Lone Star Beginnings

I'm reading Michener's "Texas". My brother gave it to me for Christmas. It is so fascinating to read this historical fiction of the state. The area was actually Mexico for over 200 years before becoming part of the United States. It's so interesting to read how there were some Mexican families who had been living there for over a hundred years before the area became part of the United States. It's also interesting to see how the Spanish conquest played such a part in the identify of Mexico and Tejas, how some families were pure Spanish for many generations and some Native Mexicans and some a mix of the two. I highly recommend for anyone who is a native of Texas. Michener postulations that Tejas would have remained a part of Mexico if it did not have the most Savage Native Americans living in it, the Apache and Comanche. I'm reading now about Stephen F. Austin who leased land to American settlers. I hadn't realized that Austin was a citizen of Mexico. Fascinating stuff!

"I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans." -John Steinbeck, 1962