A thorough investigation into the life of Texas heroine Francisca Alvarez. During the Texas Revolution of 1836, a young, beautiful 20-year-old Mexican lady risked everything to save American prisoners from execution in Goliad, Texas. However, because of Mexican President Santa Anna's orders to execute them all, it became known as the Goliad Massacre. As a descendant, the author studied the historical testimonials for over 35 years, trying to find her true identity. No one knew her real name since she used different names when speaking to the Presidio La Bahia soldiers. In his research. he found that at a very young age, the Apache abducted her and lived with them for several years before being found and taken to an orphanage in San Luis Potosi. There, she was educated and became a pious, brilliant young lady. General Urrea's family hired her as a governess, leading her to come to Texas at Presidio La Bahia during the Texas Revolution. Because she saved many American soldiers, they proclaimed her The Angel of Goliad, Texas heroine.

The author describes his investigation process and the results and findings of the 1836 Texas Revolution heroine Francisca Alvarez. He answers questions surrounding the mystery of her true identity. It also reports stories of her descendant's past and today in 2023.

A century before the arrival of Stephen F. Austin's colonists, Spanish settlers from Mexico were putting down roots in Texas. From San Antonio de Bexar and La Bahia (Goliad) northeastward to Los Adaes and later Nacogdoches, they formed communities that evolved their own distinct "Tejano" identity. In Tejano Journey, 1770-1850, Gerald Poyo and other noted borderlands historians track the changes and continuities within Tejano communities during the years in which Texas passed from Spain to Mexico to the Republic of Texas and finally to the United States. The authors show how a complex process of accommodation and resistance—marked at different periods by Tejano insurrections, efforts to work within the political and legal systems, and isolation from the mainstream—characterized these years of changing sovereignty. While interest in Spanish and Mexican borderlands history has grown tremendously in recent years, the story has never been fully told from the Tejano perspective. This book complements and continues the history begun in Tejano Origins in Eighteenth-Century San Antonio, which Gerald E. Poyo edited with Gilberto M. Hinojosa.

Texans are fiercely proud of their “Lone Star” flag. It has flown from foxholes, been displayed at military bases around the world, and even been to space. Most Americans don’t even know that the state has had a grand total of fifty-nine different flags over the course of its great history. Texas and Her Fifty-Nine Flags explores the standards for a different approach to a history of Texas. Throughout each chapter, the author provides a story taken from history texts, research and anecdotes collected during his teaching and travels, which took fifteen years. This unique history of Texas will captivate the reader from the first Spanish flag through revolutions and pirates, to the “Bonnie Blue Flag” of the Civil War.