The Tejano-Anglo alliance: Tejanos, ethnicity, and politics in Texas, 1832-1865

Abstract

This thesis discusses the alliance between Tejanos and Anglos in Texas politics in the years before and during the Civil War. To examine this era, original documents and correspondence from prominent Tejano and Anglo politicians are used, as well as military correspondence between Confederate officers during the Civil War. A number of secondary sources dealing with Texas politics, the Civil War, ethnicity, and national identity were also consulted. This project begins with an examination of the antebellum conditions in Texas, and the political crisis which necessitated the convergence of Tejano and southern Democratic interests. Following this, the Civil War career of Colonel Santos Benavides, the most important Tejano to serve the Confederacy is discussed. Next, the Tejanos are placed in context with German and Irish immigrants during the antebellum and Civil War era. The major conclusion reached by this thesis is that the Tejanos fought for the Confederacy out of a sense of duty to their home, but also possibly because of patronage and pressure to assimilate into Anglo society.