[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 25 (Tuesday, March 2, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E281]]
               IN COMMEMORATION OF TEXAS INDEPENDENCE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. GENE GREEN

                                of texas

                  in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 2, 2004

  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today marks the independence of 
Texas, the greatest, most diverse state in the Union. Texas also has 
some of the most interesting and instructive history. I believe the 
lessons of Texas' struggle for independence are no less important 
today.
  One hundred and sixty-eight years ago, March 2, 1836, Texan delegates 
met at Washington-On-The-Brazos to sign the Texas Declaration of 
Independence.
  Less than 100 years after American patriots threw off the tyrannical 
British Empire's military domination, Texans and Tejanos were forced to 
launch a similar struggle against the military dictator, General 
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
  In the words of the Texas Declaration of Independence, the people's 
government had been ``forcibly changed, without their consent, from a 
restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a 
consolidated central military despotism.''
  As Sam Houston and other Texan delegates signed the Texas Declaration 
of Independence, General Santa Anna's army was besieging the Texans and 
Tejanos at the Alamo in San Antonio. That fortress fell four days later 
on the morning of March 6, 1836, when Lt. Colonel William Barrett 
Travis, Tennessee Congressman David Crockett, and approximately 200 
other Texan and Tejano defenders were killed in action. Thankfully, 
their deaths were not in vain, as the remaining Texas forces under Sam 
Houston were able to surprise and defeat the much larger Mexican Army 
at the Battle of San Jacinto, just east of my hometown of Houston, 
Texas.
  At San Jacinto, noted Tejano patriot Captain Juan Seguin commanded a 
cavalry company during this final victory and later became a Senator in 
the Republic of Texas.
  Like the American patriots in 1776, Texans did not create a perfect 
state with their independence. It would not be until June 19th, or 
Juneteenth, 1865, that Texas' African-American citizens achieved the 
freedom that is an inalienable human right. Every Juneteenth, we 
remember that the struggle for equal rights is long and difficult, and 
demands our enduring commitment.
  A popular misconception of the Texas War for Independence is that the 
conflict was a case of Anglos fighting Mexicans. But accurate Texas 
history tells us that Hispanics who had long lived in Texas mostly did 
not consider themselves to be Mexicans, but instead thought of 
themselves as Tejanos. Tejanos inhabited Texas long before Mexico 
existed, and they lived there for the same reasons Anglos later moved 
there--freedom and vast productive land.
  So when General Santa Anna's forces began plundering areas of Texas, 
Tejanos and Texans both reacted with horror.
  It is inspiring to me that many Tejanos joined the fight for 
independence when the Mexican government became an exploitive military 
regime. The brotherhood of freedom can be stronger than the brotherhood 
of ethnicity, as Tejanos proved at Gonzalez, Bexar, Goliad, the Alamo, 
and finally along the banks of the San Jacinto River.
  On Texas Independence Day we reflect on our shared achievements, 
celebrate our peaceful cooperation with Mexico, and renew our 
commitment to preserving our representative government, freedom, and 
human and civil rights.
  Thank you Mr. Speaker, long live Texas, and I yield back the balance 
of my time.

                          ____________________