Preserving Early Texas History

About the Book

Through this second volume of selected essays, the author continues to bring attention to the Spanish Mexican foundation roots of Texas and the Southwest. As with volume 1, this book focuses on a most intriguing question—that is, if mainstream historians tell us that Texas history begins in 1836 with the arrival of Anglo-Saxon and Northern European–descent immigrants from the US, why then is everything historically old (states, towns, roads, rivers, geographical regions, etc.) named in Spanish? Equally, this book is a reminder that Spanish Mexican (and brethren Native American) traditions are the founding components of New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, California, and surrounding regions. They are not the result of recent immigration. This vast territory is distinctively Native American in character and gives Spanish land grant heirs and mestizo descendants of Spanish Mexican pioneer founders the right to preserve their rich heritage “on this side of the border.”

About the Author

Mr. José Antonio (Joe) López was born and raised in Laredo, Texas. USAF Veteran. He is a direct descendant of Don Javier Uribe and Doña Apolinaria Bermúdez de Uribe, one of the earliest families that settled in what is now South Texas in 1750. He is married to the former Cordelia Jean “Cordy” Dancause of Laredo. He has college degrees from Laredo Jr. College and Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, TX. He earned a Master’s Degree in Education. Other books by the author: “The Last Knight (Don Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara Uribe, A Texas Hero)”, “Nights of Wailing, Days of Pain (Life in 1920s South Texas)”, “The First Texas Independence, 1813” (a reprinted bilingual version of his first book “The Last Knight”), “Preserving Early Texas History (Essays of an 8th Generation South Texan)”, and “Friendly Betrayal”. Mr. Lopez is also a newspaper columnist who writes about issues affecting Spanish-surnamed citizens in the Southwest. He and his wife visit school campuses and meet with genealogy, history, and social service groups throughout South Texas sharing the Spanish Mexican roots of Texas and Southwest. Mr. Lopez is the founder of the Tejano Learning Center, LLC, and www.tejanosunidos.org , a web site dedicated to Spanish Mexican people and events in U.S. history that are mostly overlooked in mainstream history books.