Waco Tribune-Herald from Waco, Texas • Page 39

Several Men Play Outstanding Roles in Independence Fight note: The M'Wican Texan played a cant role In the history of the Star State. Home of their are reviewed briefly in sketches of few notable Individuals which are being presented as a Sunday series la the Waco Tribune-Herald over Hie next several Sundays. Placido Benavides Placido Benavides, one of Martin do colonists, played a leading part in the for Texas independence. A native of Reynosfc, Benavides came to Texas in 1828 as secretary to Francisco do commissioner of the De Le un colony. With two of his brothers, Benavides shared a land grant on Placido Creek.

Hr married Agustina de 1 and became alcalde of Victoria in 1832. home, Round TU House, served as a refuse for colonists during Indian Raids. Always loyal to the Texan cause, Benavides led a of Mexican Texan a nchers during the TexVis Revolution. Anglo antipathy toward Mexicans in immediate wake of the war caused him to move family to where he died in 1837. Ramon Musquiz Musquiz is one of the best friends tu Texas and the truest that lives in this and he deserves the confidence of the Colony and of ail So wrote Ste- F.

Au tin front San Antonio in December 3835. I Ramon was the ica! chief and the highest civil ofi in Texas from 1827 until 1834. All official re'u- tions of the colonists with ihe stae and fedexiil governments had to conducted through him. Musquiz was born of an old and distinguished family in northern Coahufcia. His father.

Captain Miguel I.ad been stationed tit Nacogdoches dur- the Phihp Nolan tion. Prior to becoming a iiticai leader, Ranmn operated a mercantile business. Upon assuming office in Bexar he sivAved an earnest desire to promote, in all legal ways, the welfare the Texan colonists. He cooperated with Stephen F. Austin and I others who sincerely believed that the introduction of slavery was necessary for the rai.iid development of Texas.

Musquiz successfully urged Mexican authorities to exempt Texas from the decree oi 1829, abolishing slavery in Mexico. He also worked to make Texas a separate state within the Mexican nation. In March 1835 he replaced Juan Sequin as Vice Governor of Texas, and tiiroe months later was elevated to the governorship. He as in Sim Antonio during the battle of th Alamo, and later tend the Texan dead. Fhortly thereafter left San Antonio and lived in one lova until 1839, when he returned to San Antonio, Texas Declaration Independence On March 2, 1836 four days before Santa Anna's I cess at the Alamo dele; gates at the town of ton signed Declaration of Independence.

At least seven Mexican Texans were elected to serve in this convention, but only three were able to attend Jose Antonio Navarro, Jose Francisco Ruiz, and Lorenzo de Zavala. Jose Antonio Navarro For fifty years before the American Civil War, Jose Antonio Navarro had a part in every major decision affecting the history of Bom in San Antonio de Bexar in 1795, lie was involved in the first stirrings for independence from Spain and was active in the insurrection led by Gutierrez and Magee. When that uprising failed, Navarro took refuge in ixvuisiana until granted amnesty in 1816. His pleasant friendship with Stephen F. Austin began in 1821, when the colonizer was locating his settlers in Texas.

Navarro was a member of the Chamber of Deputies in the state legislature, when, at urging, he introduced a prudent and novel (piece of legislation into the New World. Decree No. 70, passed by tiie legislature of Coahuihi and Texas in 1829, was the forerunner of the homestead law. Texas thus became the first government in this hemisphere to make the family secure in its home. A signer of Texas' Declaration of Independence, arro was Actelf C.

Herrera Collection J05.E FRANCISCO RUIZ also a member of the committee to draft its constitution After serving in the Third Congress of the Republic, he reluctantly accepted President M. Lamar's ap- 1-ointment in 1841 as coiumis- oner on the ill-fated Santa Fe Expedition. As a result, Navarro four years in a Mexican prison. He escaped iri time to attend the Texas Convention of 1815, where he voted lor annexation to the United States and helped draw up the new constitution Nfcvarro was a state senator in the First and Second 1 legislatures, are! at an Austin meeting in 18(11. the secession ordinance.

