:42to to essentially establish a new king
18:45instead of the king in Spain, king in
18:48Mexico City.
18:49Uh, and you know, many of those who
18:52fought for independence, many of those
18:54who lived in the provinces
18:56uh, said, "Hey, we didn't just fight
18:58this
18:59decade-long battle against the monarchy
19:01to replace it with another monarchy. We
19:03prefer
19:04a federalist system, a republic." And so
19:07you get the Estados Unidos Mexicanos,
19:09which is made up of the states that in
19:12this case are represented in a cactus
19:15that has the name of each state in it.
19:17This is an iconic cactus, right? The
19:19cactus you see in the Mexican flag with
19:22the eagle and the snake kind of
19:24representing the the myth of um
19:28of of the establishment of Tenochtitlan.
19:31Um, and if you look right under
19:33the snake essentially, and let me zoom
19:35in, you have the state of Coahuila y
19:38Tejas.
19:40It's that right there, Coahuila y Tejas,
19:42right? So this is
19:44so Texas is part of this new republic as
19:48a result of this independence movement
19:50in 1810.
19:52So that's in that's an independence day
19:55in Texas.
19:56What that independence day allows in
19:591824
20:01is it initiates a set of rules and a set
20:04of laws that changes Mexico
20:08uh, in particular and changes Texas
20:11in this case. And one of the ways it
20:13changes Texas is it provides an avenue
20:17for Americans to immigrate into Texas.
20:21And so you begin uh, starting in 1821
20:24with um Moses Austin's contract to bring
20:27families to Texas, you begin to see a
20:30process of immigration uh into Texas.
20:33And this is uh these laws are codified
20:36by the state of Coahuila y Tejas.
20:38Uh you have the um
20:41you know, the the the laws uh known as
20:43the colonization laws that set up the
20:45empresario system.
20:47And let me um tell you what one of the
20:50things that colonization law here
20:52provides for is that um
20:55if you uh
20:57one of the things that the the the
20:58colonization laws did is they encouraged
21:01those Americans who came to Texas
21:04uh to marry into Mexican families.
21:08How did they do that? Well, uh first of
21:11all, there was a a you know, the these
21:13uh empresario laws, these colonization
21:15laws uh that encouraged American
21:17immigration into Texas were modeled
21:19after uh
21:21other, you know, immigration uh other
21:23migration uh sort of settled settler
21:26systems. The one I that comes to mind
21:29are the um
21:31the Northwest Ordinances of 17 of the uh
21:34you know, whatever it was What was it?
21:351789
21:37that uh
21:38where um
21:39Thomas Jefferson
21:41set up a system to uh populate Ohi- you
21:45know, Ohio and other uh Ohio River
21:47Valley uh territories or land. Um and so
21:52one of the things that this
21:53that these laws did is they gave every
21:56uh settler a fixed plot of land.
22:00Now, there were some stipulations.
22:02If you were a single man and you came to
22:05Texas, you would actually get a quarter
22:08of that land. You would get a small
22:09parcel.
22:10You were essentially penalized if you
22:12didn't bring a family.
22:14Do you see what I'm saying? You were uh
22:16and the idea there is, you know, if you
22:18bring a family, you are
22:20uh
22:21talking about settling permanently,
22:24making this area more productive,
22:26becoming invested in the area.
22:29The The fear was if you were a single
22:31man coming into this area, you were just
22:32going to turn around and flip it.
22:35Um
22:37People like flipping things in American
22:38history, right? And And And And you did
22:41get some of that going on in Texas as
22:42Mexico was afraid of this.
22:45The other thing it said though, but by
22:47the way, if you marry into a Mexican
22:49family, you actually get
22:521 and 1/2 times more land.
22:54I like to think of
22:56um
22:58you know, this law being the law that
23:00essentially is promoting
23:03the first Mexican-Americans.
23:05Right? It's saying, you know, who are
23:07the kids of these of these uh Anglo men
23:10who moved to Texas and marry into
23:11Mexican families?
