LAREDO, Texas \u2014 There are six flags that fly high in the mind of every Texan, but there\u2019s a seventh that was never quite acknowledged by any of the other countries. Nearly 200 years after the end of the Republic of the Rio Grande, its spirit still bonds Texas and Mexico.<\/p>\n
Stretching from above Laredo to Brownsville and reaching down past Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, the legacy of this short-lived country is still ever-present in South Texas and North Mexico.<\/p>\n
Since the 1700s, when this area was under Spanish rule, people living here were often an afterthought.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the beginning of the settlements here people were really left to their own devices,\u201d said Andrea Ordo\u00f1ez with the Webb County Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n
Ordo\u00f1ez explained that people north of the Rio Grande were mostly okay supporting themselves, until Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna came along. Viewed by many as a dictator, Santa Anna dissolved Mexico\u2019s Congress, dismissed its constitution and declared himself the center of power. Ordo\u00f1ez says it was unpopular in many parts of Mexico and further isolated those who already saw little benefit from their federal government.<\/p>\n
\u201c[People living along the Rio Grande] thought, \u2018why are we going to be sending all our money to the center, when we have basically survived this area for a century without any kind of representation?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In search of a solution, they looked to neighboring Texas for answers.<\/p>\n
The Lone Star State had been independent for four years by this point, for the same disapproval of Santa Anna. Texas didn\u2019t want to be overly involved with helping Mexico lose even more territory for fear of retaliation. However, Ordo\u00f1ez says Texas shared soldiers, money and resources \u2014 seeing it as a positive for Texas\u2019 own independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Texas said, \u2018well, if we let the Republic of the Rio Grande happen, there\u2019s a buffer between us and the Mexican government,’\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Republic of the Rio Grande declared independence from Mexico in January 1840, but was never formally recognized by Mexico, Texas or the United States. It would end only 11 months later, in November, after a series of Mexican military defeats. The three-starred flag, however, is still incredibly important to the area. It\u2019s even featured on Laredo\u2019s official city seal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it just speaks to who \u2026 the people of South Texas and the North of Mexico are. We are independent people, we are ni de aqui, ni de alla,\u201d Ordo\u00f1ez said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNi de aqui, ni de alla\u201d is a common phrase on the border translates to: \u201cNeither from here, nor from there.\u201d Between two places, but living as one, is the spirit of the Republic of the Rio Grande\u00a0that is still alive today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people maybe feel like they don\u2019t belong in one side or the other, well, you belong in the Republic of the Rio Grande,\u201d Ordo\u00f1ez said. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAREDO, Texas \u2014 There are six flags that fly high in the mind of every Texan, but there\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3564,132,134,133,3565,1570,102,30720,223,82,27,26986,1569,835],"class_list":["post-359232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-app-community","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-community-news","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-lily-celeste","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-editors-picks","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}