Thread: 7 flags over Texas?

7 flags over Texas? Event to shed light on forgotten history

Web Posted: 04/06/2008 12:59 AM CDT

Jeorge Zarazua
Express-News

Tejano historian Dan Arrellano is on a personal crusade to change what he claims is one of the biggest misconceptions in the state — one that continues to be taught in classrooms.

There were not six national flags flown over Texas. There were seven.

The forgotten seventh flag, Arrellano says, was a solid green one, hoisted here in San Antonio in April 1813 declaring the first Republic of Texas.

It was a short-lived republic, Arrellano concedes. It lasted only four months and was quashed at the Battle of Medina, a bloody clash between the new Republic and Spanish Royalists that until recent years had, itself, gone almost forgotten.

Today, Arrellano and other Texas historians will gather in front of the Spanish Governor's Palace downtown to raise awareness of the seventh flag and the first incarnation of the Texas Republic.

The event will include a reenactment of the Tejano Declaration of Independence that Jose Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara, president of the fledging republic, proclaimed 195 years ago — on April 6, 1813.





Jesús F. de la Teja, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry last year as Texas' first State Historian, acknowledges Arrellano's argument.

"The whole 'six flags' is kind of a marketing gimmick anyway," de la Teja said. "For historians, it really doesn't have any significance. It's kind of a marketing tool for the state to show its heritage of diversity. So, one more or one less is merely a matter of marketing."

But for Arrellano, who laments the fact that so many places — including the state Capitol — fly only six flags, the issue is much deeper.

"It's political," he said, adding the state repeatedly fails to recognize the contributions of Tejanos, or Hispanic Texans, in its history.

De la Teja concedes the state could do a better job in teaching its history to its students — something he plans to work on as the state's historian. He is slated to speak at today's anniversary events.

"The few words that I have will be why we have to do a better job of teaching this part of history to students," he said, adding that doing so will give students a better perspective of the historical events that followed, leading up to the battle of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution.

Arrellano hopes one day Gutierrez's name will ring predominantly in the state's history classrooms.

He said Sunday's event will be the first time San Antonio has recognized an anniversary of Gutierrez's Tejano Declaration of Independence.

Gutierrez, a blacksmith and merchant, was a Mexican revolutionary who set out to free Texas from Spain after a priest in Dolores, Mexico, rang his church bell on Sept. 16, 1810, calling for a revolt to Spanish rule — a day now celebrated as Diez y Seis de Septiembre.

Even though Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was eventually captured and executed in August 1811, Gutierrez continued on his quest, traveling to Texas and on to Washington, D.C., where he is said to have received the unofficial support of Secretary of State James Monroe.

Robert H. Thonhoff, a Karnes County historian, said some researchers believe the color green was chosen for the flag of the First Texas Republic because it was the only color of cloth available when Gutierrez began his expedition into Texas to overthrow the Spanish governor. By that time, Gutierrez had joined forces with Lt. Augustus William Magee, who had formed the Republican Army of the North. Other historians believe the green color was chosen because Magee was of Irish descent.

Under that flag, which was initially a battle flag, Thonhoff said the Gutierrez-Magee expedition was able to win battles against Spanish forces in Nacogdoches and Goliad, where Magee suspiciously died in the Presidio La Bahia. Some believe he was poisoned.

The Republican Army continued, defeating the last Spanish Royalist army in the state at the Battle of Rosillo on March 28, 1813.

Spanish Governor Manuel Maria de Salcedo and his envoy displayed a white flag of truce as Gutierrez and his victorious Republican Army approached San Antonio on April 1, 1813.

Arrellano said Mexican dignitaries from Gutierrez's hometown of Guerrero in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas have been invited to participate in the reenactment of the declaration of independence.

Thonhoff offers another possible explanation as to why so many have forgotten the green flag of the First Texas Republic.

"So disastrous was the Battle of Medina that a battlefield has been forgotten and lost, a Republic of Texas has been forgotten, a green flag has been forgotten, and a first Texas Revolution has been forgotten," he said. "People just didn't talk about it."



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jzarazua@express-news.net
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"It's political," he said, adding the state repeatedly fails to recognize the contributions of Tejanos, or Hispanic Texans, in its history.

Because recognition is the key here. Americans are falling into proverty because of third world invasion and slimey polititians but let's 'recognize' some 'heros' shall we?

California has had five flags flown over it, Russian, Spanish, Mexican, Bear Republic, and US.