23:13Their kids are going to be
23:14Mexican-American,
23:16right? And here you have the law
23:17basically encouraging that.
23:20This gives you an idea of something uh
23:22you know, inherent within Mexican
23:25culture that's encouraging this.
23:28Again, imagine in American history
23:31that kind of incentive
23:33uh for integration, right? You You You
23:36In fact, often see social
23:39um
23:40penalties
23:41for interracial marriage.
23:43Right? You see
23:45uh ostracism for uh
23:48speaking a different language another
23:50language, right? But here we have Mexico
23:52saying, "No, this should be part of this
23:54culture."
23:55Um
23:56But But things snowball.
23:59And what you have are Americans who
24:01continue to come into Texas. The warning
24:05signs, the tripwires are all tripped.
24:07The warning signs uh start flashing.
24:10And Mexico decides to halt American
24:12immigration in 1830 through the law of
24:15April 6th, 1830. And And those Americans
24:19uh
24:19res- are angry. They resist. And they uh
24:24you know, one thing leads to another and
24:26I'm not going to go through the entire
24:27history of the Texas Revolution, but
24:30they call for
24:32the separation of Texas from Mexico, the
24:34secession of Texas from Mexico. And um
24:38I'd like to point out one thing out
24:39here. Again, you know,
24:41we mark 1836 as the moment of this
24:45transition in part because that's the
24:48day the day of the declaration of Texas
24:50the
24:51the year of the Texas Declaration of
24:53Independence, which is
24:55recognized as March 2nd, 1836.
24:58Um
25:00At one point the Houston Dynamo were
25:01going to be called the Houston 1836 and
25:03I always thought that was a little fishy
25:05because uh you're basically saying and
25:08and in 2005 when the Dynamo moved from
25:10San Jose and you know, they used to be
25:13the San Jose Earthquakes, but Houston
25:15Earthquakes doesn't quite work.
25:17It'd be kind of like the
25:19you know, kind of like the Utah Jazz
25:20does, you know, but they kept the name,
25:21but Houston didn't keep the name and and
25:24went for 1836 and then this fell apart
25:26and now we have the Dynamo.
25:29Um but we have then is
25:32the movement to uh
25:35to separate Texas from Mexico, to break
25:38that bond that I you know, the cactus
25:40that I showed you earlier
25:42and
25:44and let me just jump then to the moment
25:46of the declaration of independence. Let
25:48me be clear here though.
25:50Unlike the Grito de Dolores
25:53and and you know, even though you had
25:55some hostilities already
25:57uh when we talk about July 4th March by
26:00March 2nd, 1835, the war in Texas had
26:03already been going on since October of
26:061830 I mean, but by March 2nd, 1836, the
26:09the war had already been happening since
26:11since October of 1835. Um troops march
26:14into San Antonio in 1835 and and expel
26:18the the the Mexican governor from um
26:21from San Antonio.
26:23And uh so this declaration kind of comes
26:27in the middle of the war, if you will,
26:29and it's actually is signed right at the
26:31beginning of the
26:33uh Mexican siege on on San Antonio
26:37um
26:38that that we recognize as the Battle of
26:39the Alamo. So, that's already happening
26:41in the background. When we look at the
26:43Texas Declaration of Independence,
26:46um we see uh uh essentially a parallel a
26:50a claim to a parallel to American
26:52independence, right? Um
26:56So, here let me But, let me break down
26:58and ask the question, who signed the
27:01Texas Declaration of Independence?
27:03Who are the signatory? We We know the
27:05American Declaration of Independence,
27:06right? The Founding Fathers' signatures
27:08are very uh prominent. When we look at
27:11the Texas Declaration of Independence, I
27:13think it bears asking, who are these
27:16men?
27:17So, I did an analysis of the of the
27:19signatures. Uh and the first the first
27:22thing I want to So, let's let me just
27:24break down the math. It's pretty
27:26straightforward. 60 men signed the the
27:29Texas Declaration of Independence. 60, 6
27:310, right?
27:33Of those 60,
27:35of those 60, only two were born in
27:39Texas.
