J. F. de la Teja Professor and Chairman Department of History and State Historian of Texas Texas State University-San Marcos San Marcos, Texas 78666 TMH-202 Phone: 512-245-2142 Fax: 512-245-3043 E-mail: delateja@txstate.edu
	The Destruction of Mission San Saba, attrib. José de Páez, ca. 1763

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Colonial northern Mexico: Social and economic development of northeastern New Spain; land acquisition and tenure patterns in colonial and Mexican Texas and Tamaulipas; political interaction between Tejanos and Anglo Americans.

Current research focus is the Saltillo fair, an annual commercial gathering held in September or October each year from the eighteenth century through the mid-nineteenth century, that attracted merchants from central Mexico, and artisans, hacendados, ranchers, and farmers from the region. Its origins lie in religious celebrations commemorating the feasts of the town's patron saints, Santiago and San Agustín. Because of its social and religious aspects, along with its economic ones, the fair is a good vehicle through which to study the development of a regional, northeastern Mexican culture.

A second line of research concerns Tejanos and their participation in the events leading up to and during the Texas War of Independence.

TEACHING
USEFUL LINKS
Movie Databases
Resources for Mexican and Texas History

GUIDES
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS
BOOK REVIEWS
GRAMMAR & SPELLING & Copy editing marks
FAMILY HISTORY PAPER--WITH LINKS

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

“‘Buena gana tenía de ir a jugar’: The Recreational World of Early San Antonio, Texas, 1718-1845,” International Journal of the History of Sport 26, 7 (June): 889-905.

"Why Urbano and María Trinidad Can’t Get Married: Social Relations in Late Colonial San Antonio," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 112, 2 (Oct. 2008): 121-46.

Co-editor with Ross Frank, Choice, Persuasion, and Coercion: Social Control on Spain's North American Frontiers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.

"The Saltillo Fair and Its San Antonio Connections," in Tejano Epic: Essays in Honor of Félix D. Almaráz, Jr., ed. Arnoldo De León. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 2005.

"Ramón de Murillo’s Plan for the Reform of New Spain’s Frontier Defenses," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 107, 4 (April 2004): 501-33.

Texas: Crossroads of North America, with Paula Marks and Ron Tyler. Boson: Houghton-Mifflin, 2004.

"'A Fine Country with Broad Plains—The Most Beautiful in New Spain,' Colonial Views of Land and Nature," in On the Border: An Environmental History of San Antonio, ed. Char Miller. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001.

"'Only Fit for Raising Stock': Spanish and Mexican Land and Water Rights in the Tamaulipan Cession," in Fluid Arguments: Five Centuries of Western Water Conflict, ed. Char Miller. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2001.

"St. James at the Fair: Religious Ceremony, Civic Boosterism, and Commercial Development on the Colonial Mexican Frontier," The Americas: A Quarterly of Inter-American Cultural History 57, 3 (January 2001): 395-416.

"Spanish Colonial Texas," in New Views of Borderlands History, ed. Robert H. Jackson. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998.

"Discovering the Tejano Community in 'Early' Texas," Journal of the Early Republic 18, 1 (Spring 1998): 73-98.

"The Colonization and Independence of Texas: A Tejano Perspective," in Myths, Misdeeds, and Misunderstandings: The Roots of Conflict in U.S.-Mexican Relations. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 1997.

"Rebellion on the Frontier," in Tejano Journey, 1770-1850. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.

San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995.

"La colonización e independencia de Texas. El punto de vista tejano," in Mitos en las relaciones México-Estados Unidos. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1994.

"Sobrevivencia económica en la frontera de Texas: los ranchos ganaderos del siglo xviii en San Antonio de Béxar," Historia Mexicana 42, 168 (abril-junio 1993): 837-865.

In collaboration with Galen D. Greaser, "Quieting Title to Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in the Trans-Nueces: The Bourland and Miller Commission, 1850-1852," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 95, 4 (April 1992): 445-464.

A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguín, with a biographical essay. 2nd ed. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 2002.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Book Review Editor of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 1997-present.

Editorial board member, Southwestern Historical Quarterly.

Book, microfilm, and documentary reviews in, among other journals, American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Hispanic American Historical Review, Western Historical Review , Historia Mexicana, Southwestern Historical Review, New Mexico Historical Quarterly.

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