The Battle of Medina

02/20/18 • 20 min

Spanish Royalists responded to San Antonio's 1813 Declaration of Independence by massacring the Republican Army of the North and by implementing a deliberate policy of terror against San Antonio's civilians, summarily executing almost three hundred of San Antonio's leading men while forcing their wives, daughters, and mothers to slave away on behalf of the soldiers murdering their loved ones. No community in New Spain suffered the way that San Antonio did for Mexican Independence, and it remains the bloodiest episode in Texas history. CORRECTION: Although the location of the Battle of Medina is not precisely known, it appears to have occurred further east than I describe it in this episode. Go listen to Season 2 for an extended attempt to rectify this error.
Selected Bibliography
Alessio Robles, Vito. Coahuila y Texas en la época colonial (1978).

De La Teja, Jesús F., ed. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguín (2002).

De la Teja, Jesús F. San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (1996).

De Zavala, Lorenzo. Journey to the United States of North America: Viaje a los Estados Unidos del Norte de América. Michael Woolsey, trans., and John-Michael Rivera ed. (2005).

Fisher, Lewis F. Saving San Antonio: The Preservation of a Heritage (2016).

Maverick, Mary A. Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick (2007).

McDonald, David R. José Antonio Navarro: In Search of the American Dream in Nineteenth-Century Texas (2013).

Poyo, Gerald Eugene, and Gilberto M. Hinojosa, eds. Tejano Origins in Eighteenth-Century San Antonio (1995).

Ramos, Raúl A. Beyond the Alamo: Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821-1861 (2010).

Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook of Texas Online.

Tijerina, Andrés. Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (1994).

www.BrandonSeale.com

De La Teja, Jesús F., ed. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguín (2002).

De la Teja, Jesús F. San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (1996).

De Zavala, Lorenzo. Journey to the United States of North America: Viaje a los Estados Unidos del Norte de América. Michael Woolsey, trans., and John-Michael Rivera ed. (2005).

Fisher, Lewis F. Saving San Antonio: The Preservation of a Heritage (2016).

Maverick, Mary A. Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick (2007).

McDonald, David R. José Antonio Navarro: In Search of the American Dream in Nineteenth-Century Texas (2013).

Poyo, Gerald Eugene, and Gilberto M. Hinojosa, eds. Tejano Origins in Eighteenth-Century San Antonio (1995).

Ramos, Raúl A. Beyond the Alamo: Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821-1861 (2010).

Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook of Texas Online.

Tijerina, Andrés. Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (1994).

www.BrandonSeale.com

Previous Episode

The First Republic of Texas

In 1813, San Antonians declared their independence from Spain. The 1813 Texas Declaration of Independence and the 1813 Texas Constitution show San Antonians drawing from both Hispanic and Anglo legal traditions to develop their own political ideology, shaped by and tailored to the hard realities of the Texas frontier.
Selected Bibliography
Alessio Robles, Vito. Coahuila y Texas en la época colonial (1978).

De La Teja, Jesús F., ed. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguín (2002).

De la Teja, Jesús F. San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (1996).

De Zavala, Lorenzo. Journey to the United States of North America: Viaje a los Estados Unidos del Norte de América. Michael Woolsey, trans., and John-Michael Rivera ed. (2005).

Fisher, Lewis F. Saving San Antonio: The Preservation of a Heritage (2016).

Maverick, Mary A. Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick (2007).

McDonald, David R. José Antonio Navarro: In Search of the American Dream in Nineteenth-Century Texas (2013).

Poyo, Gerald Eugene, and Gilberto M. Hinojosa, eds. Tejano Origins in Eighteenth-Century San Antonio (1995).

Ramos, Raúl A. Beyond the Alamo: Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821-1861 (2010).

Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook of Texas Online.

Tijerina, Andrés. Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (1994).

www.BrandonSeale.com

Next Episode

Mexican San Antonio

In 1821, Mexico finally won its independence from Spain. In 1824, the new nation promulgated one of the most enlightened constitutions in the world, establishing a federal republic with clearly-defined civil liberties and checks and balances. San Antonio appeared to be on track to recover from the trauma of 1813 and to emerge from the poverty that old Spanish system had left behind. And the key to their prosperity, they believed, was immigration.
Selected Bibliography
Alessio Robles, Vito. Coahuila y Texas en la época colonial (1978).

De La Teja, Jesús F., ed. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguín (2002).

De la Teja, Jesús F. San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (1996).

De Zavala, Lorenzo. Journey to the United States of North America: Viaje a los Estados Unidos del Norte de América. Michael Woolsey, trans., and John-Michael Rivera ed. (2005).

Fisher, Lewis F. Saving San Antonio: The Preservation of a Heritage (2016).

Maverick, Mary A. Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick (2007).

McDonald, David R. José Antonio Navarro: In Search of the American Dream in Nineteenth-Century Texas (2013).

Poyo, Gerald Eugene, and Gilberto M. Hinojosa, eds. Tejano Origins in Eighteenth-Century San Antonio (1995).

Ramos, Raúl A. Beyond the Alamo: Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821-1861 (2010).

Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook of Texas Online.

Tijerina, Andrés. Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (1994).

www.BrandonSeale.com