THE ENDURING PEOPLE: Tejano Exclusion and Perseverance in the Republic of Texas, 1836-1845
In the spring of 1836, after Texas rebels defeated the Mexican forces under Antonio López de Santa Anna, Tejanos faced a future as uncertain as the one they faced at the commencement of the Texas Revolution. With the victory at San Jacinto, these Texans of Spanish and Indian descent learned with whom their fortunes lay. Instead of suffering through the political and economic instability of Mexican regimes, Tejano communities confronted the Republic of Texas (1836-1845)—a new order that rarely defended their interests and often sought their demise. Despite the forces arrayed against them, Tejanos endured. The success and meaning of that resilience, however, varied from community to community and from individual to individual. In charting these multiple experiences, this article relies on the rich scholarship of Tejano studies and identifies the forces of exclusion that Tejanos withstood and the strategies of perseverance that they conceived during the Republic era.