27:42Of those 60, only two were born in
27:44Texas.
27:46And they're right up there on the top
27:47left, Francisco Ruiz and Jose Antonio
27:50Navarro.
27:51Right? They were the only two that were
27:54born in Texas, and they were Tejano.
27:57And it's a little unclear if they even
28:00spoke English. So, we have questions
28:04about their participation, but let's
28:06just take it at face value for the
28:08moment.
28:09And let's figure out what's going on
28:11with the other 58 men. Well, of those 58
28:15men,
28:1613 of them were born in Virginia.
28:20Here you have their names and and the
28:21days they came to the years the the the
28:24date and year they they immigrated to
28:25Texas.
28:27Um
28:2911 were born in North Carolina,
28:32and 10 were born in Tennessee.
28:34So, right there, I'm not I'm not great
28:36at math, but 33 of those 58, so half of
28:38them were born in Virginia,
28:41North Carolina, and Tennessee.
28:45All Southern states.
28:48Right? And they were uh
28:50and many of them, if you look at the
28:51years they came,
28:52uh 35,
28:54uh 35, 35, 33, 35,
28:59uh you have an 1827 with Jesse Grimes,
29:02you have an 1827 with John Roberts, an
29:051824 with Robert Thomas Gaines. So you
29:08have some that came during this, you
29:10know, immediate era after Mexican
29:13independence, but the vast majority
29:16over
29:18um
29:21over 43 of the 58,
29:24so
29:25uh
29:26I'm going to break my my brain saying
29:28like 75%? Uh
29:30uh
29:3143 of the of the 58
29:34were came to to Texas after the Law of
29:37April 6, 1830, when Mexico was already
29:39like, "Hey, hang on a second. Let's slow
29:41down."
29:42Right? 29 of them, fully half of them,
29:4550%, came after January 1st, 1834.
29:50Right? So they not only
29:53So let's be clear here. Of the 60 men
29:56who signed the Texas Declaration of
29:58Independence,
30:00two were born in Texas,
30:03and over half of them had only been in
30:04Texas for a year.
30:07For a you know, were barely you know, a
30:09year and a half, let's say.
30:12Maybe 2 years.
30:14At at at 2 years, is that what it takes
30:17to become
30:18from a certain place? How long does it
30:20take to be
30:22How long does it take to become Texan?
30:25Do you become Texan the moment you sign
30:26the Texas Declaration of Independence,
30:28even if you'd only been there 30
30:29minutes?
30:30Maybe we're not question All I'm saying
30:33is
30:34is that what's what's the you know, is
30:36that something we
30:37we we would recognize. But, let me add
30:40one more data point to this question.
30:44Okay, March 2nd, sign the Declaration of
30:47Independence, Battle of the Alamo, the
30:48Alamo falls, it's a tragedy.
30:51Santa Anna's troops start keep marching
30:53to clear out
30:55the Texans. You have the Runaway Scrape.
30:57You have families start to leave with
30:58this
31:00oncoming
31:01Mexican
31:03uh
31:03army.
31:05The Mexican army settles
31:08on the banks of the
31:10Buffalo Bayou over here in what we now
31:12call San Jacinto.
31:14And um
31:17in a uh miscalculation and a you know,
31:21lucky or or you know, well-timed attack,
31:25there's a route of the Mexican troops.
31:28And on we recognize April 21st, 1836,
31:33as the Battle of San Jacinto. And the
31:35moment that
31:37Texans win
31:38uh their their independence, are able to
31:41essentially enforce. So, you can have a
31:43declaration, but you don't enforce it
31:45until you can, right? And then they
31:48they have captured Santa Anna, the
31:50president of Mexico, and force him to
31:53uh sign the
31:54the Treaty of Velasco to essentially
31:56give his freedom and give Texas this
31:59kind of special status. It's I'm not
32:01going to get into that part as much.
32:03But, let me point something else out,
32:06which is at that point Texas has to
32:08decide what they're going to do.
32:10And Texas uh
32:12has a plan.
