The open state of Texas among the Nueces River and the Rio Grande used to be carefully settled throughout the 19th century, and many of the settlers who did stay there had Hispanic names that until eventually lately have been not often admitted into the pages of Texas historical past. In 1935, even if, a descendant of 1 of the previous Spanish land-grant households within the region-a lady, no less-found an creative technique to submit the background of her sector at a time while neither Tejanos nor ladies had a lot voice. She advised the tale from the point of view of an historical mesquite tree, less than whose branches a lot South Texas historical past had handed. Her story turned a useful resource of folks background yet has lengthy been out of print. Now, with vital new introductions via Leticia M. Garza-Falcón and Andrés Tijerina, the historical past witnessed by way of El Mesquite can back tell readers of ways of existence that first formed Texas. in the course of the voice of the gnarled previous tree, Elena Zamora O'Shea tells South Texas political and ethnographic background, packed with info of way of life equivalent to songs, neighborhood crops and folks medicinal drugs, meals and recipes, peone/patron family, and the Tejano ranch vocabulary. The paintings is a crucial instance of the historical-folkloristic literary style utilized by Mexican American writers of the interval. utilizing the literary equipment of the tree's narration, O'Shea increases problems with tradition, discrimination, and prejudice she couldn't have addressed in her personal voice in that day and explicitly states the Mexican American ideology of Thirties Texas. the result's a literary and old paintings of lasting price, which truly articulates the Tejano declare to legitimacy in Texas history.

ELENA ZAMORA O'SHEA (1880-1951) was once born at Rancho l. a. Noria Cardenena close to Peñitas, Hidalgo County, Texas. A long-time schoolteacher, whose posts incorporated one at the well-known King Ranch, she wrote this e-book to assist Tejano youngsters recognize and declare their proud heritage.