One significant and universal enterprise of the Spanish frontier in North America was the development of the livestock industry everywhere from Nueva Vizcaya and Sinaloa to Texas, New Mexico, Alta California, and Pimería Alta. Ranching—both private and mission-controlled—became a frontier institution along with the presidio, mission, and civil settlements.
Los Mesteños portrays the story of ranching in Spanish Texas from the livestock brought by the Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo to Mexican independence and beyond. Jackson’s thesis is that Spanish influence on ranching and livestock raising is little known or understood, yet it had an impact long after Anglos arrived. While this observation has already been made by Sandra Myres and Odie Faulk, Jackson provides a detailed chronological account of this development using archival materials and his familiarity with secondary sources. His study covers ranching in the San Antonio River area, East Texas, and the Nueces strip of Nuevo Santander. It also chronicles the transition from exports of cattle to horses and mules after 1800, but it does not establish the relationship of the Texas livestock industry to that of other northern provinces. The lengthy text is heavy reading, and is supplemented by 90 of the author’s own pen-and-ink sketches, maps, 14 appendixes (including 1 depicting brands), and a useful bibliography.
The author is a freelance writer and illustrator with a South Texas background. He is at his best describing the first big roundup of 1787; Philip Nolans activities; cattle drives to Louisiana and Coahuila; and disputes between individuals, with missionaries, and especially in opposition to government officials who tried to control and regulate the livestock industry after Comandante-General Teodoro de Croix’s initial efforts. Jackson tends to favor the private ranchers in their arguments with such governors as the Barón de Ripperdá and Domingo Cabello. He also shows that private ranchers were influential in the late eighteenth-century decline of the Texas missions.
While the text is the product of meticulous research (all accomplished in Texas) and the narrative is carefully prepared, there are few summaries and conclusions. It is also difficult to understand what the author means by the Spanish “system” (p. 586) and why he observed that the livestock industry originated with the Isleño families (p. 336), when he began his study with the introduction of livestock by the Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo. Throughout he uses the terms mesteño (usually employed for horses or mustangs) and orejano (unmarked or unbranded bovine stock) interchangeably and in broad context.
Los Mesteños is a sound addition to previously published studies of Spanish ranching in Texas. It will he useful for specialists on the Spanish Borderlands and as a reference. It does reinforce the contention that livestock practices in Texas developed from the Spanish precedent both in Texas and elsewhere on the northern frontier.