32:14They say, "We're going to put it to a
32:15vote."
32:16There's two questions on the vote.
32:19Question number one, who should be
32:21president?
32:23And there is a choice, and it's Sam
32:25Houston or Mirabeau B. Lamar.
32:28Sam Houston wins by like 98%. Why? Cuz
32:32he's the hero of the Battle of of San
32:34Jacinto. And he's a nice guy, and
32:36everybody loves Sam Houston, and he was,
32:38you know,
32:39um
32:40um
32:42Jackson's right-hand man and and uh
32:44Andrew Jackson's right-hand man and you
32:46know, he's the guy. He's the guy you
32:49want, right? Mirabeau Lamar was a cuss.
32:52Like nobody liked Mirabeau Lamar. He was
32:55the worst. Uh any case
32:58voting bears that out. But then there's
33:00a second issue
33:01to vote on.
33:03And the question is should Texas A
33:07become
33:08um
33:10Sorry, should Texas A request
33:13uh annexation to the United States
33:16or B
33:18request or become an independent
33:20republic.
33:23You know, let's take a vote right now.
33:24How many of you would vote Texas should
33:26become a state in the United States?
33:30Okay, couple you good.
33:32How many of you would vote Texas should
33:34become an independent republic?
33:37Who wants the Lone Star State? Who wants
33:39the Lone Star flag here, right?
33:42You know how they voted?
33:4495%
33:45or more, at least 95%
33:49voted for annexation.
33:51And it just makes sense.
33:53They've only been here a year. They're
33:55like, "All right, whatever. Let's just
33:56go and, you know, finish this. We're
33:59you know, what we wanted all along was
34:00to be part of the United States."
34:04So
34:05uh
34:07Houston says, "Great. All right, that's
34:09what we're going to do." They send a
34:10representative to Washington, D.C. Comes
34:13in to Congress and to the White House
34:15and says, "Hey, we want to be a state.
34:17We voted for it. We're all in agreement.
34:19Let's go."
34:20And it gets rejected. And I'm not going
34:22to get into the reasons for rejection.
34:24It has to do with
34:25the you know, balance between slave
34:28states and free states. Texas would be
34:30coming in as a slave state. Let's be
34:32clear. What did I say? They're all
34:33coming from the South into Texas.
34:36Right? Um
34:38And so they get rejected. The Republic
34:40of Texas was literally plan B.
34:44It was plan B.
34:48But we can't stop talking about it.
34:50Right?
34:51Um the and so this brings up the point
34:55when we when we look at the Texas
34:57Declaration of Independence, when we
34:58look at
35:00this vote in September,
35:02those Texans
35:04never stopped being American.
35:07They were American when they came to
35:09Texas, they were American when they
35:11rebelled, and they finally got their
35:14American
35:15uh you know, they they they were
35:17accepted as American uh when Texas was
35:20annexed
35:22in uh
35:23in 1830 uh I mean, sorry, 1845.
35:27Which, by the way, Polk in his uh
35:30inaugural address refers to
35:32the annexation of Texas as the
35:35reunification
35:36of Texas, which always struck me as like
35:40I'm just like, "Seriously? You were You
35:42were You were down with those like uh
35:45people that were upset with the Adam
35:47This This is This is like old feud with
35:49Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819."
35:52Um
35:54Texas uh
35:56in in uh after they formed the Republic,
36:00in order to get if you fought in the
36:02Texas Revolution, you uh would get land.
36:06These are called headright grants, and
36:08you had to And And what was important
36:10here is
36:11um that you had to say that you actually
36:13fought for Texas.
36:15Uh and uh And again, if you were Mexican
36:19here, if you were Tejano, it wasn't good
36:21enough to say like, "Look, I didn't
36:22fight against the the Texans. I stayed
36:25away." The If you stayed away, you were
36:27considered a traitor.
36:29Um
36:31we fast forward to uh the annexation of
36:33Texas in 1845, the invasion of Mexico by
36:37the American Army in 1846.
