[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 132 (Tuesday, August 7, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THE SPANISH FLAG LOWERED FOR THE FINAL TIME ON TEXAS SOIL

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                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 7, 2018

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the day was July 21, 1821. The heat of 
the Texas summer sun beat down upon San Antonio de Bexar, the future 
site of the Battle of the Alamo. The flag of Imperial Spain billowed in 
the wind above the roofs of the mission town. This day, however, would 
be the final day that this flag would fly over Texas.
  For nearly three centuries, the Spanish governed Texas. 
Conquistadores, missionaries, and adventurers made their way to Texas, 
drawn in by the bountiful opportunities of the seemingly endless land. 
However, resistance against Spanish rule began to take root within its 
overseas colonies. In Texas, filibusters from the United States crossed 
into Spanish territory attempting to claim land loosely controlled by 
Spanish royal forces. Mexico caught the fever of revolution, and by the 
early 1800's, certain individuals, including Father Miguel Hidalgo y 
Costilla, were promoting resistance to aspects of Spanish rule.
  To make matters worse, Spain was forced to cede Louisiana as a result 
of the Napoleonic Wars at home to France, who then sold it to President 
Thomas Jefferson and the United States.
  Eventually, the pressure became too great from within, and the 
Mexican war of Independence began in 1810. Revolutionaries, both 
Hispanic and Anglos, living across Spanish Mexico took up arms in open 
revolt against the Spanish occupiers. In Texas, Jose Bernardo Gutierrez 
de Lara and Augustus W. Magee captured Nacodoches, La Bahia, and San 
Antonio, the capital of Spanish Texas at the time, and proclaimed Texas 
an independent state in 1813. Despite their early success, the group 
eventually was defeated decisively by Spanish forces, thus keeping 
Texas under Spain's control.
  However, the days of Spanish rule were numbered, and eventually the 
independence movement in Mexico under Agustin de lturbide and Vicente 
Guerrero successfully drove the Spanish from Mexican shores once and 
for all. Mexico would officially become an independent nation on July 
21, 1821. Having provided resistance against Spanish rule, Texas 
remained a part of an independent Mexico until the Texas Revolution 
fifteen years later.
  Mr. Speaker, we must continue to honor the state's history. The 
Spanish flag is one of the Six Flags over Texas, part of the rich 
tapestry of the state's history, and this event represents an important 
moment in the history of our nation.
  And that is just the way it is.

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