José Antonio Mexía

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José Antonio Mexía (* 1800 in Xalapa , Veracruz ; † May 3, 1839 Acajete , Puebla ) was a Mexican politician , military man and businessman .

José Antonio Mexía's parents were Juana Josefa Hernández and Pedro Mexía. In November 1822, the governor of Texas, José Félix Trespalacios appointed him interpreter for the Cherokee Indian delegation in Mexico City. In 1823 he was briefly a colonel in the Mexican army.

On August 5, 1823, Mexía married Charlotte Walker (* 1801, † September 25, 1864 in Mexico City from typhus ). Her children were María Adelaida Matilda (born August 27, 1826 in Tuxpan, † December 22, 1878 in Mexico City) and Enrique Guillermo Antonio Mexía (born January 1829 in Mexico City, † September 19, 1896 there).

From 1823 to 1824, José Antonio Mexía was secretary in the Parliament of Tamaulipas. From 1825 to 1827 he was a tax collector in Tuxpan. From 1825 to 1827 he campaigned for the York Rite Masonic members and the Federal Party. From 1827 to 1832 he rose to General Vicente Guerrero's General Staff to Brigadier General .

From November 1829 to March 1831 Mexía was the embassy secretary in Washington. During this time in Washington he became a representative and lobbyist for the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company . This had acquired settlement concessions for Texas from Mexican empresarios and entrepreneurs like Manuel Lorenzo Justiniano de Zavala y Sáenz . One business idea was to produce cotton in a slavery economy in Texas , even though slavery had been banned in Mexico by Miguel Hidalgo . The Mexican government passed restrictive laws that foreigners were not allowed to settle on the borders or near the coast. Americans were banned from immigrating to Mexico and the Texas-US border was closed from 1830 to 1834. Regardless of this, the settlement concessions for Texas were sold to good-faith US residents willing to settle, even though the corresponding land titles were only worth recycled paper. José Antonio Mexía was the front man for the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company in Mexico City .

Mexía supported Antonio López de Santa Anna in an uprising in 1832 and took the city of Matamoros with the army .

In June 1832 there were riots in Anahuac and de Santa Anna sent him with the so-called Mexía's expedition to Texas to put them down. Stephen F. Austin convinced him that the settlers were loyal to Mexico.

In March 1834, Mexía had 243,540 acres of settlement concessions in its own name and fraudulently reported that the law prohibiting the immigration of Americans had been repealed. In 1834 he was a senator for the state of Mexico and joined the federal troops that rebelled against Santa Anna. The uprising lasted two months, after which José Antonio Mexía was captured in Jalisco and expelled. In New Orleans he gathered 160 irregulars , mostly US Americans, with whom he tried to occupy Tampico in November 1835 . In the failed attack, 31 irregulars were captured, ordered to be executed by Santa Anna and three of them died of disease. José Antonio Mexía fought his way to Texas with the rest of the troop in December 1835.

His proposal to invade Matamoros was not approved by the separatists in Texas and Mexía returned to New Orleans. From 1836 to 1839 Mexía was a traveling salesman in Cuba and Central America for an export-import company in New Orleans. He was involved in negotiations for an agreement on an inter-ocean canal through Nicaragua.

On January 3, 1839, Mexía landed in Tampico, took part in the rebellion of General José de Urrea against Santa Anna and was captured in Acajete (Veracruz). Santa Anna ordered Mexía to be executed and gave him three hours to write farewell letters home. When Mexía heard this, he said that if he had captured him, he would have given Santa Anna only three minutes. Mexía was executed by firing squad .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TRESPALACIOS, JOSÉ FÉLIX (? –1835). In: The Handbook of Texas online.
  2. ↑ MEXIA, ENRIQUE GUILLERMO ANTONIO (1829-1896). In: The Handbook of Texas online.
  3. ↑ GALVESTON BAY AND TEXAS LAND COMPANY. In: The Handbook of Texas online.
  4. ↑ Ana Carolina Castillo Crimm: De Leon, a Tejano family history. University of Texas Press, Austin 2003, ISBN 0-292-70220-5 .
  5. ↑ mexia, Jose Antonio (1800 to 1839). In: The Handbook of Texas online.
personal data
SURNAME Mexía, José Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mexican entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH Xalapa , Veracruz
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1839
Place of death Acajete (Puebla)