Free Republic

In the face of increasing terror attacks on our rights and our freedoms from the media and their anointed deities in Washington, it is important that we remember our history. And those who died looking at the guns of oppression for many days, but who refused to quit. -- And, in Goliad a few days before, remember also those who were mercilessly slaughtered AFTER meekly surrendering to the same invading horde of despots. Those deaths prove that "Quitting" and "Negotiations" are a fast way to death. not peace.

(On This Day In History) June 22, 1876: General Santa Anna Dies In Mexico City Embittered and impoverished, the once mighty Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna dies in Mexico City. Born in 1792 at Jalapa, Vera Cruz, Mexico, Santa Anna was the son of middle-class parents. As a teen, he won a commission in the Spanish army and might have been expected to live out an unspectacular career as a middle-level army officer. However, the young Santa Anna quickly distinguished himself as a capable fighter and leader, and after 1821, he gained national prominence in the successful Mexican war for...

DALLAS (AP) - Texas ranked lowest among the nation's four southern border states in its standards for teaching Latin American and Mexican history, according to a national study released Monday. The study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said on a scale of zero to 10, Texas scored a five - just above the national average of 4.2. California, meanwhile, scored a 10. Arizona scored a six and New Mexico scored an eight, said Walter Russell Meade, a senior fellow for the council on foreign relations who conducted the study based on a review of...

GOLIAD - Raindrops began sprinkling down as Goliad County Sheriff Robert DeLaGarza hurriedly punched numbers into his cell phone. Moments earlier he had received information that suspected illegal immigrants whose vehicles had been stopped along state Highway 239 had fled into the brush with as many as five school-aged children. "We can't have children and women out in the brush," DeLaGarza said. "That really concerns me, especially with rain coming. We're going to do everything we can to find these children." What the sheriff did was connect with the Department of Public Safety, first with DPS Sgt. Chris Ybanez in...

The first Texas chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps disbanded Monday. "The Goliad chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was dissolved today," chapter president Kenneth Buelter said in a brief e-mail sent to the Victoria Advocate on Monday evening. The e-mail included no further explanation and directed all comments to either Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas president Al Garza or to a representative of the Falfurrias chapter. Repeated attempts to contact Buelter on Monday evening were unsuccessful. Buelter notified the Texas leader of his resignation and the dissolution of the Goliad-area chapter Monday evening, Garza said in...

About 60 participate in Goliad meeting GOLIAD - Residents and landowners interested in becoming members of the Goliad chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps attended a meeting on Wednesday in which they discussed preparations for the launch of the civilian-led border watch in October. About 60 people attended the meeting, which was the first held by the newly formed chapter that in October plans to become part of a nationwide border watchdog group. The organization's focus is to aid law enforcement in keeping undocumented immigrants from crossing into the U.S. "I'm not against immigration, but I am against illegal...

GOLIAD - If you're going to be a minuteman and patrol the border for illegal immigrants, you'll have to behave. That was the message given to about 40 presumably would-be recruits who showed up in the 103-degree heat for the first meeting of the Goliad chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. "You've now joined a higher calling. If you're going to do this, you're really going to have to search your soul and ask yourself whether you can follow procedures," Kenneth Buelter of Sarco, vice-president of the newly formed Goliad chapter, told the men and women gathered late Wednesday...

A Goliad County constable pretended to be a smuggler Monday to lure eight illegal immigrants out of the South Texas brush. A state trooper attempted to stop a white van at about 9:30 a.m. Monday. The driver refused to stop and drove into a residential area, where about 40 people bailed out of the vehicle and ran into nearby brush. Goliad County Precinct 1 constable Michael De La Garza said that some of the immigrants were either caught or turned themselves in throughout the day, but eight people were still unaccounted for that afternoon. "We conducted a sting operation to...

The leader of the Goliad chapter of the Minuteman Project said 75 to 100 people are interested in joining the group, and that they plan to meet next week to organize a civilian-led border watch that would start in October. Bill Parmley, president of the newly formed Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas-Goliad Chapter, said members will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Goliad County Fairgrounds. They will discuss operation rules and how to align the Goliad chapter with 10 other Minuteman states to become part of the overall Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. The group's focus is preventing undocumented...

GOLIAD - A day after Goliad-area citizens were introduced to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps' model to patrol the nation's borders, Goliad County's sheriff said he'll work with the volunteers but stopped short of endorsing the organization. Sheriff Robert DeLaGarza, who has been working with citizens who want to stop illegal immigration through south Goliad County, said Tuesday he's not sure the program offered by Tombstone, Ariz., newspaperman Chris Simcox is any different than what the residents of Sarco are doing already. "If they stick to and train to what they're saying, then everything will be fine," DeLaGarza said. "My...

GOLIAD — Coyotes are known to take the back roads — tiny farm-to-market roads no one takes, isolated highways and small-town county roads. "They are smart about it," Goliad rancher Elizardo "Charlie" Hernandez said of illegal immigrant smugglers who are paid more than $800 to shuttle people from Mexico. "They don’t get caught." More than 200 Texans from as far away as Houston and the Rio Grande Valley met in Goliad on Monday night to organize the first Minuteman Project in Texas, hoping to curb illegal alien activity like the type Hernandez sees on his property at least once a...

Founder of civil patrol group presents his case to residents of Goliad County GOLIAD - The federal government's inability to secure the borders of the United States has led to a revival of the old civil defense movement, Arizona newspaperman Chris Simcox told more than 100 people gathered for the first Texas-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps meeting on Monday. Begun in Arizona, the movement has a model of success to slow illegal immigration and send a message to elected officials that ordinary Americans are prepared to do the job they won't, Simcox said. South Texas ranchers are considering creating a...

