In the late seventeenth century, General Alonso de León led five military expeditions from northern New Spain into what is now Texas in search of French intruders who had settled on lands claimed by the Spanish crown. Lola Orellano Norris has identified sixteen manuscript copies of de León’s meticulously kept expedition diaries. These documents hold major importance for early Texas scholarship. Some of these early manuscripts have been known to historians, but never before have all sixteen manuscripts been studied. In this interdisciplinary study, Norris transcribes, translates, and analyzes the diaries from two different perspectives. The historical analysis reveals that frequent misinterpretations of the Spanish source documents have led to substantial factual errors that have persisted in historical interpretation for more than a century. General Alonso de León’s Expeditions into Texas is the first presentation of these important early documents and provides new vistas on Spanish Texas.

This authoritative, annotated translation of the 17th century text is essential reading for historians of New Spain and Spanish Texas. In the seventeenth century, South Texas and Northeastern Mexico formed El Nuevo Reino de León, a frontier province of New Spain. In 1690, Juan Bautista Chapa penned a richly detailed history of Nuevo León for the years 1630 to 1690. Although his Historia de Nuevo León was not published until 1909, it has since been acclaimed as the key contemporary document for any historical study of Spanish colonial Texas. This book offers the only accurate and annotated English translation of Chapa's Historia. In addition to the translation, William C. Foster also summarizes the Discourses of Alonso de León (the elder), which cover the years 1580 to 1649. The appendix includes a translation of Alonso (the younger) de León's previously unpublished revised diary of the 1690 expedition to East Texas and an alphabetical listing of over 80 Indian tribes identified in this book. Chapa’s Historia lists the names and locations of over 300 Indian tribes. This information, together with descriptions of the vegetation, wildlife, and climate in seventeenth-century Texas, make this book essential reading for ethnographers, anthropologists, and biogeographers, as well as students and scholars of Spanish borderlands history.

The 1690 expedition led by Alonso de León into present day Texas proved to be a pivotal journey that had lasting effects on the development of Spain's land north of the Rio Grande. This expedition established the first Catholic mission in the area. Also, LaSalle's abandoned settlement was burned, and several Frenchmen living among the Indians were captured and returned with the expedition party to Mexico. The bartering for the release of some of these Frenchmen resulted in a skirmish in which four native Indians were killed. In addition, De León chronicled a great amount of information about the land through which he traveled, leaving a lasting diary recording his experiences as well as offering a glimpse into the then unsettled lands in present day eastern Texas. The 1690 expedition diary exists in the form of six manuscripts, and their analysis is the focus of this thesis. No scholar has ever taken into consideration all six manuscripts when conducting research regarding this expedition, and therefore research conducted thus far is not thorough. A comparative analysis of these six manuscripts is undertaken in this thesis, and the manuscripts are classified as revised or unrevised. Foster (1997) was the first scholar to classify manuscripts of the 1690 expedition as unrevised and revised. He classified only the Beinecke manuscript as revised, but this thesis also incorporates two other revised manuscripts unknown to Foster, the Gilcrease 67.1 and Gilcrease 67.2. The unrevised manuscripts included in this study are the AGI, AGN, and BNMex manuscripts. Three semi-paleographic transcriptions of manuscripts of Alonso de León's 1690 expedition diary are also presented. The AGI and Beinecke manuscripts are transcribed and an in-depth comparative analysis of the unrevised and revised manuscripts is completed. This analysis presents the numerous discrepancies that exist between the two families of manuscripts. Also, a transcription of the Gilcrease 67.1 manuscript is included to present a document previously unknown to scholars. The findings of thisthesis should be of interest to scholars in many different fields of study who have interest in this time period and this region of the U.S. Southwest.

This authoritative, annotated translation of the 17th century text is essential reading for historians of New Spain and Spanish Texas. In the seventeenth century, South Texas and Northeastern Mexico formed El Nuevo Reino de León, a frontier province of New Spain. In 1690, Juan Bautista Chapa penned a richly detailed history of Nuevo León for the years 1630 to 1690. Although his Historia de Nuevo León was not published until 1909, it has since been acclaimed as the key contemporary document for any historical study of Spanish colonial Texas. This book offers the only accurate and annotated English translation of Chapa's Historia. In addition to the translation, William C. Foster also summarizes the Discourses of Alonso de León (the elder), which cover the years 1580 to 1649. The appendix includes a translation of Alonso (the younger) de León's previously unpublished revised diary of the 1690 expedition to East Texas and an alphabetical listing of over 80 Indian tribes identified in this book. Chapa’s Historia lists the names and locations of over 300 Indian tribes. This information, together with descriptions of the vegetation, wildlife, and climate in seventeenth-century Texas, make this book essential reading for ethnographers, anthropologists, and biogeographers, as well as students and scholars of Spanish borderlands history.

In its essence, Texas history is military history. Comprehensive in scope, A Military History of Texas provides the first single-volume military history of Texas from pre-Columbian clashes between Native American tribes to the establishment of the United States Space Force as the newest branch of the nation’s military in the twenty-first century. Rather than creating new theories of what happened, author Loyd Uglow synthesizes competing views of Texas’s military past into a narrative that deals evenhandedly with different interpretations, and recognizes that there is a measure of truth in each one, even while emphasizing those that seem most plausible. Uglow ties the various engrossing aspects of Texas military history into one unified experience. Chapters cover topics of warfare in Texas before the Europeans; Spanish military activities; revolutions against Spain and then Mexico; Texas and Texans in the Mexican War; ante- and post-bellum warfare on the Texas frontier; the Civil War in Texas; the Texas Rangers; border warfare during the Mexican revolution of 1910-1920; Texas and the world wars; and the modern military in Texas. Brief explanations of military terminology and practice, as well as parallels between Texas military actions and ones in other times and places, connect the narrative to the broader context of world military history. Thoroughly documented, with an engaging narrative and perceptive analysis, A Military History of Texas is designed to be accessible and interesting to a broad range of readers. It will find a welcome place in the collections of amateur or professional military historians, devoted fans of all things Texan, and newcomers to military history.

From East L.A. to the barrios of New York City and the Cuban neighborhoods of Miami, Latino literature, or literature written by Hispanic peoples of the United States, is the written word of North America's vibrant Latino communities. Emerging from the fusion of Spanish, North American, and African cultures, it has always been part of the American mosaic. Written for students and general readers, this encyclopedia surveys the vast landscape of Latino literature from the colonial era to the present. Aiming to be as broad and inclusive as possible, the encyclopedia covers all of native North American Latino literature as well as that created by authors originating in virtually every country of Spanish America and Spain. Included are more than 700 alphabetically arranged entries written by roughly 60 expert contributors. While most of the entries are on writers, such as Julia Alvarez, Sandra Cisneros, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Oscar Hijuelos, and Piri Thomas, others cover genres, ethnic and national literatures, movements, historical topics and events, themes, concepts, associations and organizations, and publishers and magazines. Special attention is given to the cultural, political, social, and historical contexts in which Latino literature has developed. Entries cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. Entries cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. The encyclopedia gives special attention to the social, cultural, historical, and political contexts of Latino literature, thus making it an ideal tool to help students use literature to learn about history and cultural diversity.