Twenty-five years before his death in 1871, Navarro County was created and named in his honor. The county scat, Cor- Sicana, is scm ailed for his la- ther's birthplace on the isle of Crosica, Jose Francisco Ruiz Bom in San Antonio on September 1, 1780 Jose Francisco Ruiz was sent by his family to Spain for an education. He returned home in 1803, filled with ideas of self-government. He became a respected and influential teacher and was an early supporter of the Mexican Revolution. Unlike others, wlio escaped to the United States after defeat of the Gutierrez-Magce Ruiz went to live among the Indians and remained i them until Mexico gained independence.

He was soon a colonel in the Mexican army, where his knowledge of the Indians was a great asset in military and governmental affairs. After signing the Texas Declaration of Independence, Ruiz served as the first senator from Bexar to the Texas Congress. Lorenzo de Zavala Lorenzo de illustrious politic 1 career began in his native Yucantan as a member of its provisional assembly and as its representative to the Spanish Cortes in Madrid. An advocate of democratic reforms, he served in the Mexican Congress from 1822 until his election as governor of the state of Mexico in 1827. Under President Vicente Guerrero, De Zavala was Minister of the Treasury and received an impresario land grant to settle families in Texas.

In 1833 Santa Anna called the scholarly statesman from the Mexican Chamber of Deputies to bo Minister to France. Giving up the post when Anna abrogated the Mexican Constitution Of 1821. De Zavsla brought his familv to Texas and established a home near present Houston in 1835. He represented the Harrisburg municipality in the 1833 Consultation at San Felipe and attended the Convention of 1836 at the town Washington. where he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.

On March 17, 1836, De Zavala was named ad interim ATTUll RADE SL I MALADES brove ADBPR AN I I TESSIBALAK OMARlTTOMMy TELEGRAM LONE AMAT BILL ent rwOE AB I ERN OT I PADS SHOE AVE A PL Answer for Sunday, October 10, Cryptuquip; IMMINENT CATASTROPHE IS OFFSET BY BIO PSYCHOLOGICAL RAP. (0 Kins Syndicate, lac.) See CroKfeword 1'u zzlft mi XI) NASHVILLE SOUND OF GOSPEL MUSIC 4 BIG LEW THE PROPHETS THE KLAUDT INDIAN FAMILY i THE SINGING HEMPHILLS SUNDAY 10 P.M. ADMITS $2.00 CHtlDNt.M fUNOfcR 12JS1.CJ NO NVtO 1L ATS (PR'CE INCLUDES ADMISSION TO GROUNDS' TEX AS TELEPHONt 817-776 1660 Copltol of Austin LORENZO DE ZAVALA vice-president of the Republic of Texas. His health was failing, and he resigned this office only a month before his death, on November 15. 1836.

Although deeply involved in the struggles for Mexican independence, and later lor Texas dr Zavala found time in his 17 years to publish a number of important books on Mexican jjoiitics. He was highly esteemed by his fellow Texans, who considered him one of the most interesting and lished gentlemen of their frontier. Gregorio Esparza (Jrcgorio Esparza one of nine known Mexican Texans to die in the Alamo was its only defender when Santa Anna allowed to be buried. Bodies of all the others were burned, including Juan Aha- millo, Juan A. Badillo.

Garlos Espalier, Antonio s. Jose Maria Gmiorio, Tori bio Losoya, Andres Nava, and Guadalupe Rodriquez. Esparza was tin exception because his brother was on call to Santa Anna during the storming of the Alamo, and id ned General Cos at the siege of Bexar in December. 1835. Gregorio, the other land, had entered the service as a volunteer in mid- October.

and with Juan company, helped drive Cos from San Antonio. When The Mexican success San Patricio and Goliad during ihe Texas Revolution might have been reversed had a plan devised by Captain Jesus Cuellar succeeded. A soldier in the Mex- Featuring Needlepoint by Silvia Sidney One of the first ladies of stage, TV, and screen. Unusual designs and stitches. Kits include pillows, pictures, doorstops, belts and pin cushion.

