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A New History of Old Texas — Arts
A New History of Old Texas

Explore the history of early Texas as you’ve never heard it before. The most recent season (“Lipan Apocalypse”) unveils the legacy of the Lipan Apaches on modern Texas. Season 6 recounts the outsized impact of José Francisco Ruíz on the state’s history. Season 5 traces the roots of Texans’ unique psychology – their “Texanity” – to the technological innovations that shaped its people. Season 4 relates the largely unknown story of the Republic of the Rio Grande. Season 3 tells the remarkable tale of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his journey across the North American continent. Season 2 covers the Battle of Medina, the largest, bloodiest battle in Texas history…and the narrowing search for the battlefield itself! And Season 1 traces the identity of modern-day Texas to the first 160 years or so of San Antonio’s history. — As seen and heard on Texas Standard, KSAT12, Texas Public Radio, the San Antonio Express-News, the San Antonio Report, the Austin Chronicle, and more! —

Copyright: © 2024 A New History of Old Texas

Latest Episodes:

Apalache Jul 09, 2020

Show notes

Episode 4 of Brandon Seale's podcast on Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca.
How the Narváez expeditionaries "conquered" Apalache. And then had to flee for their lives. How they made it back to the Florida coast. And how they confronted the frightening reality that they had lost contact with their ships.
Pages: f11r-f16r in Zamora (1542) Edition as published by Adorno and Pautz (1999).
Cover art: "Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca," by Alfred Russell.
Selected Bibliography
Adorno, Rolena and Patrick Charles Pautz. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1999)
Boyd Carolyn. Rock Art of the Lower Pecos (2013)
Krieger, Alex. We Came Naked and Barefoot (2002)
Reséndez, Andrés. A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (2007)
Stockdale, James Bond. “Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’s Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior” (1993)
“Through the Eyes of the Explorer: Cabeza de Vaca on the South Texas Plains.” TexasBeyondHistory.Net (viewed July 6, 2020)
Wittliff Collections (Texas State University) exhibition on Cabeza de Vaca (including a digitized copy of an original 1555 edition of La Relación)

www.BrandonSeale.com

A Land So Strange Jul 06, 2020

Show notes

Episode 3 of Brandon Seale's podcast on Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca.
How the Narváez expeditionaries marched on their Floridian Tenochtitlán. And how the whole story goes a little Gabriel García Márquez upon the colorful entrance of a Floridian native chief.
Pages: f7r-f11r in Zamora (1542) Edition as published by Adorno and Pautz (1999).
Cover art: "Panfilo de Narvaez and his Companions Reach the Gulf of Mexico after Crossing Florida," 19th century wood engraving.
Selected Bibliography
Adorno, Rolena and Patrick Charles Pautz. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1999)
Boyd Carolyn. Rock Art of the Lower Pecos (2013)
Krieger, Alex. We Came Naked and Barefoot (2002)
Reséndez, Andrés. A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (2007)
Stockdale, James Bond. “Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’s Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior” (1993)
“Through the Eyes of the Explorer: Cabeza de Vaca on the South Texas Plains.” TexasBeyondHistory.Net (viewed July 6, 2020)
Wittliff Collections (Texas State University) exhibition on Cabeza de Vaca (including a digitized copy of an original 1555 edition of La Relación)

www.BrandonSeale.com

Missing the Mark Jul 06, 2020

Show notes

Episode 2 of Brandon Seale's podcast on Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca.
How the Narváez expeditionaries missed their target by a mere 1,000 miles. How they mistook the western coast of Florida for the eastern coast of Mexico. And how they doubled down on their error after finding the first hints of gold.
Pages: f3r-f7r in Zamora (1542) Edition as published by Adorno and Pautz (1999).
Cover art: "Panfilo de Narvaez Expedition," viewed 2 February 2020, https://www.trailoffloridasindianheritage.org/narvaez-mound-jungle-prada#.
Selected Bibliography
Adorno, Rolena and Patrick Charles Pautz. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1999)
Boyd Carolyn. Rock Art of the Lower Pecos (2013)
Krieger, Alex. We Came Naked and Barefoot (2002)
Reséndez, Andrés. A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (2007)
Stockdale, James Bond. “Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’s Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior” (1993)
“Through the Eyes of the Explorer: Cabeza de Vaca on the South Texas Plains.” TexasBeyondHistory.Net (viewed July 6, 2020)
Wittliff Collections (Texas State University) exhibition on Cabeza de Vaca (including a digitized copy of an original 1555 edition of La Relación)

