Explore the history of early Texas as you’ve never heard it before, using new research and recently uncovered documents.Season 1 traces the identity of modern-day Texas to the first 160 years or so of San Antonio's history, from its founding in 1718 until the arrival of the railroad in 1877. Season 2 covers the Battle of Medina, the largest, bloodiest battle in Texas history...and the narrowing search for the battlefield itself, which has eluded searchers for more than a century now! And Season 3 tells the remarkable story of Ãlvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his journey across the North American continent. -- As seen on the Rivard Report, KSAT12, GreatDaySA, the Austin Chronicle, and the San Antonio Business Journal! --
The A New History of Old Texas podcast is an incredible show that provides a fresh perspective on the history of San Antonio and Texas as a whole. Hosted by Brandon Seale, a skilled historian, this podcast offers a unique approach to storytelling by focusing on remembrance rather than simply recounting dates and names. It evokes the ambiance and feel of San Antonio, bringing back nostalgia for those who have grown up in the city and sparking curiosity for those who haven't. The liturgical approach adds depth to the episodes, capturing the essence of the past in a way that resonates with listeners.
One of the best aspects of this podcast is its ability to go beyond traditional history lessons and shed light on aspects of Texas history that were often overlooked or neglected. For example, it highlights the role of Mexicans in shaping the state's history, which is often left out of mainstream narratives. The well-researched content delves into forgotten stories, providing listeners with a more comprehensive understanding of the state's rich heritage. Additionally, Seale's storytelling skills are exceptional, making each episode engaging and thought-provoking. He relates historical events to modern-day issues, creating connections that resonate with listeners on a deeper level.
While there are numerous positives about this podcast, one downside may be that it caters more towards those with an existing interest in Texas history. For those who aren't familiar with or passionate about the subject matter, it may not hold as much appeal. However, even for casual listeners or those new to Texas history, it still has educational value and provides an opportunity to learn about a lesser-known aspect of American history.
In conclusion, The A New History of Old Texas podcast is an absolute gem for anyone interested in San Antonio or Texas history. Brandon Seale's expertise as a historian shines through in his well-researched content and captivating storytelling style. By going beyond conventional narratives and offering insights into forgotten stories and perspectives, this podcast elevates the understanding and appreciation of Texas history. Whether you're a seasoned Texan or new to the state, this podcast is a must-listen for anyone looking to explore the rich and complex history of Texas.
This is the audio from my October 2024 SA PechaKucha talk, which you can find on YouTube as well. As a summary of my thoughts after thinking deeply about San Antonio and early Texas history for the last decade, I'm pretty happy with it. But I'll admit that it's a little incomplete.BTW, the punchline (which you can't see in the audio version) is the picture of the Alamo that I throw on the screen at the end...the "two-sided tactical miscalculation that we turned into the most celebrated defeat in American history."www.BrandonSeale.com
We found another site. But so did someone else. And there's a rumored fourth site out there as well now? What in the name of Miguel Menchaca's ghost is going on?www.BrandonSeale.com
Contrary to popular usage, an “Apocalypse” isn't an ending. In Greek it means an “unveiling," an "uncovering," a “revelation.” But what have we really revealed about the most powerful, most unconquerable, most exceptional people in Texas history? www.BrandonSeale.com
The United States dispenses with the pretense of Native American sovereignty and adopts a policy of forced assimilation. Mexico waxes poetic about the “cosmic race” while sending airplanes to track down "Apaches broncos” living free in the mountains. The Lipan Apaches avoid the reservation by dispersing and using the reservation system to project their power and spread their religious ceremonies to the native communities of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Chihuahua, and Coahuila.www.BrandonSeale.com
All pretense of accommodation with Native Americans disappears in the 1870's. Lipanes are pursued equally and openly by American and Mexican forces on both sides of the border. One-by-one, they see their old native rivals picked off and carted off to reservations. But the Lipan Apaches refuse to play the doomed savage. After a brutal massacre by US Army troops at their sacred El Remolino site, they declare “war with the whole world.”www.BrandonSeale.com
The Lipan Apaches become proxies for a Texian guerilla war against northern Mexico, until Texian policies cut them off from their lands and their livelihoods. Ever adaptable, the Lipanes flip the script, relocating to their old haunts in Mexico and raiding Texas property. The Texas-Mexico border itself – and the freedom it offers – becomes an artifact of enduring Lipan resistance during these years. The annexation of Texas, however, unbalances the playing field in an oddly legalistic way.www.BrandonSeale.com
