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Latin America perspectives a series of information and comment about Latin America with Dr. C. Harvey Gardner research professor of history at Southern Illinois University. These programs are recorded by station w s r u FM. Here now is Dr. Gardner. Today Texas is a two way street. In one thousand sixty eight. Alone hundreds of thousands of citizens of the United States have crossed Texas to enter Mexico for vacations and to attend the Olympic Games northward in the same season. Tens of thousands of Mexicans have traveled many to attend the kingsize county fair. Or if you prefer mini world fair at San Antonio. Whether the automobiles go southward into Mexico or not we're going to the United States. The drivers and their passengers fix upon certain places such towns as Matamoros Laredo Eagle Pass and El Paso
as gateways. In so doing none use our No. The oldest gateway to remedy ignorance not to re direct automobile traffic. Robert S. Weddle has written the volume sign one gateway to Spanish Texas a publication of the University of Texas press. It was a time of from and the 17th century and Spain was attempting to control the vast reaches of the southwest. A land that she envisioned as one containing great riches and boundless opportunities. You know efforts to assert dominion over that wild country Spain built a series of far flung missions and Presidio zoos at strategic locations missions to convert and civilize the Indians and proceed to protect the missions and advance the frontage.
One of the most important of these missions settlements founded in 17:00 was sound one about Tista Del Rio Grande de at present. I got about a role in the Mexican state of call we live 35 miles south east of what is now Eagle Pass Eagle Pass of course is in Texas. Someone Battista launched many expeditions into the untamed region beyond the Rio Grande for this settlement was the gateway to Spanish Texas after the closing of the first East Texas missions in 16 93. For a combination of reasons someone about Tista became the most advanced outpost on the north eastern front here of New Spain the colonial name for Mexico as a frontier outpost it sent probing thrusts into the land
beyond then in 1714. But 14 years after its founding the Frenchman whose name Anglo size becomes St. Denis appeared out of the Texas wilderness and arouse Spanish fears that the territory stood in danger of being invaded. And so from Son one bout Tista were dispatched expeditions to re-establish East Texas missions to plant a mission settlement on the San Antonio River to nurture these new foundations with supplies and provisions and to explore the land along the Rio Grande and across the river. Founded in 17:00 challenge by the French in 1714 someone then suddenly moved from out post of the front here to a stabilizer of the Spanish
position in the Texas area. Indeed that hot day in July 17 14 that found the Frenchman coming to San Juan Bautista jarred that Spanish settlement from its complacent slumber into a state of panic. From that day on that temple of life on the Rio Grande It was never the same. The Spanish would thereafter be obliged to watch a rival guard a border and prevent or promote smuggling. This threat that the French then represented in 1714 in Texas is reminiscent of one they had earlier presented to the Spanish in Florida. Indeed a full 50 years earlier. French Huguenots threatening the area of Florida caused the Spanish to settle that first permanent settlement within the confines of the United States today. St. Augustine in 15 65.
The Spanish had looked at Florida and had not found it desirable. But when a competitor threatened to move in on a flank position one that would threaten the shipping lanes of the wealth that went from Mexico back to Spain. Spain had to take steps and move permanently into Florida. Now 50 years later in 1714 the French threat comes out of the Mississippi Valley into Texas as though it were coming headlong from north to south into the storehouse of Spanish wealth Mexico itself. And so once again an area which had not proclaimed its significance to Spain in such fashion as to cause her to want it herself. Indeed she had withdrawn missions from more advanced positions in Texas a few years earlier is now a necessity. And so someone bought the stuff from Tir
outpost became the introducer and consolidator of Spanish power and culture into the region. That is the present day state of Texas important among men at someone was all about race. He with missionary zeal appraise the Indians of Texas and the opportunity indeed the challenge before him as a missionary in these words. I quote from a letter that Padre all of virus wrote to the Viceroy in 17 16. The nations which we have come to know and to deal with are 50 not counting those of which we have little knowledge their languages are different only by means of signs are they understood among all the nations. They are governed and conduct their trade with signs their customs are generally the same.