36:40It's not an accident that one comes
36:42after the other, right? They're They're
36:44These are linked. And then the Treaty of
36:45Guadalupe Hidalgo that then makes Texas
36:48and the rest of the Southwest
36:51Arizona, New Mexico, California, Utah,
36:54Nevada, parts of Colorado, part of
36:58uh
36:59the United States.
37:01Um
37:02then we get to the last moment. People
37:04always ask me, uh where does the Civil
37:07Where Where does the
37:09um
37:11Where does the Civil War fall into this
37:14uh the this this question of
37:15independence? And interestingly, um you
37:18have two two things going on, which is
37:21in Mexico, you have the French
37:22intervention in which one of the main
37:24battles of the French intervention is is
37:26fought by
37:27um it is led by uh
37:30Ignacio Zaragoza,
37:32who was born in Goliad, Texas
37:34uh in 1829. He's, you know, a national
37:38hero in Mexico, a a Tejano, right? And
37:41uh at the same time, and not unrelated,
37:44you had um both Confederate Tejanos
37:48and Union Tejanos. Right? You had Santos
37:50Benavides and uh who's on the
37:53left here
37:55with his wife, who uh was a caudillo in
37:58in um in Laredo
38:00and was a colonel in the Confederate
38:03Army. And then you had
38:05um
38:05Juan Cortina,
38:07who uh
38:09was
38:10uh
38:11you know, fighting in in own land in
38:13this in the valley, it gets uh pushed
38:16into Tamaulipas, becomes a governor of
38:18Tamaulipas, and then becomes a Union uh
38:23uh uh commander and fights against the
38:25Confederates
38:27uh outside of Brownsville, right? So,
38:29you have Tejanos fighting on both sides,
38:30but and those are seen as linked.
38:33The The Confederates are linked to the
38:36um The Confederates are linked to the
38:38French and the French intervention. And
38:40in fact, um
38:42the celebration of Ignacio Zaragoza, and
38:44this is from a festival on Cinco de Mayo
38:47in 1882 where uh where in San Antonio
38:50they celebrate Ignacio Zaragoza and the
38:53the Mexican
38:55battles against the French.
38:57Um so, let me finish by
39:00going back to this question of why
39:03don't we talk about the impact and the
39:06the reason
39:07and the problem with
39:09not talking about Mexican independence
39:12in Texas
39:13and emphasizing Texas, the Texas
39:16Revolution, and American Remember,
39:18Americans brought
39:214th of July with them when they came to
39:23Texas. They imported
39:264th of July.
39:28You know, the same way they brought, you
39:29know, their tools and they brought their
39:33laws and they brought their families and
39:36they brought enslaved people. They also
39:38brought 4th of July.
39:40And they put it here and they built a
39:42whole civilization and now we can't
39:44think of it otherwise.
39:46Right? It's natural. Yeah, 4th of July,
39:48that's our day of independence. It's our
39:50national day of independence, but it's
39:52not it it was brought to this place
39:55and and and
39:56it's understanding that process that we
39:58understand
40:00the process of the normalization of
40:03American expansion, right? Like we know
40:05the mechanics of it, but how does it get
40:07normalized?
40:08And one of the other things that happens
40:10is you have an emotion that goes along
40:13with it.
40:14This is a painting that's at the back of
40:15the Texas Senate
40:17called Dawn of the Alamo. Now, clearly,
40:19since none of these Anglos survived the
40:21Alamo, this is a
40:24fantasy representation that was painted
40:26in 1903 about the Alamo, but it it's how
40:31we remember the Alamo. And in
40:33particular, we remember
40:35William Travis standing on the wall and
40:38who's standing behind him?
40:42There's a Mexican soldier about to shoot
40:44him in the back.
40:45Right? What do we call people who shoot
40:47people in the back?
40:49And who sneak up behind you when you're
40:50not looking.
40:53What would you call them?
40:56Cowards, right?
40:59Uh this is how the Tejanos are
41:02remembered in in Texas. And And again,
41:05this is in our Senate
41:08where today they make laws that we all
41:12uh operate under.
