A&M Press has a new publication out about this fascinating border character from the 19th century.

He was from a prominent family in the Valley, born in 1824, and fought with the Mexican Army in the war with the US; afterwards he worked as a driver for our army but kept getting into fights with anglos whose attitudes needed adjusting in his opinion.

In 1859 he shot the Brownsville sheriff and had to go on the lam. He rounded up a small army and actually seized Brownsville and killed several of his enemies before fleeing. He was in hot water the next two years and the US Army finally intervened to stop him when the Rangers were unable to do so.

During the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression/Unpleasantness with our northern fellow citizens, he stayed mostly in Mexico and rose through the ranks of the Mexican Army fighting the French, went over to the French, back to Juarez, was friendly with the Confederates, warred with the Confederates, attacked the French from the US, recruited black Americans for his MExican Army, recruited Confederates after the unpleasantness at Appamattox, etc, etc, etc.

He was military governor of Tamaulipas during the war with the French.

He was such a notorious cattle rustler that he almost started a war with the US. Porfirio Diaz finally put him under arrest in Mexico City for the last 20 years of his life, although he allowed him roaming rights in the Capital so long as he did not try to return to the Rio Grande.

A really fabulous story of a fabulous character.

The author, Jerry Thompson, teaches at A&M International and has been working on this book for 20 years.

His subtitle is "Defending the Mexican Name in Texas." The anti Mexican racism was pretty bad along the river after the Mexican war and Cortina became immensely popular among some of the hispanics for defending them against land speculators and the constabulary.

This is a great read about a little known area of Texas history.

Sounds like a guy with no moral compass... i.e. democrat

After years of research I have come to the conclusion that nobody who got within a hundred miles of the Rio Grande in the 19th century had any morals except maybe Robert E. Lee.

Many years later, an oldtimer was asked to comment on a particular frontier figure of that time and he said that none of the founders of Texas could be compared to Caesar's wife and it was best not to comment on the dead.

But since you mentioned it, he never got along with the Democrats down there but was an ardent admirer of Lincoln and the Union Army, which was of great help to him in his efforts against the French.

The Democrats (Confederates) hated his guts and tried repeatedly to kill him.

Of course times have changed and men with them.

Men with real moral compasses like Alberto Gonzales and George Bush would probably not have approved of him along unless he would sell them some drugs.

Huisache is right, things were bad down along the lower Rio Grande Valley even in to the 1910 era with occasional open warfare between poor mexicans and anglos.

However, I will take issue with the comment that no one with morals got within 100 miles of the Rio in the 19th century. My great grandfather got down there and earned his land through hard work.

quote:

---

After years of research I have come to the conclusion that nobody who got within a hundred miles of the Rio Grande in the 19th century had any morals except maybe Robert E. Lee.

---

Please tell me of all your research.

Grew up in South Texas and read everything I could get my hands on in the local library. Majored in history, went to grad school for a couple of years, was TA for the Texas history upper division class for two semesters, spent a fair amount of time in the State Archives working on the 1859-65 period, have kept up my reading in the last 30 years, working on legal cases involving land titles in south Texas, I have done research in the archives in Matamoros, Camargo, Reynosa, the library at UT Pan-Am (surprisingly good), the Brownsville library and museum; the Benson Center at Texas, etc.etc. I am on a first name basis with archivists of several collections in south Texas and at the General Land Office.

I have been a member of the Texas State Historical Society for a couple of decades and attend their annual meetings/symposiums/book sales pretty much every year. I go to the signings and talk to historians like Chuck Parsons, Robert Utley, Jerry Thompson, Stephen Harding, etc.

For somebody who is not a professional historian I am pretty well immersed in the subject. The remark about Caesar's wife I lifted from a book that was quoting the original Mr. McAllen in a deposition he gave in his old age.

And out of deference to the poster's ancestors, I probably should have said that most of the leading lights in the valley area were not nice people and left it at that.

Cortina was a major figure on the border for years and a lot of the problems down there arose from his penchant for borrowing other people's property. He almost provoked wars between the US and Mexico and finally had to be put under detention for 20 years by President Porfirio Diaz.

And I was being sarcastic about the moral compass argument.

Call us back when you've done some real research, huisache. /texags

Huisache, I knew you were not necessarily saying everyone down there was a crook, but your comments about many of the leading lights being crooks is true. Lots of people bought their land by paying back taxes on land owned by poor mexicans who couldn't read the english language notices that their taxes were due.

Out of curiousity do you do geneaology by chance, Huisache?

No geneology, even of my own family except in little doses to show my cousins that all our relatives worked for a living too and that none of our relatives died at the Alamo.