The Kingdom Of Zapata

Download or read book A Law for the Lion written by Beatriz de la Garza and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2009-03-16 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Esto no es cosa de armas" (this is not a matter for weapons). These were the last words of Don Francisco Gutiérrez before Alonzo W. Allee shot and killed him and his son, Manuel Gutiérrez. What began as a simple dispute over Allee's unauthorized tenancy on a Gutiérrez family ranch near Laredo, Texas, led not only to the slaying of these two prominent Mexican landowners but also to a blatant miscarriage of justice. In this engrossing account of the 1912 crime and the subsequent trial of Allee, Beatriz de la Garza delves into the political, ethnic, and cultural worlds of the Texas-Mexico border to expose the tensions between the Anglo minority and the Mexican majority that propelled the killings and their aftermath. Drawing on original sources, she uncovers how influential Anglos financed a first-class legal team for Allee's defense and also discusses how Anglo-owned newspapers helped shape public opinion in Allee's favor. In telling the story of this long-ago crime and its tragic results, de la Garza sheds new light on the interethnic struggles that defined life on the border a century ago, on the mystique of the Texas Rangers (Allee was said to be a Ranger), and on the legal framework that once institutionalized violence and lawlessness in Texas.

Download or read book From the Republic of the Rio Grande written by Beatriz de la Garza and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Republic of the Rio Grande had a brief and tenuous existence (1838–1840) before most of it was reabsorbed by Mexico and the remainder annexed by the United States, yet this region that straddles the Rio Grande has retained its distinctive cultural identity to the present day. Born on one side of the Rio Grande and raised on the other, Beatriz de la Garza is a product of this region. Her birthplace and its people are the subjects of this work, which fuses family memoir and borderlands history. From the Republic of the Rio Grande brings new insights and information to the study of transnational cultures by drawing from family papers supplemented by other original sources, local chronicles, and scholarly works. De la Garza has fashioned a history of this area from the perspective of individuals involved in the events recounted. The book is composed of nine sections spanning some two hundred years, beginning in the mid-1700s. Each section covers not only a chronological period but also a particular theme relating to the history of the region. De la Garza takes a personal approach, opening most sections with an individual observation or experience that leads to the central motif, whether this is the shared identity of the inhabitants, their pride in their biculturalism and bilingualism, or their deep attachment to the land of their ancestors.

Download or read book The Kingdom Of Fiends written by Jeffrey Walters and published by Jeffrey Walters . This book was released on 2020-09-13 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE KINGDOM OF FIENDs, is a fictional story about the gangs in Central America and the abandonment of members of a missionary youth group in a church located in the Slums of Torocagua in the fictional capital of Tengenalpa in the republic in Central America. The Mission group is witness to an assassination of a young boy by the 18th street gang- a violent group that rules over the kingdom. The missionaries are threatened by the gang and depart for the safety of a Hotel, but four lonely souls –the invisible ones- are left behind by an uncaring right-wing preacher that seems to have forgotten the teachings of the Bible. The young missionaries are subject to the gang's violence, the same violence experienced every day by the citizens of Torocagua. Some of the poor souls are killed, others are raped, kidnapped and taken to the compound of Gordo Félix the patron of the kingdom of fiends, the extortion king. A female MS13 gang - mortal enemy of the 18th street gang - member being held as sex slave by Gordo Felix helps the missionaries escape the 18th street gang compound. As corruption is common in the republic, the missionaries are not only hunted by the 18th Street gang once they escape – attempting to make it to the American Embassy- but also by a corrupt police search block trying to recover a cell phone because of compromising messages - police coordination and payoffs - with the gang. The less than Holy actions of the right-wing Evangelical preacher , Pastor Fermin, of The church of Latter-Day Saints of Jesus Christ attempts to cover up why the young missionaries were left behind at the mission in the slum of Torocagua, but his son, the youth pastor, Gregory, while tormented between telling the truth or continuing the lie to the public in order to protect his father finds his place where he can exist and have a sense of purpose in the chaotic world of the Kingdom of Fiends. Editor’s Note: “This story addresses the impact that corrupt leadership has on society, how it enslaves the ordinary person and forces them into a lifestyle they had never aspired to, which, in turn, supports the people in control, creating a self-perpetuating, eternal kingdom of fiends”. For the purpose of originality, there is dialogue in Spanish, but mostly in short phrases, by certain protagonist in the Kingdom of Fiends.

