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The battle for Mexican independence from Spain began with a rousing call by Father Miguel Hidalgo to rise up against Spanish colonial rule on September 16, 1810.
It was an 11-year battle that mostly was fought in local and regional struggles in various phases.
The early days of the Mexican War of Independence spread, for a while, north into Spanish Texas. The key target for the revolutionaries was the capital of San Antonio de Béxar.
The idea was to gain support for independence and supplies from the United States.
This insurgent movement was led by semi-retired military captain, Juan Bautista de las Casas.
Social and cultural anthropologist, Maria Zentella, says he convinced other soldiers to join him in the overthrow of the governor of Spanish Texas, Manuel Salcedo.
"They took the governors and other important people from Bejar, and took them prisoners to Monclova, to the capital of Coahuila, to be tried there," said Zentella.
During that time, de las Casas was named interim governor of Texas and expanded his insurgent movement northeast to Nacogdoches. Casas’ men saw little resistance. They freed political prisoners, jailed royalists, and more controversially, confiscated property.
Zentella said they also confiscated cattle "and whatever treasure they had because they needed that to continue the revolution of Hidalgo in the south, and also to have that treasure to buy armament from the U.S."
Residents of San Antonio de Béxar began to question the motives of Juan Bautista de las Casas and of the burgeoning independence movement in general. They didn’t want to get caught on “the wrong side” in case the independence movement went upside down.
"They said, ‘well, if the insurgents lose, what's going to happen is that we're going to be killed. We'll be executed because we followed the insurgency.’ So they started thinking to now overthrow Juan Bautista de las Casas," said Zentella.
Casas’ time in power lasted only 39 days. He was arrested and detained briefly in the Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo), until he was sent to the same prison where Spanish Governor Manuel Salcedo was held.
Salcedo retook his seat and royalist control was reestablished.
Casas came to an inglorious end. Zentella says he was tried, stripped of his military rank, and executed by firing squad before experiencing one more dishonorable humiliation.
"He was decapitated, and his head was brought, and the head was brought to San Antonio de Bejar and put in a pike in the Military Plaza."
Juan Bautista de las Casas will be celebrated as an unsung hero of Mexican Independence this weekend in San Antonio.
The musical folkloric group Los Inocentes will present a historic and musical program in collaboration with the Avenida Guadalupe Association.
Los Inocentes is made up of Maria Zentella, her daughter, folklorist Binisa Zentella, and Binisa’s son, Jonathan Wittwer Zentella.
Hear Los Inocentes perform "Allá en la Cumbre," a historical folk song from the Mexican Independence era. (Binisa Zentella, vocals & guitar. Jonathan Wittwer Zentella, oboe & guitar.)