www.BrandonSeale.com

The Sons of 1492 Jul 06, 2020

Show notes

Episode 1 of Brandon Seale's podcast on Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca.
How Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and 600 others came to the New World under the command of Pánfilo de Narváez. What the men and women in the Narváez Expedition were hoping to find. And what they actually found instead.
Pages: f1r-f2v in Zamora (1542) Edition as published by Adorno and Pautz (1999).
Cover art: "Portrait of Cabeza de Vaca," by unknown, Wikicommons, Public Domain.
Selected Bibliography
Adorno, Rolena and Patrick Charles Pautz. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1999)
Boyd Carolyn. Rock Art of the Lower Pecos (2013)
Krieger, Alex. We Came Naked and Barefoot (2002)
Reséndez, Andrés. A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (2007)
Stockdale, James Bond. “Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’s Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior” (1993)
“Through the Eyes of the Explorer: Cabeza de Vaca on the South Texas Plains.” TexasBeyondHistory.Net (viewed July 6, 2020)
Wittliff Collections (Texas State University) exhibition on Cabeza de Vaca (including a digitized copy of an original 1555 edition of La Relación)

www.BrandonSeale.com

Season 3 - Cabeza de Vaca Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

Back in the first episode of the first season of this podcast series, I begged someone to make a movie about the wanderings of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions.

Well, as several of you pointed out, someone actually has made this movie. In 1991 Mexican filmmaker Nicolás Echevarría created a really striking and kinda trippy art-house film that actually does a pretty good job capturing the surrealness of Cabeza de Vaca’s adventures.

But it’s not an easily digestible film. And in its strangeness, it partly obscures the facts of what happened.
Join us this season as we retell Cabeza de Vaca's implausible tale. And join us as we try to understand what exactly Cabeza de Vaca hoped to accomplish in writing out his story…and what he thought the material and spiritual legacy of his incredible journey should be.

www.BrandonSeale.com

Is this the Battlefield of Medina? Aug 26, 2019

Show notes

Episode 12 of Brandon Seale's podcast series on the Battle of Medina.
The trauma of 1813 stuck with Tejanos…and it emboldened them. What lessons did they draw from the Battle of Medina? What lessons should we draw today?

And at long last, we point our finger to the map and ask, “Is this the Battlefield of Medina?”
Selected Bibliography
1813 Texas Declaration of Independence.
Anonymous. “Memoria de las cosas más notables…”
Bernsen, James A. The Lost War for Texas: Mexican Rebels, American Burrites, and the Texas Revolution of 1811 (2024).
De la Teja, Jesús F. San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (1996).
Folsom, Bradley. Arredondo: Last Spanish Ruler of Texas and Northeastern New Spain (2017).
Martínez De Vara, Art. Tejano Patriot (2020).
Menchaca, Antonio. Memoirs (1937).
Navarro, José Antonio. “The Memoirs of José Antonio Navarro, Originally Appearing in the San Antonio Ledger in 1853.”
Schwarz, Ted, and Robert H. Thonhoff. Forgotten Battlefield of the First Texas Revolution: The Battle of Medina, August 18, 1813. (1985).
Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook of Texas Online.
Tijerina, Andrés. Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (1994).

www.BrandonSeale.com

The Most Important Primary Account of the Battle of Medina Aug 19, 2019

Show notes

Supplement to Episode 11 of Brandon Seale's podcast series on the Battle of Medina.
Sometime in the 1820's or 30's, an anonymous survivor of the Spanish Royalist occupation of San Antonio in 1813 wrote down his (or her?) memories of those tragic events. As far as I know, it is the only contemporary Spanish-language account of these events from the Republican perspective, and our friend Joe Arciniega joins us once again this episode to read it into the historical record.
Anonymous. “Memoria de las cosas más notables…”

www.BrandonSeale.com

Terror in Texas (Explicit) Aug 19, 2019

Show notes

Episode 11 of Brandon Seale's podcast series on the Battle of Medina.
(WARNING: This episode contains graphic language and descriptions of Spanish Royalists' sack of San Antonio following the Battle of Medina.)
After defeating the Republican Army of the North at the Battle of Medina, Spanish Royalist General Joaquín de Arredondo entered San Antonio intent on teaching its citizens a lesson they would never forget. The subsequent Sack of Béxar, the execution of hundreds of Tejano men, and the imprisonment and assault of just as many Tejana women marked Texans for many generations to come…though not, perhaps, in the way that Arredondo intended.

