{"id":431697,"date":"2026-09-10T12:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/431697\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T12:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:26:13","slug":"the-unsung-hero-of-the-mexican-war-of-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/431697\/","title":{"rendered":"The unsung hero of the Mexican War of Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for\u00a0TPR Today<\/a>, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.<\/p>\n

The battle for Mexican independence from Spain began with a rousing call by Father Miguel Hidalgo to rise up against Spanish colonial rule on September 16, 1810.<\/p>\n

It was an 11-year battle that mostly was fought in local and regional struggles in various phases.<\/p>\n

The early days of the Mexican War of Independence spread, for a while, north into Spanish Texas. The key target for the revolutionaries was the capital of San Antonio de B\u00e9xar.<\/p>\n

The idea was to gain support for independence and supplies from the United States.<\/p>\n

This insurgent movement was led by semi-retired military captain, Juan Bautista de las Casas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Social and cultural anthropologist, Maria Zentella, says he convinced other soldiers to join him in the overthrow of the governor of Spanish Texas, Manuel Salcedo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“They took the governors and other important people from Bejar, and took them prisoners to Monclova, to the capital of Coahuila, to be tried there,” said Zentella.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Binisa Zentella<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Courtesy image<\/p>\n

The El Quartel (El Cuartel) historical marker marks where Juan Bautista de las Casas recruited forces to briefly overthrow the Spanish colonial governor at San Antonio de Bexar in 1811. Located at 401 S. Alamo Street in San Antonio TX.<\/p>\n

During that time, de las Casas was named interim governor of Texas and expanded his insurgent movement northeast to Nacogdoches. Casas\u2019 men saw little resistance. They freed political prisoners, jailed royalists, and more controversially, confiscated property.<\/p>\n

Zentella said they also confiscated cattle “and whatever treasure they had because they needed that to continue the revolution of Hidalgo in the south, and also to have that treasure to buy armament from the U.S.”<\/p>\n

Residents of San Antonio de B\u00e9xar began to question the motives of Juan Bautista de las Casas and of the burgeoning independence movement in general. They didn\u2019t want to get caught on \u201cthe wrong side\u201d in case the independence movement went upside down.<\/p>\n

“They said, \u2018well, if the insurgents lose, what’s going to happen is that we’re going to be killed. We’ll be executed because we followed the insurgency.\u2019 So they started thinking to now overthrow Juan Bautista de las Casas,” said Zentella.<\/p>\n

Casas\u2019 time in power lasted only 39 days. He was arrested and detained briefly in the Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo), until he was sent to the same prison where Spanish Governor Manuel Salcedo was held.<\/p>\n

Salcedo retook his seat and royalist control was reestablished.<\/p>\n

Casas came to an inglorious end. Zentella says he was tried, stripped of his military rank, and executed by firing squad before experiencing one more dishonorable humiliation.<\/p>\n

“He was decapitated, and his head was brought, and the head was brought to San Antonio de Bejar and put in a pike in the Military Plaza.”<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Jonathan Wittwer Zentella (left), Binisa Zentella (center), Maria Zentella (right)<\/p>\n

Juan Bautista de las Casas will be celebrated as an unsung hero of Mexican Independence this weekend in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

The musical folkloric group Los Inocentes will present a historic and musical program in collaboration with the Avenida Guadalupe Association.<\/p>\n

Los Inocentes is made up of Maria Zentella, her daughter, folklorist Binisa Zentella, and Binisa\u2019s son, Jonathan Wittwer Zentella.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hear Los Inocentes perform “All\u00e1 en la Cumbre,” a historical folk song from the Mexican Independence era. (Binisa Zentella, vocals & guitar. Jonathan Wittwer Zentella, oboe & guitar.)<\/p>\n

Alla en la cumbre take 1.mp3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for\u00a0TPR Today, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-431697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431697","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=431697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}