The vast and varied landscapes of Texas loom large in our American imaginations. As does Texas culture with its BBQ, cowboys, and larger-than-life personality. But before Texas was a place that embraced ranching, space flight, and country music, Texas was a place with rich and vibrant Indigenous cultures and traditions and with Spanish and Mexican cultures and traditions.

Martha Menchaca, a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin, is a scholar of Texas history and United States-Mexican culture. She joins us to explore the Spanish and Mexican origins of Texas with details from her book, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/381



Sponsor Links

• Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution
• Episode 115: Andrew Torget, The Early American History of Texas
• Episode 178, Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America
• Episode 241: Molly Warsh, Pearls & the Nature of the Spanish Empire
• Episode 334, Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New Spain
• Episode 358: Charles Tingley, St Augustine and Early Florida
• Episode 371: Estevan Rael-Gálvez, An Archive of Indigenous Slavery

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