No Native Texan captured Anglo-Texians' hearts like Lipan Captain Flacco the Younger. His exploits as a Texas Ranger and his people's defense of Texas' borders against Mexico make him the darling of Texas newspapers. Texas newspapers fail to distinguish, however, between hostile native Texans and Lipanes living in their midst. And Lipan wealth becomes an irresistible target of Texian raiding and retaliation. Painting of Flacco the Younger by Jay Hester, available online.www.BrandonSeale.com
In the turmoil of the War for Mexican independence, Lipan Captain Cuelgas de Castro emerges as a beacon of stability in Texas. Perhaps no one saw the Texas geopolitical checkerboard better at this moment. Captain Cuelgas de Castro wins for his people recognition by the new Emperor of Mexico. But it won't be enough to secure true sovereignty for his people.www.BrandonSeale.com
Pressed on all sides by European and native rivals, the Lipanes never should have survived into the nineteenth century. Yet not only had they survived, they had done so with their numbers and their range undiminished. They were wealthier than ever, and more powerful too, and would play a vital role in driving the Spanish out of Texas for good.www.BrandonSeale.com
Spanish army officers prove reluctant to change their mindset, however, even as the Lipan alliance under the great Captain Picax-Andé brings to a definitive halt the advance of Spanish conquest. www.BrandonSeale.com
In the course of a single generation, Spanish policy toward Lipan Apaches shifts from alliance to extermination. But a generation of alliance-making by Lipan Captain Bigotes makes the Lipan alliance more powerful than ever. They beat back the Comanches to the Red River and the Spanish to a line of presidios that still cuts across the North American continent like a scar as the US-Mexico border.www.BrandonSeale.com
Following the great peace of 1749, San Antonio becomes the great outlet for native North American trade and for the mediation of Native Texas culture into Spanish society. In turn, Texas Apaches commit to a symbiotic existence with the settler communities around them, and come to take on a distinct identity as “Lipan” Apaches – the "People of the In-Between." www.BrandonSeale.com
A new Spanish outpost on the San Antonio River represents an opportunity and a threat to the Apaches' Texas plains trade. The great empires test each other with equal turns generosity and violence. And a new rival appears on the Texas Plains.www.BrandonSeale.com
Thanks to the horse, Plains Apaches expand their influence over an increasingly broad swath of the Great Plains and Northern Mexico. In the course of one remarkable generation, they drive the Spanish out of New Mexico and absorb their old Jumano rivals, despite an epic last-ditch effort by Jumano Captain Juan Sabeata to frustrate them. www.BrandonSeale.com
Proto-Apaches, Jumanos, and Puebloans vie for control of the Texas Plains in the face of Spanish entradas, epidemics, and slaving expeditions. www.BrandonSeale.com
Killer-of-Enemies teaches the proto-Apaches, the “Nde,” how to treat with the peoples they meet as they descend into the Texas panhandle: the Puebloans to the west, the Jumanos to the South, and the Caddoan-speakers to the east. Yet the arrival of yet another newcomer – this one from across the ocean – challenges the diplomatic skills of even the most effective Nde alliance-makers.www.BrandonSeale.com
Despite centuries of conflict with Spanish, Mexican, Texan, United States, and native rivals, the Lipan Apaches managed to do what perhaps no other native community in the United States has been able to: carve for themselves a place in their ancestral homeland without surrendering it. Join us this season on “Lipan Apocalypse” as we pull back the veil on the Lipanes in our midst and their outsized legacy on modern Texas. www.BrandonSeale.com
José Francisco Ruíz's reputation and personal relationships went a long way toward preserving Tejanos' status in the newly independent Republic of Texas. They weren't enough, however, to ensure true equality. That was a fight that his nephew, his great-great-grandson, and many other Tejanos would have to carry on. Yet Ruíz's life stands as perhaps the best and fullest exemplar of a Tejano Patriot. Click here to purchase the complete audiobook of "Tejano Patriot" by Art Martínez de Vara and read by Brandon Seale. www.BrandonSeale.com
For the fourth time in his life, José Francisco Ruíz had to decide where his loyalties lie: to his flag or to his ideology. In 1835, however, there would be no hesitation. Too old now to carry a rifle, Ruíz became a sort of "first quartermaster" of the 1835-36 Texas Revolution, in addition to one of only two Texas-born signers of this second Texas declaration of Independence. His support for the cause of Texas independence was among the most crucial factors holding together the Tejano-Anglo alliance of 1836, for all of the uncertainties that Tejanos would face in an Anglo-dominated republic. Click here to purchase the complete audiobook of "Tejano Patriot" by Art Martínez de Vara and read by Brandon Seale. www.BrandonSeale.com
