I took average unit ($) per acre for 10 Refugio ranches. Antonio's land would have more or less fetched: $14,357,790.00. So, I'd say yes, it matters...
The God Honest Truth We all know Becerra owned a large tract of land in Refugio County. In 1849, he had the land resurveyed by Refugio County surveyor David Snively and the results showed that it contained 8,856 acres! We know that much is a fact, it can’t be disputed. The land had been granted to Becerra by Coahuila y Tejas in 1832, but the gringo establishment refused to legitimize his ownership. For all purposes, they shuffled paper and made-up excuses to delay his legitimate transfer to the Texas General Land Office, never really giving Becerra the rightful title to his land. There were several reasons why the gringo establishment refused to legitimize Becerra's land ownership. First, they were racist. They didn't believe that a Mexican should legitimately own land. Second, they were greedy. They wanted the land for themselves. Third, they had to have known that Becerra had clout within the local colonies and townships. He was well known, and they knew that he would fight f...
SEEDS OF DISCONTENT (We Have to Look Deep into the Past) How was Antonia de la Garza able to hold on to her land for nearly 30 years before leasing it? When you really think about it, she was gifted that land in 1853 by Manuel Becerra's daughter Maria Josefa. Yet, why was her land undisturbed for 30 years ? She didn't lease the land, which was adjacent to Antonio's, until 1884 ? Now if you do the math, Antonio ran into O'Connor's goons in 1875 . Her land was adjacent to his. Why was she untouched? Why did she go free when the parcels of land were adjacent to each other. I have a pretty good hunch. This is simply because she was married to Don Carlos de la Garza, that's why. Is it fair? Let's discuss the particulars, the why. Simply, if you helped the gringo out back then, you were good, you were solid. Lord only knows how much the gringos of Refugio and Goliad loved Carlos de la Garza. All you have to do...
Revisiting Old Wounds, Tying Up Loose Ends The quest to understand what happened to Antonio de la Garza's land was not one that was born out of curiosity, instead, it was born out of necessity. A necessity I felt was needed to help expunge the vicissitudes and injustices our people had to endure at the turn of the 20th century, an injustice that left its imprint on the soul of Becerra generations to come. My journey with this story started over 20 years ago. Abel Rubio's book, Stolen Heritage, had laid dormant in my father's living room for more than 10 years, and so one day I saw it sitting amongst other books and asked my father if I could take it home and read it. I had always been curious about the book and thought I'd give it a spin and read it from cover to cover in hopes of understanding what had happened. Over the course of a few weeks, I made time to read it, not really knowing what it would lead to or how it would end. Yet, in the end, I chose to close the boo...
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