The image on the left depicts my father, a World War II veteran, in the Pacific Theater.
Based on DNA analysis, our family is about 30-35 percent Native American, 15-20 percent Jewish, and the remainder from Europe, with Spain accounting for about 14%. On my mother’s side of the family, we were some of the original settlers in New Mexico and California.
Nuevo Santander:
By 1800, Nuevo Santander comprised one city, 25 villas, 3 mining districts, 17 haciendas, 437 ranchos, and eight missions, with a population of about 30,000. Many famous Tejano families – de la Guerra, de la Pena, Benavidez, Villarreal, Leal, Montemayor, Longoria, Trevino, and Guerra – were part of the original settlement and later moved northward to other parts of Texas. They are the ancestors of many Tejanos living today.
The San Antonio River represented the northernmost reaches of the Nuevo Santander colony. A map showing the extent of the Nuevo Santander colony in the late Eighteenth Century is shown on the following page. This map has been reproduced from the San Benito History website:
Native Americans in Northern Mexico and South Texas:
The American state of Texas and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas share a long border along the Rio Grande River. For thousands of years, Native American tribes either lived along this river or passed over it on their way south (or north). This boundary was finalized in 1848, but a century earlier, much of the Rio Grande River area was being settled by Spanish and Mexican colonists who had come from other parts of Mexico to establish communities on lands already inhabited by many tribal groups.
Indigenous Roots Along the Rio Grande
For anyone researching their Tejano roots, the names of these indigenous tribes along the Rio Grande may be significant, as each Tejano researcher is likely descended from one of these groups. However, by the middle of the 19th Century, the cultures and languages of many of these peoples had disappeared, and our knowledge of them is very limited today.
Mier
The Barrera family is one of the founding families of Mier, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Specifically, Juan Ignacio Barrera is noted as one of the first settlers of Mier, with his marriage recorded as the eighth in the town’s history. Additionally, Jose Santiago Barrera and Ana Maria Salome Garcia are mentioned as having arrived in the Mier area around 1760. Their descendants are found throughout Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Texas, and beyond, according to We Are Cousins.
Further details about the Barrera family’s involvement in Mier’s founding include:
He was raised in the household of Gaspar Garcia and Maria Gertrudis Barrera, and his marriage to Maria Manuela Flores was the eighth recorded in Mier’s records, according to Hispanic Genealogical Society.
. He was a lieutenant under Captain Joseph Florencio Chapa and assigned Mier porciones (land grants). He received porcion two on the west bank of the Rio Grande and named his ranch San Salvador, according to We Are Cousins.
. He and his family, including Crisanta (Guerra) Barrera, moved to the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and established La Reforma Ranch.
. His ancestors were the founders of Ciudad Mier, according to the Hispanic Genealogical Society.
. He was the patriarch of the Barreras at La Reforma and likely came to Mier during its founding in 1753. He was also the chief surveyor of the Mier Porciones in 1767, according to Cappadona Ranch.
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