Painted needlepoint, can- v'ttH designs, by Hose-ne of Oklahoma, Maggie of Waco Unicorn of Ft. Worth. Persian Needlepoint and Crewel wool from Erie Greene, Paragon and Reynolds International. Material for this newspaper series 3s from the booklet Mexican published by The University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures. The booklet is the fourth In a series of 20 planned by the Institute.

It is available in either English or Spanish.The series, "The Texians and the will cover the history and contributions of major racial, national, and cultural groups who make up the population of Texas. Earlier publications were Indian German and Norwegian All can be ordered from the Institute of Texan Cultures. Box 1226, San Antonio, Texas 78294. Individual copies $1.25 plus 6 cent sales tax and 11 cents postage and handling. Quantity discounts for orders of 50 or more.

FALL OF THE ALAMO Santa Anna reoccupied the city early in 1836, Esparza warned that ho ami ms family had better take refuge in the Alamo. The siege was beginning, and massive doors barred tight in the beleaguered a 11 when the Esparzas, under cover of night, were raised through a window into Alamo There Gregorio was found on March 6, the eve of his thirty-fourth birthday, slumped over the small cannon he had manned a ball in his chest and a saber slash through his side. slave, Joe, and at least twelve women and children survived the battle inside the Alamo. Five were Esparzas: wife and their four small youngsters. Esparza was proud of his heritage from a mestizo father and a Spanish mother, and his offspring were proud of him.

One son. Enrique, lived to be eighty-nine. At his death in 1917. the family's printed announcement closed rased was a son of the soldiers on the side of the Americans in the battle of the Jo.se Mipiel Aldirlr During the Texas i Jose Miguel Aldrete served with Captain garrison at Golds ad, signed the Goliad Declaration of ondenc and helped supply the Texan forces. Little is known of Ai- youth, although he probably was horn at La Bahia.

He married a daughter of Mexican Empresario Martin de Leon, on the Goliad townc uncil, and was several times calde. A large landholder in Nuices and fiefuiro Count es, Aldrete was land commissioner of Coahuila and Texas in 1835, when Santa Anna did away with its government. ican army until after the siege of Bexar, Cuellar deserted to tiie Texas side because of his personal dislike for Santa Anna. He joined troops at Goliad and D.R.T. Library suggested a strategem of entrapping forces at pass.

Fannin was too slow' in taking action and s- -on was massacred at Goliad along with his men. Cuellar, in tiie meantime, had been sent as a messenger to Refugio and managed to make his way to Texas forces on the Brazos, sources say he was with General Sam Houston at San Jacinto. Nicknamed for having once been an Indian captive. me liar remained a loyal Texas citizen and died at Goliad in 1841. NEXT Si M)Ai I rasnm and Juan SegiUn.

Antonio Mcnchaca, (or Maria chus ar tiajul, and Ijis FLY to LAS VEGAS for the TH II EEKEKD Nov. 24 a 17400 ONLY Fly to Yejjaa, Back at the Drscrt Inn Debbie Reynolds Midnight Show to oil ard Hondling Included. ALL WORLD TRAVEL mi Lake Air Dr. MONDAY-TUESDAY ONLY! AND HALF SIZES' DRESS PANT SUIT SALE! PANT ORIGINALLY $15 to $20 $22 to $26 $27 to $40 SUITS NOW: I JIM DRESSES ORIGINALLY NOW: Coulottc Dresses 6 to 8 $13 to $36 QUANTITIES LIMITED! HURRY TO WARDS! GiRLS' 7 TO 14 DRESSES Reg. $5 to $6 "CHARGE IT" AT WARDS GIRLS' MX DRESSES Reg.

$3 to $5 SAVE AT WARDS vX WARDS LAKE AIR CENTER: 776-1050 EASTGATE: 799-6241 Hove You Vijiicd Word? Convenience Center? 4 i 11 roll In ks Mone) i I 111 i I 9 HilU SHOP DAILY 9:30 o.m, 'til 6 p.m. Monday, Thurtdoy and Friday 9:30 a.m, 'til 9 p.m. Sunday, Oct, 10, 971 MEXICAN TEXANS tflaco bunr-fora! Waco, 9-C BOOKLET AVAILABLE.