Illegal immigration concerns residents of South Texas city HOUSTON - The leader of a controversial civilian patrol group plans to come Monday to a place that carries significance in the historic conflict between Texas and Mexico. But Minuteman Civil Defense Corps leader Chris Simcox said it is only coincidence that he will meet with about 100 landowners in Goliad, where Texas revolutionaries were massacred by Mexican forces in 1836 and became martyrs for independence. Gen. Sam Houston's troops took revenge at the Battle of San Jacinto, where they went into the fight shouting: "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" Lifelong Goliad...

Ranchers: immigrants are causing problems Goliad County area ranchers say their children can't ride their bikes on county roads because of vehicles zooming past, bulging with undocumented immigrants. Many complain about large numbers of illegal immigrants roosting on and around their lands. "Parts of my land look like a city dump," said Bill Parmley, 49, a petroleum geologist and landowner. "It takes hundreds of these people to litter this much." Parmley is one organizer of the Sarco Concerned Citizens group, which is forming the first Texas affiliate of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which will work with local law enforcement,...

GOLIAD - A citizen-based border patrol group that originated in Arizona will train its first Texas affiliate this weekend in Goliad, local organizers said this week. Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, will conduct the training on the organization's standard operational procedures, said Bill Parmley, a resident of Sarco in South Goliad County. A public meeting and media interviews with Simcox and border-area ranchers and property owners are planned for 7 p.m. Monday at Memorial Auditorium in Goliad. Parmley is among south Goliad County residents who organized months ago to stop illegal immigration through their area. The...

GOLIAD — Even in South Texas, these pickups stand out in the sheriff's impound lot. There are just too many to ignore. Not so noticeable are the mats or tarps discarded in the beds of the 50 or so trucks; they were used by undocumented immigrants to hide underneath on their journey north. Each vehicle here marks a failed attempt, and lately, there have been a lot of them. Historic Goliad County, 200 miles from the border, again finds itself at the center of a war — not against the Mexican army, but against undocumented immigrant smuggling. Sheriff Robert DeLaGarza...

35 people have been found; two other vehicles were stopped Thursday GOLIAD - As of Friday afternoon in Goliad County, 35 suspected illegal immigrants were located and taken to safety, while the number of those being sought continues to grow. After a search began Thursday morning when an estimated 85 illegals jumped from a three-vehicle caravan and fled into the brush, a fourth vehicle was stopped around 5 p.m. Thursday, and still another late that night, leaving officials to believe that between 71 and 76 people are still hiding in the county, Sheriff Robert DeLaGarza said Friday. So far, officials...

Goliad County wrote a new chapter Tuesday in its ongoing dealings with human smuggling. Sheriff Robert DeLaGarza said more than a dozen Asians who appear to be illegal immigrants were caught traveling through south Goliad County by a deputy patrolling an area north of Sarco. DeLaGarza said the suspected illegals had passports from the Republic of China. It appears they are obtaining passports to enter Mexico as tourists, then making their way to the United States border, he said. A U.S. Border Patrol agent who picked up the immigrants later in the day told DeLaGarza the agency is seeing more...

Okay, okay... I know this is late for The Birthday, but I just received it.  I checked snopes and they don't seem to have it yet.  The e-mail came from a woman whose brother went to high school with Bum at French High School (Beaumont, Tx), so I'm thinking he really wrote it.  It sure sounds like him, anyway.  Does anyone know him personally so we can verify? HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TEXAS -- FROM BUM PHILLIPS  Being Texan by Bum PhillipsDear Friends,   Last year, I wrote a small piece about what it means to me to be a Texan. My...

The Battle of San JacintoThe Battle of San Jacinto lasted less than twenty minutes, but it sealed the fate of three republics. Mexico would never regain the lost territory, in spite of sporadic incursions during the 1840s. The United States would go on to acquire not only the Republic of Texas in 1845 but Mexican lands to the west after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War in 1848. By early April, Santa Anna had divided his forces in a three-pronged attack: a northern army, under General Antonio Gaona , the central army under Santa Anna and General...

<p>The Texas Revolution has been the subject of countless articles, books, songs, and films. It is one of the foundations of our history and heritage as Texans and a part of our national story as Americans. Names like Travis, Bowie, Seguin, and Crockett and places like the Alamo, Goliad, and San Jacinto resonate with all of us, serving to shape our personal relationship with our collective history. Yet there are actually very few original documents - primary sources - that have survived to tell us this story.</p>

Michael Stravato for The New York Times In 1857, Mexican-American freight haulers were hanged on an oak tree at the courthouse in Goliad, Tex. GOLIAD, Tex., July 16 — In history books, the killing of more than 300 Texan rebels by Mexican troops here has long been known as the Goliad Massacre. But to many residents of Goliad, with its 18th-century Spanish fort and towering monument to the dead, that brutal episode in its history is still open to interpretation. At the heart of the dispute, largely between Anglos and Mexican-Americans, is the porous definition of who is a Texan...

166 years later, Texas recalls the Goliad massacre Historic battle helped gather support for cause against Mexico 03/24/2002 By NATALIE ORNISH / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News There likely isn't a Texan or an American who hasn't heard the famous cry, "Remember the Alamo!" But what about Goliad? It will be 166 years ago Wednesday that 342 Texians, most of whom had been surrendered by Col. James W. Fannin seven days earlier and held in the presidio at Goliad, were killed by Mexican soldiers. The Goliad massacre came 21 days after the fall of the Alamo, amid...