The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 90, July 1986 - April, 1987 Page: 219

Texas as Viewed from Mexico, 1820- 1834
NETTIE LEE BENSON*
TEXAS IN 1820 WAS HARDLY IN THE THOUGHT OF ANY MEXICANS
other than those few thousand living there, still under the domina-
tion of their Spanish ruler. Texas was temporarily at peace again. The
long-debated subject of the boundary with the United States of Amer-
ica had been concluded finally with the Adams-Onis Treaty of Febru-
ary 22, 1819; and the most recent invasion of Americans, led by Gen-
eral James Long, had been repelled by the Spanish forces prior to
1820o. The Spanish commandant general, Joaquin de Arredondo, had
Texas under control during 1820 and the first half of 1821. He re-
ported semimonthly to Mexico City that all was tranquil in the area
under his command, and no other noteworthy comment appeared in
the Mexico City newspapers in relation to Texas.' It is possible that
Texas was in the minds of those young Mexicans who feared being
drafted into the army to be sent to the Texas frontier to withstand the
American aggressors, especially those Mexicans living in the neighbor-
ing provinces of Coahuila, Nuevo Le6n, and Nuevo Santander, where
this drafting process had occurred so frequently in the previous years
of that century, and for the return home of whose soldiers parents and
wives were constantly importuning the Spanish government.
* Nettie Lee Benson is professor of history at the Univesity of Texas, Austin. Her research has
focused on Mexican history in the early nineteenth century. Dr. Benson has been involved ex-
tensively with Latin American librarianship, academic publishing, and professional organiza-
tions. The Casa de Cultura Americana awarded her the Premio America in 1974, and the
Mexican government conferred on her the Order of the Aztec Eagle in 1979. In 1975, the
Latin American Collection at the University of Texas, Austin, was renamed for her, in recogni-
tion of the role she played, over a period of thirty-three years as director, in developing the
Collection as one of the foremost libraries of its kind in the world.
'Gaceta del golterno de Mixico (Mexico City), Jan.-Dec., 182o. No other comment relating to
Texas was found in the Gaceta, or in the Mexico City weekly Semanario politico y literario de Md-
xico, July, 1820o-Jan. 30, 1822, or in the tri-weekly Noticioso general (Mexico City), Jan.-Dec.,
182o.