Copyright by Mary Jo Galindo 2003 The Dissertation Committee for Mary Jo Galindo certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Con Un Pie En Cada Lado: Ethnicities and the Archaeology of Spanish Colonial Ranching Communities Along the Lower Río Grande Valley Committee: Fred Valdez, Jr., Supervisor Martha Menchaca Thomas R. Hester Samuel M. Wilson Maria Franklin William Doolittle Con Un Pie En Cada Lado: Ethnicities and the Archaeology of Spanish Colonial Ranching Communities Along the Lower Río Grande Valley by Mary Jo Galindo, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2003 Dedication This work is dedicated to my parents, Roland G. and Alice H. Galindo, and to the memory of my grandparents, Pedro Hernández Barrera and María Látigo de Hernández iv Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the unwavering support of my partner, family, and professors. Sherie Railsback, your patience, support, and encouragement are the main reasons this dissertation came to fruition. My mother, Alice H. Galindo and her siblings, Elizabeth Rocha, Pedro Hernandez, Jr., and Marie Rangel, all contributed their knowledge to this effort and each one is a source of unending moral support and encouragement. I also thank all my committee members, Fred Valdez, Jr., Martha Menchaca, Tom Hester, Sam Wilson, Maria Franklin, and Bill Doolittle, each of whom contributed according to their specialty and helped to make this a truly interdisciplinary effort. This archaeological project was conducted in Tamaulipas, México under Permit 401-36/0848 from the Consejo de Arqueología del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). Financial support for the fieldwork part of this research project was provided in part by the Peyton Wright Fellowship from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. The Mesoamerican Archaeological Research Laboratory (MARL) at the University of Texas at Austin provided the use of a Total Data Station (TDS), a Global Positioning Satellite unit, a digital camera, a laptop computer, and various other pieces of excavating and recording equipment. The Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) at the University of Texas at Austin provided mapping and excavating equipment, including the use of a vehicle and an equipment trailer. Friends of TARL generously provided the insurance for the project vehicle. The College of Liberals Arts at the University of Texas at Austin has also provided financial assistance for the archival and oral history parts of this v dissertation project with a Hibbs Research Scholarship (2001). TARL provided an office space for the writing phase of this project, while MARL supplied the desktop computer. The information compiled and published by the Spanish American Genealogical Association was instrumental to this dissertation, as were the resources of the Benson Latin American Collection Library and the Barker Texas History Center. In Mier, several people deserve credit for facilitating my project, including Arq. Gil Javier Guerra Sandoval, his grandmother Doña María Berta Hinojosa de Guerra, and their families, who are the landowners of Rancho El Saladito; Profa. María Lourdes de Balderas M., Secretaria Municipal; Lic. Antonio Guerra Sandoval (local historian and writer), and Sr. Ruben García Barrera (local historian and writer). All provided encouragement and invaluable assistance that enhanced the results of this project. Many others provided friendship and guidance during my three-month’s stay in Mier, including Felipe Lozano, Angel, Mari and Rogelio, Blas, Rael, and Chuma. In Roma Arq. Carlo Rugerio, who I first met in 1998, guided me to people and resources that proved to be essential to my research. In Ciudad Miguel Aleman, I thank Gustavo Guerra B. and his son Gustavo Guerra who introduced me to Mae and Boli in Mier. Volunteers for this project included Ruth A. Mathews and Antonia Figueroa González, who helped with the mapping phase. Ing. Herminio Aguilar Garza, a geologist with PEMEX, volunteered for the mapping and excavation phases. His nephews, Marco Antonio Picazzo, Aaron Quintana Jimenez, Dante Ochoa Aguilar, and Amir Aguilar Flores also supplied their keen eyesight and helped with the surveying. Sherie Railsback, Lori Linder, and Tony Linder also vi provided surveying assistance. This project would not have been completed in such a timely fashion without the assistance of Daniel García Hernández, the only paid staff member of the project and an excellent surveyor and excavator . Thanks is also due Bruce Moses at the Center for Archeological Research (CAR) at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), who taught the mapping crew to use the TDS. Also thanks to Anne Fox at CAR, who provided resourceful assistance with the artifact analysis. Arqlo. Gustavo Ramírez Castilla, formally of Tamaulipas and now with the INAH office in the state of México, was instrumental in the preparation of my proposal for INAH and also provided guidance throughout the project. A fellow graduate student, Apen Ruiz, helped me translate the INAH proposal. Numerous fellow graduate students also deserve credit for stimulating discussions and helpful commentary including, Kerri Barille, Jaime Brandon, Rissa Trachtman, Whitney Battle, Skye Wagner, Kecia Khan-Perry, Mindy Bonine, Richard Meadows, Tammy Walter, and Jane Lakeman. Several people gave me early opportunities to learn archaeological techniques, including James Neely, James Karbula, Julie Kunen, and my committee supervisor Fred Valdez, who each deserve a special thanks. While acknowledging the credit due my peers and supervisors, I accept full responsibility for any error of fact or interpretation. vii Con Un Pie En Cada Lado: Ethnicities and the Archaeology of Spanish Colonial Ranching Communities Along the Lower Río Grande Valley Publication No. ____________ Mary Jo Galindo, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2003 Supervisor: Fred Valdez, Jr. Before the Río Grande valley became a contested border between the United States and Mexico, and between predominantly Latino and Anglo- American societies, it was the northern frontier of Spanish Nuevo Santander and a border between Spanish Mexico and indigenous societies to the north. The pobladores, or colonists, who moved into the region from mining communities to the south in the 1730s, and their descendants to the present day, had to adapt constantly to the changing political, economic, and social environment, as people in borderlands always do. This dissertation involves archaeological excavations and historical analyses of ranches and towns associated with this border in order to understand the nature and articulation of the ranch and town settlements, the types of viii household production and livestock raising that sustained them, their trade relationships as reflected in their material culture, and the complex issues of ethnic identity construction along a contested border through time. Although my primary goal is to shed new light on a process of colonization and adaptation to a border context that went on a century before the more-studied Anglo-American colonization of the region, this is also a personal journey, because I am a descendant of these early pobladores and my family’s roots are in this border region. Between 1748 and 1755, the civilian colonists of Nuevo Santander established 23 communities, including 6 along the banks of the Río Grande. These pobladores received porciones, or land grants, in 1767 on which to establish livestock ranches. The porciones were on both banks of the Río Grande, because Nuevo Santander’s northern boundary was the Nueces River. The pobladores and their descendents literally lived con un pie en cada lado, with a foot on each side of river. Ethnohistoric information documents the early settler practice of living and growing crops on the south bank, while conducting ranching activities on the north bank of the Río Grande (Casteñeda 1976). Thus, these ranches were among the first of their kind in present-day Texas, representing a unique form of civilian colonization based on the relocation of entire families, and without major emphasis on missions and presidios. ix Table of Contents Chapter 1: Historical and Archaeological Context of Borderlands Project Area........................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 Organization ........................................................................................................... 3 Historical Background ............................................................................................ 5 Porciones or Land Grants ........................................................................... 7 Summary of the Marriage and Inheritance Patterns among Mier’s pobladores .................................................................................................. 9 Previous Archaeological Investigations ............................................................... 11 Excavations at 41SR39 and 41SR43 in Starr County, Texas.................... 13 Excavations at Cabaseño Ranch (41ZP79) in Zapata County, Texas ....... 16 Excavations at San José de Corralitos Ranch in