41:14So, let me just end again when I said
41:16that uh I agree history matters.
41:20But, we see that this is something that
41:22uh motivates our politics, motivates our
41:26society.
41:27And in some ways we have to unders- you
41:29know, we have to
41:30we're we're seeing that telling the
41:33story becomes more and more challenging
41:35because it gets tied to politics. This
41:37was a billboard in San Antonio 4 years
41:40ago when Beto O'Rourke was running
41:42against Governor Abbott.
41:45And all it said was
41:47two things. Remember the Alamo, vote no
41:50to Beto.
41:52What do they have to do with each other?
41:54Right? What do they have to do with each
41:56other?
41:57Um but
41:59if you know, you know, right? And this
42:01is the kind of secret language that
42:04history conveys.
42:06Uh and one that um you know, again, as
42:09we're
42:10celebrating the 16th of September, we I
42:13think it's important to understand that
42:15uh recognizing it
42:17is uh happening within a particular
42:20political context right now. And uh even
42:24though we're talking about history,
42:26uh it brings up particular issues in the
42:28present and one that we I think should
42:31not be afraid to talk about in the open.
42:33Thank you.
42:37>> [applause]
42:40>> So, Dr. Barr, uh
42:41questions, comments,
42:43critiques?
42:45I just went through, you know,
42:48whatever, 200 years of history really
42:50quickly. So, uh
42:52I apologize.
42:54Yes.
42:58Why Why did Mexico have an emperor
43:00instead of a king?
43:01Yeah.
43:02So, this
43:04So, one of the things I like to So, I
43:05teach Texas history at the University of
43:07Houston. And one of the things I like to
43:08say, in fact, one of my students was
43:10here. Where's RJ?
43:12I think he might have just left. So,
43:16when I teach Texas history, I say, you
43:18know, if you're taking Texas history
43:19with me, you're getting a back door
43:21Mexican history class, right? That's how
43:23we uh
43:24And And so, yeah, it it raises an
43:27important question.
43:28Part of this has to do with Mexican
43:31politics at the time.
43:33And And it's essentially a legacy of
43:36colonization. So, to understand why
43:38Mexico would choose an emperor, first of
43:41all,
43:42it's not like Mexico voted for an
43:43emperor, right? It's the It's at the
43:46moment of independence, who was
43:49essentially on top and who was
43:51controlling, you know, who had control
43:53over the army, who had control over and
43:55certain institutions. Um
43:58Part of this is
44:00I would say, like,
44:03in terms of political theory,
44:05it's a big jump to go from being a
44:08a subject of a king to becoming a
44:11citizen of a republic, right? Of a
44:13constitution. Like, it's
44:15And And so, there were there was a class
44:18of people in in Mexico who believed that
44:20Mexico people were not ready to be
44:22citizens. They wanted that, you know,
44:25they believed that for Mexico, you know,
44:28that Mexico had to continue essentially
44:30as a colony.
44:32When you look at the 1824 constitution,
44:35native peoples have
44:37citizenship in this in and and in in
44:40this calculation, right? You have
44:42an expansion of democracy
44:45at that point. So, it's
44:47that was threatening to a lot of people
44:49who had, you know, control of land, who
44:51had control, you know, who who were were
44:53wealthy. So, um
44:56what it ends up becoming as a kind of
44:57internal conflict with Mexico. But, the
44:59other conflict was really between Mexico
45:01City centralizing all the power and the
45:04the state well, the provinces which
45:06become these states. Um think about it.
45:09To give states all this
45:11you know,
45:12independence or or uh self-autonomy,
45:15um that's also threatening and it's and
45:18it's and it some people felt it would be
45:20chaotic. So, uh a lot of the history of
45:23Mexico from independence in 1821 all the
45:26way through the Mexican Revolution is
45:28about the the conflict between Mexico
45:31City and the provinces and that So, that
45:33kind of continues in in different
45:35cycles.
45:36So, uh you should take uh classes with
45:39some of my colleagues here uh like Dr.
