Copyright by Eunice Carmela Garza 2013 The Dissertation Committee for Eunice Carmela Garza Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF SAN DIEGO, TEXAS: MEMORIES MEDIA AND MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE SITE OF AN IRREDENTIST REBELLION Committee: Brian Stross Supervisor Fred Valdez Martha Menchaca Karl Butzer John Hartigan Jr. THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF SAN DIEGO, TEXAS: MEMORIES MEDIA AND MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE SITE OF AN IRREDENTIST REBELLION by Eunice Carmela Garza 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 2012 Dedication To Eliseo Omero and all the People of San Diego: past, present and future. Acknowledgements This Dissertation would not be possible without the support of my family, I would like to thank my mother Maria Calderon Garza, my Father Jaime Omar Garza and my grandmother Aida Garza for their love and support. My son was infinitely patient with my research and piles of books, and without him I would never have completed my degree, he inspired this dissertation. My advisor Brian Stross whose unfailing support and wonderful classes made this research possible, and has been a source of inspiration. I would also like to thank Karl Butzer, the first person at UT to encourage me to write about San Diego. Martha Menchaca’s work was integral to attempting this project, I want to thank her for her support. John Hartigan was an inspiration to me both in his writing and his teaching style. I would also like to thank Fred Valdez, who never stopped supporting my ideas and allowed me to explore Mexican American Archaeology. Many other professors and staff have been integral to finishing this project, including Lok Sui, Circe Strum, Darrel Creel, Mariah Wade, Maria Fanklin, Sam Wilson, Denné Reed and Dale Huddler as well as many others. I would also like to acknowledge the help and support provided by the Duval County Historical society and all the people who aided my research in San Diego and at the UT libraries. Finally I would have never finished without my classmates and good friends especially Nedra Lee, Deanna Riddick, Louie Perez, Marla Fuentes, Alyssa Gutierrez, Leslie Boykin, Morgann Berg, Jennifer Chenoweth and Dianna Lewis, this would not have been possible without their love and encouragement. v THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF SAN DIEGO, TEXAS: MEMORIES MEDIA AND MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE SITE OF AN IRREDENTIST REBELLION Eunice Carmela Garza, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Brian Stross Plan de San Diego is the name of an important document in Texas history, but the document and surrounding history is usually discussed with little or no reference to the town of San Diego, Texas, the people who lived there, or the cultural landscape. The Plan de San Diego is an unsuccessful rebellion that is one of the few documented irredentist revolts in U.S. History, it is also a written document calling for return of lands in a multi-ethnic call to arms advocating the recovery of territory by people of Mexican descent in 1915, named for the town San Diego, TX. After the discovery of this Plan, Mexican-Americans were persecuted, violently suppressed, and murdered: 300-5,000 people of Mexican descent died violently following the discovery and publication of the Plan de San Diego in what historians have called the “Bandit Wars”. San Diego, Texas residents and the entire U.S.-Mexican borderlands changed after the discovery of the Plan. My research investigates the political landscape and changes in material and cultural assemblages during and after the Plan, examining how descendant communities retained ties to place and remembered this event in the community of San Diego. Archival research, Historical archaeology and media representations of San Diego explore expose the everyday lives, settlement patterns, and subsistence strategies of the residents of San Diego before and after 1915, showing the material and social effects of the failed rebellion. The socio-political landscape that helped create Mexican-American culture in San Diego is a silenced, violent, and misunderstood chapter of Texas history that shapes the current borderlands and contributes important insights into the study of sites of rebellion and retaliation worldwide. vi Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES X CHAPTER 1: DISCOVERY OF THE PLAN 1 The arrest .................................................................................................................1 Congressional hearings ............................................................................................7 El Plan de San Diego ....................................................................................11 San Diego as a place of rebellion ...........................................................................15 CHAPTER 2: SAN DIEGO, TEXAS: A PLACE BETWEEN NATIONS 24 Flora………………………………………………………………………………28 Fauna ......................................................................................................................32 Native Americans...................................................................................................36 Archaic Native Americans ............................................................................36 Archaeology of Duval ...................................................................................38 Historic Native Americans ............................................................................43 Colonial Era ...........................................................................................................45 Spanish ..........................................................................................................46 French ...........................................................................................................62 México ..........................................................................................................65 vii CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW 70 Plan de San Diego ..................................................................................................74 Mexican American Studies ....................................................................................79 Historic Studies of San Diego ................................................................................85 Texas History .........................................................................................................91 Impact ....................................................................................................................94 CHAPTER 4: IRREDENTIST REVOLTS 100 Taos ....................................................................................................................106 Cheno Cortina Rebellion......................................................................................112 Catarino Garza War .............................................................................................117 Repercussions ......................................................................................................123 CHAPTER 5: SAN DIEGO THROUGH THE ARCHIVES 126 Archival research .................................................................................................130 Land Grants .................................................................................................134 Store Inventory............................................................................................139 Marriage proposal .......................................................................................144 House sales..................................................................................................147 Census .........................................................................................................150 Cemeteries...................................................................................................161 Fiestas .........................................................................................................164 CHAPTER 6: GARCÍA HOUSE 167 Deeds....................................................................................................................170 Trajectory of place ...............................................................................................172 Photographs..........................................................................................................176 García House Photos ...................................................................................191 viii CHAPTER 7: MEDIA 207 National News stories prior to 1900 ....................................................................212 Texas News Stories prior to 1900 ........................................................................214 Oil found in Duval County .........................................................................216 Newspaper coverage of the 1912 murders ..................................................218 Newspaper coverage of the discovery of the Plan de San Diego ...............222 Newspaper coverage after the Plan was discovered ............................................226 Texas statewide newspaper coverage of matters prior to August 1915. .....226 News Coverage of Norias Raid............................................................................234 News stories regarding the Plan revived by publicity of the proceeding in the Congressional hearings