Proceedings First Annual Palo Alto Conference

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST ANNUAL PALO ALTO CONFERENCE An International Conference on the Mexican-American War and its Causes and Consequences with Participants from Mexico and the United States. Brownsville, Texas, May 6-9, 1993 Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site Southwest Region National Park Service I Cover Illustration: "Plan of the Country to the North East of the City of Matamoros, 1846" in Albert I C. Ramsey, trans., The Other Side: Or, Notes for the History of the War Between Mexico and the I United States (New York: John Wiley, 1850). 1i L9 37 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST ANNUAL PALO ALTO CONFERENCE Edited by Aaron P. Mahr Yafiez National Park Service Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site P.O. Box 1832 Brownsville, Texas 78522 United States Department of the Interior 1994 In order to meet the challenges of the future, human understanding, cooperation, and respect must transcend aggression. We cannot learn from the future, we can only learn from the past and the present. I feel the proceedings of this conference illustrate that a step has been taken in the right direction. John E. Cook Regional Director Southwest Region National Park Service TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction. A.N. Zavaleta vii General Mariano Arista at the Battle of Palo Alto, Texas, 1846: Military Realist or Failure? Joseph P. Sanchez 1 A Fanatical Patriot With Good Intentions: Reflections on the Activities of Valentin GOmez Farfas During the Mexican-American War. Pedro Santoni 19 El contexto mexicano: angulo desconocido de la guerra. Josefina Zoraida Vazquez 29 Could the Mexican-American War Have Been Avoided? Miguel Soto 35 Confederate Imperial Designs on Northwestern Mexico. Donald S. Frazier 43 Sectionalism as a Major Driving Force in the Mexican-American War. Jestis Velasco-Marquez 49 The Boys for Mexico: Organization of the American Army on the Eve of the Mexican-American War. Richard Bruce Winders 57 An Introduction to The Disputed Border: An Encyclopedia of American-Mexican Conflict, 1821-1854. Donald S. Frazier 71 Rehabilitacion de fortificaciones: valor histOrico, contexto y marco natural. Salvador Dfaz-Berrio 85 Transcripts of the First Annual Palo Alto. Conference Editor's Note 93 Remarks by the Honorable Solomon P. Ortiz 95 The Transcripts of the First Annual Palo Alto Conference 99 Breves notas de reflexion sobre la primera conferencia internacional de Palo Alto. Alma Yolanda Guerrero-miller 223 Brief Notes Reflecting on the First Palo Alto Conference. Alma Yolanda Guerrero-miller, English translation by Thomas Carroll 227 Brief Remarks from the Superintendent. Thomas Carroll . 231 Conference Schedule 235 Conference Participants 243 vi INTRODUCTION A. N. Zavaleta The University of Texas at Brownsville in Partnership with Texas Southmost College The colonization of the North American Continent and the founding of New Spain and New England is bound with the common threads of a shared history. The colonies battles for self-identity and independence, as well as their struggles for organization and self-rule took place simultaneously and for similar reasons. It is not surprising, therefore, that the historical paths of these two great neighbors of North America would ultimately lead to conflict and war. Claims to the precious resource of unsettled land and boundary disputes served as the spark that ultimately ignited the war between the neighbors. The war's eventual outcome led to more than a century of post- war hostility and mistrust between Mexico and the United States. The past one hundred years have been marked by cordial but cautious relations between the two governments and by a constant drama over immigration issues and economic questions. This period of nervousness between the neighbors has been defined and periodically supported by surges in the nationalistic fervor of the neighbors. During the early period, the neighbors recorded their respective histories describing their relationship as well as the explanations which most benefited and supported the emotions of their peoples and natural identities. Because Mexico and the United States share a common border, it fits that the societies, cultures, and economies of the border would grow together creating a cultural region unlike that of either of the two progenitors, and that the hybrid border region would suffer from the neglect and avoidance of its parents. Only recently, after nearly one hundred and fifty years, is the border recognized as the defining factor in our shared legacy. Our interwoven threads of common history suggests that the two neighbors would eventually come to realize the mutual benefit that can be realized by their proximity. The cooling of passion in favor of calmer heads demands that we re-visit our common history and thus plan for our mutual success and prosperity in the next phase of our common destiny. Most observers agree that Mexico and the United States are ready to move into the next phase of their future as neighbors. It should be noted, however, that there are those nay-sayers