45:41Galvan who uh can you know, where you
45:44would uh
45:45um get sort of more deep a deeper
45:48understanding of of that dynamic in
45:50Mexican history.
45:52Other questions or comments?
45:56Yes.
45:56>> You were talking about a book called
45:57Forget the Alamo that caused a lot of
45:59controversy.
46:00>> Yeah.
46:00>> What did the authors mean by that title
46:02and what do you think about it?
46:04>> I think the authors meant to sell a lot
46:05of books with that title, which they
46:07did. Uh so, the question is what do I
46:09think about the Forget the Alamo book?
46:11Um I find it I I find it I find it very
46:15um gripping because for a couple
46:17reasons. First of all, what what
46:20I think most readers in get turned off
46:23by the title and don't read the whole
46:24book. The book itself is three books. If
46:27you read it uh the first third is kind
46:30of a retelling of the Texas Revolution
46:31and that's the part everybody kind of
46:32focuses on. Um they the authors make an
46:35argument about the importance of slavery
46:38in the Texas Revolution. And um and I
46:40think I I just went through
46:43the fact that
46:4558 of these 60 men who signed the Texas
46:47Declaration of Independence were coming
46:49from the south. I didn't even tell you
46:51how many were uh
46:52enslaves. Uh I didn't even you You when
46:55you start looking at the Texas
46:57Constitution, the Tex- uh
46:59you know, the Texas Constitution was
47:01essentially a constitution that
47:03protected slavery.
47:06It said unequivocally, if you were black
47:09in Texas,
47:11you could not be free.
47:13Period. You had to leave.
47:15And and not only that, but enslavers
47:18could not even emancipate their own
47:20enslaved people. They had
47:22It was very uh
47:24uh the the legislature was the only one
47:26who could free anybody, right? This was
47:29enshrined in the Republic of Texas
47:32Constitution. Um
47:34the second part of the book is about how
47:37Texas history becomes uh
47:40a essentially an official version of
47:43Texas
47:44history becomes legislated, really. You
47:47know, we see the legislature now talking
47:49about um how history should be taught.
47:53Uh
47:53this This has been the case in Texas
47:55since the 1880s, right? The legislature
47:57has very been very involved. In fact,
47:59they got upset once when when a
48:01historian was teaching Texas who was
48:02trained who got his PhD, I think it was
48:05at the University of Alabama. They're
48:07like,
48:07"He didn't get it at UT. We should not
48:09listen to him, right?" I have news. I I
48:12got my PhD at Yale University in New
48:14Haven, Connecticut, and now I'm teaching
48:16Texas history. So, they would definitely
48:18would not have liked me.
48:20Uh then, the third part of the book is
48:23about the current politics uh and the
48:25renovation of the of the Alamo. So, if
48:27you go to the Alamo now, it's had this
48:29multi-million dollar renovation, and
48:31there's a lot of politics about it, but
48:33my favorite chapter is one that talks
48:35about uh a building that was built for
48:38the largest collection of Alamo
48:40memorabilia. And who can tell me who's
48:42the owner of the largest collection of
48:45Alamo memorabilia?
48:47Phil Collins. None other than
48:49uh
48:50If you're too young to know who Phil
48:51Collins was, you've probably seen the
48:53YouTube videos of people um
48:55drumming out uh
48:57uh
48:58What is it? You Can Feel It in night or
49:00whatever, you know, that that the song
49:02and I forgot the title all of a sudden.
49:04Um, so so yeah, so I find it as a
49:07historian, it's great, right? Um,
49:11and look, you should have a
49:14you should present a different
49:15perspective. It's we need to have
49:18debate. We can't sit there and say like
49:20be robots and just repeat what we've
49:22been handed down. We have to look at the
49:24documents and we have to think
49:25differently and we have to see how it
49:27affects how how essentially the world
49:29around us affects how we look at the
49:31past. Um, so it is it is a a process
49:34that's always undergoing change.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Declarations, Plural: The Meaning of Independence in Texas - Dr Raul Ramos, University of Houston by Lone Star College-Kingwood, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 7,100 words across 1,265 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.