At a time when the U.S.-Mexican border was still not clearly defined
and when the doctrine of Manifest Destiny and land hunger impelled
the Anglo presence ever deeper and more intrusively into South Texas,
Juan Nepomucino Cortina cut a violent swath across the region in a
conflict that came to be known as The Cortina War. Did this border
caudillo fight to defend the rights, honor, and legal claims of the
Mexicans of South Texas, as he claimed? Or was his a quest for
personal vengeance against the newcomers who had married into his
family, threatened his mother's land holdings, and insulted his honor?
Historian Jerry Thompson mines the archival record and considers
it in light of recent revisionist history of the region. As a result, he
produces not only a carefully nuanced work on Cortina—the most
comprehensive to date for this pivotal borderlands figure—but also a
balanced interpretation of the violence that racked South Texas from
the 1840s through the 1860s.
Cortina's influence in the region made him a force to be reckoned
with during the American Civil War. He influenced Mexican politics
from the 1840s to the 1870s and fought in the Mexican Army for
more than forty-five years. His daring cross-border cattle raids,
carried out for more than two decades, made his exploits the stuff of
sensational journalism in the newspapers of New York, Boston, and
other American cities. By the time of his imprisonment in 1877,
Cortina and his followers had so roiled South Texas that Anglo
reprisals were being taken against Mexicans and Tejanos throughout
the region, ironically worsening the racism that had infuriated Cortina
in the beginning. The effects of this troubled period continue to
resonate in Anglo-Mexican and Anglo-Tejano relations, down to this
very day.
Students of regional and borderlands history will find this premier
biography to be a rich source of new perspectives. Its transnational
focus and balanced approach will reward scholarly and general
readers alike.
_________________________________________________________
JERRY THOMPSON, a Regent's Professor of history at Texas A&M
International University in Laredo, holds a doctorate from Carnegie-
Mellon University. The author of several books, Thompson has been
working on this biography of Juan Cortina for more than twenty years.
Number Six: Fronteras Series, sponsored by Texas A&M International
University
What people are saying about this book
"This book is of exceptional quality. Through painstaking research
the author establishes a new standard for the history of the Rio
Grande Valley and Northeastern Mexico and offers a higher level of
understanding for the historical significance of Juan Cortina. It will
become a classic of Texas History."—John Mason Hart, The John
and Rebecca Moores Professor of History, University of Houston
"With stunning research and a crisp narrative, Jerry Thompson
takes us beyond Juan Cortina's famous 'war' against Anglo-controlled
Brownsville and into Cortina's tumultuous life as a war lord on the
Mexcian side of the Rio Grande. At last we have a full-scale biography
of this fascinating figure, whose strong sense of justice for his people
was matched only by his opportunism and ambition."—David J.
Weber, Director, Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern
Methodist University
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