who seek to undermine and delay this inevitability. A nation's historical course may not be rushed and the revision of nationalistic history takes generations for acceptance. The re-visitation of our history as neighbors will assist in our re-assessment of our past and our future as neighbors. In this regard, no other event in the interrelated histories of Mexico and the United States is as important as the Mexican-American War. The war serves as a focal point of historic definition and understanding of the national psyche of Mexico and the United States. The Mexican-American War also serves as the most important point of VII reference we have for the understanding of our relationship as neighbors in the approximately one hundred and fifty years that have passed since the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. Importantly, both countries have only recently been able to deal with the historic reality of the war within the context of mature neighbors. Thus Mexican and American scholars are now beginning to place new importance on the war and to re-define it and its many neglected or avoided aspects. With the establishment of the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site in Brownsville, Texas, the scholars and interested parties of these two great nations have begun to convene to discuss and re-examine the war in an open and professional setting. While the historical significance of these efforts will not be completely appreciated for years to come, the establishment of the historic site and the events which it supports such as conferences, publications, and evaluations, will one day serve as historic reference to the initial stages in our understanding of the next phase of Mexican and American bi- national development. .Eight of the nine articles presented in this volume were originally papers presented at the First Annual Palo Alto Conference held at The Historic Brownsville Museum and the Instituto TecnolOgico de Matamoros in 1993. The nine articles are an eclectic representation of the scholarship currently being conducted that re-examine the Mexican-American War. Four Mexican and four American scholars present nine different themes that either directly or indirectly help us to understand the origins and actions of the Mexican-American War. The articles are combined with the transcripts of the meeting. Each article melds with the others to pull into clear focus the importance of the continued study of the Mexican-American War. Joseph Sanchez, director of the Spanish Colonial Research Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, begins the collection of essays with "General Mariano Arista at the Battle of Palo Alto, Texas, 1846: Military Realist or Failure?" Through a careful review of the Mexican sources, Sanchez sheds new light on General Arista's performance at the first battle of the Mexican-American War. Sanchez finds, as did the Mexican army's Supreme Tribunal almost one hundred and fifty years ago, that Arista, although tentative and overly cautious, followed standard battlefield procedure consistent with contemporary tactical practices and battlefield conditions. Pedro Santoni, of California State University at San Bernardino, presents an intriguing examination of the Mexican patriot Valentin Gemez Farfas and his role in the war with the United States in his paper, entitled "A Fanatical Patriot with Good Intentions: Reflections on the Activities of Valentin GOmez Farfas During the Mexican- American War." Santoni describes the dearth of material written about the political, economic, and social dynamics of the Mexican post-independence years and especially the war years, 1845-1848. The story of the puros, the moderados, and the conservatives, in the shaping of Mexican politics provides valuable insight to the structure of Mexican politics both before and after the Mexican-American War. The noted Mexican-American War historian, Josefina Zoraida Vazquez, of El Colegio de Mexico, presents an article entitled "El Contexto Mexicano, Angulo Desconocido de la Guerra." Zoraida Vazquez proposes that the lack of Mexican investigation of the Mexican-American War has permitted the history of the war to be described only through the eyes of the American victors. She states Mexican interest in the Mexican-American War is represented by only a few frustrated authors who have felt it necessary to defend Mexico. Zoraida Vazquez points out the role of "comerciantes extranjeros" who favored the federalists, the number of internal government changes that viii had taken place in the period after the Mexican war of independence and before the Mexican-American War, and the role of the Catholic Church in Mexican history. These factors and others led to the Texas separatist movement and ultimately to the conflict between the United States and Mexico. Miguel Soto, from the Universidad Nacional Autenoma de Mexico, asks the question, "Could The Mexican-American War Have Been Avoided?" Soto examines the political, economic, and social dynamics that characterized the United States and Mexico at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

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