1820's East Texas was a melting pot of native Texans, old time Tejanos, Indian immigrants pushed out of the United States, and newcomer Anglos. For all their distaste of José Francisco Ruíz's revolutionary past, the old Mexican officer corps had no choice but to turn to him once again to manage the chaos. It would leave Ruíz more disillusioned than ever with the prospects for Mexico.Click here to purchase the complete audiobook of "Tejano Patriot" by Art Martínez de Vara and read by Brandon Seale. www.BrandonSeale.com
If there was anything more improbable in Texas history than the alliance orchestrated by José Francisco Ruíz between Lipan Apaches and Comanches in 1816, it was the peace brokered WITH the Lipanes and Comanches on behalf of the newly-independent Mexican empire in 1822. It would culminate in one of the most memorable scenes in Texas history, the journey of Ruíz and a handful of Lipan and Comanche chiefs to the halls of Monteczuma for a three-way peace that Texas would never truly be able to enjoy... Click here to purchase the complete audiobook of "Tejano Patriot" by Art Martínez de Vara and read by Brandon Seale. www.BrandonSeale.com
José Francisco Ruíz would remain a focus of Spanish royalist vengeance after the Battle of Medina. For good reason. From his exile in Louisiana, Ruíz orchestrated a proxy war by his Lipan and especially Comanche allies against Spanish royalists' fragile hold on Texas. It would bring Spain to the brink of abandoning Texas. Eventually royalists would have no choice but to ask Ruíz to bring peace to the frontier that he had incited to total war.Click here to purchase the complete audiobook of "Tejano Patriot" by Art Martínez de Vara and read by Brandon Seale. www.BrandonSeale.com
The Battle of Medina left José Francisco Ruíz the highest-ranking Tejano revolutionary in the state...and its most wanted man. What drove him to abandon a promising future in the Spanish army and turn on his old comrades-in-arms? And what price would he have to pay for this change of heart?Click here to purchase the complete audiobook of "Tejano Patriot" by Art Martínez de Vara and read by Brandon Seale. www.BrandonSeale.com
José Francisco Ruíz lived through the most turbulent years of Texas history. What was about Ruíz that always seemed to place him at the center of the action? What made him the man to whom Tejanos, Anglos, and Native Americans all turned in uncertain times? Join us to find out what made José Francisco Ruíz "The Man for Texas."Click here to purchase the complete audiobook of "Tejano Patriot" by Art Martínez de Vara and read by Brandon Seale. www.BrandonSeale.com
Winter Storm Uri. Texas's unique legal system. And Juneteenth. All together in one episode. www.BrandonSeale.com
Southwest Airlines was born of a uniquely Texan model of regulation and a uniquely Texan appreciation for the challenges of distance. More than that, however, it came to represent Texan ascendancy onto the national political and economic scene, in ways that discomforted the old coastal centers of power, and found them agitating against the Texas model in ways that recalled nineteenth century Texans' efforts to rein in coastal economic power. In the end, however, Southwest airlines democratized the skies and paved the way for broader regulatory reforms across other industries...some with more mixed results than aviation.www.BrandonSeale.com
Jack Kilby's integrated circuit set off the "Second Industrial Revolution" and I want to believe that it was the product of Texans' finely-tuned attention to energy density, going back to the likes of Gail Borden and every plains Indian that ever sat a horse. And yet, is the integrated circuit perhaps a better example of land-obsessed Texans' failing to appreciate the potential of the twentieth century's greatest invention?Photo available at TexasInstruments.com.www.BrandonSeale.com
In the nineteenth century, Texas's first true industrial "cluster" might have been ice-making. In the twentieth century, Texans lead the way in applying the science of refrigeration to human comfort and notched many significant firsts in the history of air conditioning. Most Texans' first experience with air conditioning was in movie theaters, and the movie industry repaid their patronage with an entire genre of films (the "Western") that helped make Texas "cool" in a way that made it a desirable place to live in a way that it never had been before. The homogenizing effects of cinema worsened the marginalization of some Texas communities, however, even as it drove a massive wave of immigration from other U.S. states.Photo courtesy of Friedrich Air Conditioning.www.BrandonSeale.com
Anthony Lucas's gusher at Spindletop marked "a new era of civilization," yet was the product of the humility, persistence, and practical genius of three Waco area farmboys. Oil rapidly transformed the Texas economy from stubbornly agrarian and colonial into a first-world industrial power. For the first time in Texas history, Texans began to accumulate capital...and yet became more convinced than ever of land as the truest measure of wealth and wealth-creation.Cover photo by John Trost, available online at the American Petroleum Institute.www.BrandonSeale.com