The research team makes one last effort to high-grade the various leads they have compiled over the course of the previous year to map the battle site, based solely on the observations of contemporary, post-Battle of Medina accounts and artifacts.
Selected Bibliography
1813 Texas Declaration of Independence.
Anonymous. “Memoria de las cosas más notables…”
Bernsen, James A. The Lost War for Texas: Mexican Rebels, American Burrites, and the Texas Revolution of 1811 (2024).
De la Teja, Jesús F. San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (1996).
Folsom, Bradley. Arredondo: Last Spanish Ruler of Texas and Northeastern New Spain (2017).
Martínez De Vara, Art. Tejano Patriot (2020).
Menchaca, Antonio. Memoirs (1937).
Navarro, José Antonio. “The Memoirs of José Antonio Navarro, Originally Appearing in the San Antonio Ledger in 1853.”
Schwarz, Ted, and Robert H. Thonhoff. Forgotten Battlefield of the First Texas Revolution: The Battle of Medina, August 18, 1813. (1985).
Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook of Texas Online.
Tijerina, Andrés. Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (1994).

www.BrandonSeale.com

The Battle of Medina Revisited Aug 05, 2019

Show notes

Episode 10 of Brandon Seale's podcast series on the Battle of Medina.
After a year of research and interviews, we sum up everything we’ve learned over the last year to recreate what happened on August 18, 1813, when 1,830 Spanish Royalists under the command of General Joaquín de Arredondo finally met up with the unbeaten 1,400 man Republican Army of the North twenty miles or so south of San Antonio.

Additionally, the battlefield search team attempts to validate the artifacts they have uncovered. The results are simultaneously disconcerting, exhilarating…and confusing.
Selected Bibliography
1813 Texas Declaration of Independence.
Anonymous. “Memoria de las cosas más notables…”
Bernsen, James A. The Lost War for Texas: Mexican Rebels, American Burrites, and the Texas Revolution of 1811 (2024).
De la Teja, Jesús F. San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (1996).
Folsom, Bradley. Arredondo: Last Spanish Ruler of Texas and Northeastern New Spain (2017).
Martínez De Vara, Art. Tejano Patriot (2020).
Menchaca, Antonio. Memoirs (1937).
Navarro, José Antonio. “The Memoirs of José Antonio Navarro, Originally Appearing in the San Antonio Ledger in 1853.”
Schwarz, Ted, and Robert H. Thonhoff. Forgotten Battlefield of the First Texas Revolution: The Battle of Medina, August 18, 1813. (1985).
Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook of Texas Online.
Tijerina, Andrés. Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (1994).

www.BrandonSeale.com

Artifacts at Last! Jul 22, 2019

Show notes

Episode 9 of Brandon Seale's podcast series on the Battle of Medina.
On August 4, 1813, after months of plotting, José Álvarez de Toledo personally arrived in San Antonio and overthrew Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara as commander-in-chief of the Republican Army of the North. Just as the Republicans found themselves more divided than ever, their most fearsome opponent to-date – Joaquín de Arredondo – began his march up the Laredo Road to challenge them.

At long, long last, our research team uncovers artifacts from the battle. Even better, we find cannonballs! And once we plot them on the map, a pattern begins to emerge…
Selected Bibliography
1813 Texas Declaration of Independence.
Anonymous. “Memoria de las cosas más notables…”
Bernsen, James A. The Lost War for Texas: Mexican Rebels, American Burrites, and the Texas Revolution of 1811 (2024).
De la Teja, Jesús F. San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (1996).
Folsom, Bradley. Arredondo: Last Spanish Ruler of Texas and Northeastern New Spain (2017).
Martínez De Vara, Art. Tejano Patriot (2020).
Menchaca, Antonio. Memoirs (1937).
Navarro, José Antonio. “The Memoirs of José Antonio Navarro, Originally Appearing in the San Antonio Ledger in 1853.”
Schwarz, Ted, and Robert H. Thonhoff. Forgotten Battlefield of the First Texas Revolution: The Battle of Medina, August 18, 1813. (1985).
Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook of Texas Online.
Tijerina, Andrés. Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (1994).

www.BrandonSeale.com

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