The Search for Pedro's Story recreates the life experiences of 
Pedro Péres, a leather jacket soldier in the Spanish colonial army 
in eighteenth-century Texas.

    Each chapter begins with a signpost artifact related to one of 
Pedro's roles—soldier, horseman, explorer, guard, spouse, 
messenger, and cowboy—and ends with a fictional account of an 
event in Pedro's life from the findings.

    The discipline of history usually focuses on heroic deeds and 
people, but Martinello thinks its methods of detection should also 
reveal how ordinary people lived. In The Search for Pedro's 
Story, fragments of a real life are pieced together from things 
Pedro knew, including taming a mustang and playing cards. The 
book suggests how to ask questions, seek sources, and make 
sense of findings that history, especially the history of the ordinary, 
demands.

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MARIAN L. MARTINELLO, now retired from the University of 
Texas at San Antonio, developed the Interdisciplinary Studies 
degree and teacher certification program there. She was UTSA's 
first Minnie Stevens Piper Professor in 1982. Her previous book, 
The Search for Emma's Story, was published in 1987. Martinello, 
the author of several education texts, lives in San Antonio. 
SAMUEL P. NESMITH, who collaborated with Dr. Martinello, was 
curator at the Alamo in San Antonio and researcher and curator 
at the Institute of Texan Cultures. He is now director of the Texas 
Museum of Military History.