Railroads made Texans wealthier than they had ever been. They brought labor-saving and efficiency improving implements like riding plows, threshers, mechanical harvesters, and soon, tractors, which collectively lifted the standard of living of most Texans far beyond anything their parents could have imagined. And Texans hated them for it! Texans very conflicted feelings toward the "Iron Horse" exposed an irreconcilable tension between their frontier regulatory model and their unshakable conviction that land was the only proper basis for wealth.Cover art of Texas's first locomotive - the "General Sherman" - available online at Houston Metropolitan Research Center, HPL.www.BrandonSeale.com
From "terraqueous machines" (??) to air conditioning prototypes to "condensed milk," Gail Borden was nineteenth century Texas's most prolific inventor. And yet he may owe the inspiration for his most successful inventions to a form of Comanche "superfood," developed with a uniquely Texan appreciation of the power of energy density.Cover art by David Moore, courtesy of IllustrationOnline.comwww.BrandonSeale.com
Samuel Colt certainly benefitted from the association of his revolving pistol with the state that most found widespread application for it use. And Texans, by and large, returned the love, coming to believe that "God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal." Did the Colt Revolver blaze the trail for Anglo immigration into the Western half of the state? Or did the power imbalance it created violently accelerate a demographic inevitability?Cover art is available in the Public Domain and online.www.BrandonSeale.com
When they hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936, Dallas boosters had good reason to rename their football stadium and associated bowl game based on a bad pun. The "Cotton Bowl" was a nod to the unmatched roll that "King Cotton" had played in shaping the demographics and politics of Texas, where it constituted as much as 90% of the output of the state for parts of the nineteenth century. But it's a legacy that Texans have become increasingly uncomfortable with in recent decades, favoring the image of the cowboy and cattle drives. There is something far more romantic about a man on a horse than a man with a hoe…particularly when that man with the hoe is enslaved.Cover art "Young Texas in Repose" available online from Yale University Library. www.BrandonSeale.com
When Don Juan de Oñate crossed the Rio Grande on May 4, 1598 at a spot which he called “El Paso del Rio del Norte”, he didn't just bring with him the horses that would redraw the map of Native Texas. He brought with him the Spanish model of self-government centered on a locally-managed flood irrigation system that still serves today as the philosophical underpinning of the Texas "frontier regulatory model." It was the only real competitive advantage that the Spanish had over native Texas populations...but was it enough to build a permanent civil society around?Cover photo of "San Juan Demonstration Farm" available online at https://www.nps.gov/places/mission-san-juan-farm.htm.www.BrandonSeale.com
The return of the horse to the North American continent and its domestication by people of the Texas plains redrew the map of Native North America and defined the spheres of influence of European colonial empires for three centuries. It led to the formation of highly decentralized, individualistic frontier societies that either successfully adopted the horse or suffered at the hands of those who had. Maybe “Don't Mess with Texas” didn't originate with a 1985 anti-littering campaign…maybe it was written the first time a native Texan hopped on the back of a horse. Cover art of "Lipan Apache" available online at Star of the Republic Museum, Portal to Texas History, University of North Texas. www.BrandonSeale.com
In telling these new histories of old Texas, I worry that I've been focusing too much on individuals. Individuals can move history, no doubt…but just as often, I've come to believe, they ride historical waves, rather than make them. Every now and then, however, some invention, some innovation, or just some change in how technology is used comes along and moves history forward with a momentum of its own, subtler perhaps but far more powerful than any political ideology. Such “engines” of history concentrate resources behind them and focus the human mind in front of them like nothing else. They change how people see the world. The stories of these "engines," then, are the reasons why we see ourselves the way that we do.This is what I want to explore this season: no politicians, no ideologies, just the ten engines that most meaningfully propelled Texas history forward and the ten innovations that most profoundly shaped our collective psychology as Texans… our “Texanity” as I call it. Cover art by David Moore, www.illustrationonline.comwww.BrandonSeale.com
From a speech I gave at the Witte Museum a while back, this is my attempt to argue that we can actually hear the themes of the famed Lower Pecos Rock Art expressed by Cabeza de Vaca in his attempt to take on the role of a "spirit guide" for the native Americans who joined him on his journey. If true, this would be a really cool confirmation of our current interpretations of that Lower Pecos Rock Art and our efforts to understand the worldviews of the people who created them.