Download or read book The Texas Landscape Project written by David A. Todd and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-05 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Texas Landscape Project explores conservation and ecology in Texas by presenting a highly visual and deeply researched view of the widespread changes that have affected the state as its population and economy have boomed and as Texans have worked ever harder to safeguard its bountiful but limited natural resources. Covering the entire state, from Pineywoods bottomlands and Panhandle playas to Hill Country springs and Big Bend canyons, the project examines a host of familiar and not so familiar environmental issues. A companion volume to The Texas Legacy Project, this book tracks specific environmental changes that have occurred in Texas using more than 300 color maps, expertly crafted by cartographer Jonathan Ogren, and over 100 photographs that coalesce to fashion a broad portrait of the modern Texas landscape. The rich data, compiled by author David Todd, are presented in clearly written yet marvelously detailed text that gives historical context and contemporary statistics for environmental trends connected to the land, water, air, energy, and built world of the second-largest and second-most populated state in the nation. An engaging read for any environmentalist or conscientious citizen, The Texas Landscape Project provides a true sense of the grand scope of the Lone Star State and the high stakes of protecting it. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.

Download or read book Lost Architecture of the Rio Grande Borderlands written by W. Eugene George and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-24 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mexican settlers first came to the valley of the Rio Grande to establish their ranchos in the 1750s. Two centuries later the Great River, dammed in an international effort by the U.S. and Mexican governments to provide flood control and a more dependable water supply, inundated twelve settlements that had been built there. Under the waters of the new Falcón Reservoir lay homes, businesses, churches, and cemeteries abandoned by residents on both sides of the river when the floods of 1953 filled the 115,000-acre area two years ahead of schedule. The Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, and the University of Texas at Austin conducted an initial survey of the communities lost to the Falcón Reservoir, but these studies were never completed or fully reported. When architect W. Eugene George came to the area in the 1960s, he found a way of life waiting to be preserved in words, photographs, and drawings. Two subsequent recessions of the reservoir—in 1983–86 and again in 1996–98—gave George new access to one of the settlements, Guerrero Viejo in Mexico. Unfortunately, the receding lake waters also made the village accessible to looters. George’s work, then, was crucial in documenting the indigenous architecture of these villages, both as it existed prior to the flooding and as it remained before it was despoiled by vandals’ hands. Lost Architecture of the Rio Grande Borderlands combines George’s original 1975 Texas Historical Commission report with the information he gleaned during the two low-water periods. This handsome, extended photographic essay casts new light on the architecture and lives of the people of the Texas-Mexico borderlands.

Download or read book LBJ and Mexican Americans written by Julie Leininger Pycior and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-07-05 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Masterfully researched. . . . There is no book like this either in the field of LBJ literature or in the field of Chicano history.” —Mario T. García, author of Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1930–1960 As he worked to build his Great Society, Lyndon Johnson often harkened back to his teaching days in the segregated “Mexican school” at Cotulla, Texas. Recalling the poverty and prejudice that blighted his students’ lives, Johnson declared, “It never occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all over this country. But now I do have that chance—and I’ll let you in on a secret—I mean to use it.” This book explores the complex and sometimes contradictory relations between LBJ and Mexican Americans. Julie Pycior shows that Johnson’s genuine desire to help Mexican Americans—and reap the political dividends—did not prevent him from allying himself with individuals and groups intent on thwarting Mexican Americans’ organizing efforts. Not surprisingly, these actions elicited a wide range of response, from grateful loyalty to, in some cases, outright opposition. Mexican Americans’ complicated relationship with LBJ influenced both their political development and his career—with consequences that reverberated in society at large.

Download or read book Master Builder of the Lower Rio Grande written by W. Eugene George and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1865, Heinrich Portscheller emigrated to Mexico from his native Germany, perhaps motivated by a desire to avoid compulsory military service in the Austro-Prussian War. The scion of a well-known family of masons and master builders, he had the misfortune to disembark at Veracruz during the Franco-Mexican War. Portscheller and his traveling companion were impressed into the imperialist forces and sent to northern Mexico. Sometime following the Battle of Santa Gertrudis in1866, Portscheller deserted the army and eventually made a place for himself in Roma, a small town in Starr County, Texas. Over the next decades, Portscheller acquired a reputation as a master builder and architect. He brought to the Lower Rio Grande Valley his long heritage of Old World building knowledge and skills and integrated them with the practices of local Mexican construction and vernacular architecture. However, despite his many contributions to the distinctive architecture of Roma and surrounding places, by the mid-twentieth century he was largely forgotten. During nearly fifty years of historical sleuthing in South Texas and Germany, W. Eugene George reconstructed many of the details of the life and career of this important South Texas craftsman. Containing editorial contributions by Mary Carolyn Hollers George and featuring a foreword by Mariá Eugenia Guerra and a concluding assessment by noted architectural historian Stephen Fox, Master Builder of the Lower Rio Grande: Heinrich Portscheller at last permits a long-overdue appreciation of the legacy of this influential architect and builder of the Texas-Mexico borderlands.