Some are more spirited than others. They are very warlike among themselves and they kill one another with ease. For things of little consequence as they steal horses or women from each other yet their presence is agreeable. They are smiling countenance and direct comma dating to the Padres and Spaniards when they come to their Rancho Rio as they freely give them what they have to eat. They are very fond of Spanish dress soldiers often give them a hat cloak trousers or any other garment and pay for work they do. Learning is easy for them and they acquire use of the Spanish language with facility. All of them desire to be Christians. We have then the sense of challenge that the Indians represent to the missionary to Padre all of us. And he obviously has a dream of reestablishing the Spanish missions
to the north and northeast of San Juan Bautista. In 17 18 exactly 250 years ago the international effort resulted in the establishment of the present day city of San Antonio which of course is not only the seat of hemispherical this year but the reason for the celebration. The reason for the fare is in that 200 50th anniversary of the founding of the community. In time other missions are established. The challenge to the French is held off. And there is every reason to believe that Spanish power is secure. We have however with the passage of time the movement of men and supplies the establishment of alternate roads. And then it was that in 1755 a place called Laredo appeared on the map a little downstream
closer to the sea down the Rio Grande Bay and then upstream from San Juan Bautista appeared another community that's in the Spanish was possible. I got on the American side of the Rio Grande and today it is Eagle Pass. In time these communities so attracted the traffic that someone Battista fell into somewhat of a backwash. And yet it had played this preeminent role as mother to the establishment of the Spanish will in 18th century years. Early one thousand nine hundred three years upon the area that is Texas the main street of gravel the little town that is now the site of the ruins of someone about it was once called and it is easy to imagine
the processions related to history that have marched through the streets. The steel hooves of the Spanish trooper steed the bare feet of the brown robed missionary the wooden wheels of the settlers all have helped to wear away the street surface now eroded more than two feet deep. In some respects the street may appear ordinary but the caverns and the caravans which have traversed it in depth and in length of time have not disappeared nor are they ordinary. The imaginative minds eye may recapture some of the scenes it was kept in. Don't Diego Ramon returning from the other side of the Rio Grande 707 bringing a procession of half naked heathen savages to replace those who
had died in the small pox ravaged missions. Then St. Denis the French threat appears suddenly out of the wilderness bearing exotic French goods to tease the tastes of the front here Spaniards and entice them into violation of the laws of the crown. There's the dotty old missionary all about us with his dream of a renewal of the mission system of Texas. There's the dedicated in designing fire. Francisco the Dago the young and earnest Padre Espinosa the venerable. I'm Tony Oh my. They have suits his bare feet blackened encrusted with ugly sores from countless leagues of travel over his up a star like trail. But with a face aglow with zeal for spiritual conquest One might also glimpse in this the ruins of the old main street of someone about to start the
military figure in one's imaginative mind's eye the military figure of Zebulon Pike homeward bound from Spanish imprisonment. Then mile I'm traveling to the interior in quest of colonization rights. And then too there's the hastening army of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna destined for glory at the Alamo and infamy at San Jacinto. Laura one can recall General Johnny wool Captain Robert E. Lee and the American army of Chihuahua. Not an ordinary street the colliery ol son one about. This was the first and the most enduring gateway to Spanish Texas today. The town lies a ruin but it lies astride the course of Texas history in a manner that
cannot fail to be recognized and in a fact volume fully illustrated and written with a charm that is both general and personal. We have the account of sun one given us in the vol. sun one Bautista gateway to Spanish Texas written by Robert S. Weddle published by the University of Texas press. This was another program in the series Latin America perspectives with Dr. C. Harvey Gardner research professor of history at Southern Illinois University. Join us for our next program when Dr. Gardner will comment on another interesting aspect of Latin American affairs. These programs are recorded by station WFIU FM and are made available to this station by the national educational radio network.
Series
Latin American perspectives II
Episode Number
Episode 9 of 38
Producing Organization
WSIU 8 (Television station : Carbondale, Ill.)
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-b27psv03
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Description
Series Description
For series info, see Item 3544. This prog.: San Juan Bautista: Gateway to Spanish Texas by Robert Weddel
Date
1968-03-25
Topics
Global Affairs
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:14:48
Embed Code
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Credits
Producing Organization: WSIU 8 (Television station : Carbondale, Ill.)
Producing Organization: Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 68-3-19 (National Association of Educational Broadcasters)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:13:44
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Citations
Chicago: “Latin American perspectives II; Episode 9 of 38,” 1968-03-25, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-b27psv03.
MLA: “Latin American perspectives II; Episode 9 of 38.” 1968-03-25. University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-b27psv03>.
APA: Latin American perspectives II; Episode 9 of 38. Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-b27psv03