This is a speech I gave recently to the San Antonio Conservation Society about our Battlefield of Medina search with American Veterans Archaeological Recovery. Jump to 34:38 for the big reveal, and the connection we discovered between our finds and the "Blue Wing Body" found in 1968.
Maybe the reason that Texans are so vocal about their "independence" is because they have a different notion of what it means to be independent. And maybe the reason they're so loud about it is because they've been trying - without success apparently! - to explain their notion of "independence" for more than 200 years now.These are some of the ideas that I try out in this speech that I gave a few months ago. Enjoy.
The boots hit the ground and the shovels start turning dirt. Listen along for an (extended) account of our first season of archaeologic digs in search of the Battlefield of Medina with our partners from American Veterans Archaeological Recovery.Go to @54:20 if you don't have the patience for the whole build-up.A special thanks to the American Battlefield Trust, Howard Energy, Jefferson Bank, John Dickson, and all of the donors that made this field work possible.
Was there really ever a "Republic of the Rio Grande"? And what to make of the legacy of Antonio Zapata. Image available on the Internet: https://laotraesquina.mx/2020/02/19/un-guerrero-viejo-sumergido-en-el-agua, retrieved 10/15/2021)
Fiery San Antonian José María Carvajal refuses to give up the dream of a northeastern Mexican republic, only to be defeated by his old commander, Antonio Canales. Carvajal - and his reputation - recover in the turmoil of the French Intervention, however, and he rises to his own moment in the sun as the regional hegemon of Tamaulipas. For a few years.Photo: Arista's Campaign Map, 1840, Courtesy Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin.
Antonio Canales lays down his sword...and emerges as the new kingmaker of northeastern Mexico.Photo of Brandon Seale at the approximate location of Zapata's last stand, Morelos, Coahuila.
The normally reserved Antonio Canales throws everything he has at Centralist General Mariano Arista in a desperate bid to rescue his estranged brother-in-arms , Antonio Zapata.Photo: "Zapata's Defeat" inset from Arista's Campaign map, 1840, courtesy Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, TheUniversity of Texas at Austin.
Frustrated with Antonio Canales, Antonio Zapata breaks away from the Rio Grande Federalist Army...and rides into an ambush in Santa Rita de Morelos!Photo: Battle of Morelos campaign medal, photo courtesy of Art Martinez de Vara.
Just days after declaring the formation of a new "provisional government of the northern border," Federalist commander Antonio Canales simultaneously opens up communications with Centralist General Mariano Arista to surrender! Antonio Zapata finds out, and a rift grows between the two Rio Granders. Photo Courtesy of the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum, Laredo, TX.
The text of the "Casa Blanca Articles of Convention," as transcribed by Professor Stan Green, and as translated by Brandon Seale, with comments from Professor Green and Lic. Jacqueline Pasquel.Photo: Canales's call to convention, photo courtesy of the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum, Laredo, TX.
On January 26th, 1840, the Republic of the Rio Grande was formed. Or rather, the "provisional government for the northern border" was declared. Commentators then and podcasters now consider whether there is in fact a difference between these two ideas.Photo courtesy of the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum, Laredo, TX.
Under the command of Antonio Zapata, Antonio Canales and José María Carbajal, the Rio Grande Federalists win their greatest battle to-date. Yet diplomatic recognition eludes them, as a new Centralist opponent emerges with a knack for the public relations game – General Mariano Arista.
Antonio Zapata - the "mulato" son of a domestic servant and a cowboy - establishes himself as the kingmaker over Northeastern Mexico. And led by San Antonian José María Carvajal, the Rio Grande Federalists call on some old allies in the fight against Centralism - the Texians.
In one of the most remarkable campaigns in Mexican military history, Antonio Zapata and a small band of Rio Grande vaqueros and Carrizo Indians immobilize three Centralist armies and launch a punitive expedition against a Comanche war party, establishing the Rio Grande Federalists as the de facto government of the region.
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