Voting Station

Juan Seguin

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Patriot

The Resume

    (October 27, 1806-August 27, 1890)
    Born in San Antonio de Bexar, Province of Texas (Viceroyalty of New Spain)
    Colonel, Politician, and Judge
    Birth name was Juan Nepomuceno Seguín
    Major leader of the Texas Revolution, which culminated with the Battle of the Alamo
    Served as Judge for Wilson County (1869)
    Served as Bexar County's Justice of the Peace (1852-1856)
    Member of San Antonio's City Council (1828-1833)
    Served in the Texas State Senate, representing the Bexar District (1837-1840)
    Served as both the 101st and 110th Mayor of San Antonio, Texas (1834-1835, 1841-1842)
    1st Mayor of Hispanic-lineage, for any major US City, in American history
    Remains returned to Texas as part of the nation's Bicentennial celebration, reinterred in his namesake town, Seguin, where he is memorialized with a statue (Jul. 4, 1976)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was dubbed 'the Paul Revere of Texas.'
    He fought against the United States in the Mexican-American War.
    Existing portraits of him tend to make him look like Simon Bolivar.
    He isn't nearly the household name that Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie are in Alamo folklore (if anything most non-Texans probably think he was on Santa Anna's side).
    He was under suspicion of disloyalty to Texas when he persisted in ousting illegal Anglo settlers and in maintaining correspondence with Mexico. It didn't help that Mexican officials were claiming that Seguin was an alleged loyal subject of Mexico.
    He aroused suspicion by warning both the San Antonio City Council and the Republic of Texas that a Mexican attack was forthcoming, leading many to conclude he had complicity. The animosity was so strong that he resigned his position and fled to Mexico.
    After his tenure as Mayor was completed, there wouldn't be another Hispanic mayor of San Antonio, or of any other major US city for that matter, until Henry Cisneros in 1980 (whose career in public office didn't fare much better in the long run...)
    He remains such a controversial figure in Texas history that he has been literally erased from portions of it, e.g. ripping the page from the state's original archives documenting the town named in his honor.

Why he might not be annoying:

    His father was a strong political ally of Stephen F. Austin.
    He became a harsh liberal critic of Santa Anna's centralization of authority in Mexico in the 1830's.
    He led a band of liberal 'Tejanos' against Santa Anna's army in 1835.
    His Alamo Defenders' Burial Oration speech commemorating the fallen is one of the most powerful pieces of rhetoric from the period.
    He only survived the brutal siege of the Alamo because he was sent out to gather reinforcements.
    He was a major part of the battle of San Jacinto, leading the only Tejano company in the battle, which was crucial in the eventual defeat of Santa Anna's army.
    Samuel Houston gave him the task of riding into the frontier and warning the settlers of Santa Anna's approaching forces.
    He criticized the actions of Texas cities and towns that deported their Tejano citizens after the revolution was won.
    When he returned to Mexico after being driven out of Texas, he was imprisoned by the Mexican government and tortured.
    He was given the option of joining the Mexican army or suffering extended imprisonment and torture; he chose the former.
    He was permitted to return to Texas after the Mexican-American War, but he endured such vocal harassment that he was compelled to return to Mexico again, where he died.
    If he were an Anglo, he would probably have been revered as an American hero in both his own lifetime and in later generations (rather than kicked out of the Republic he helped establish).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 76.92% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 33 Votes: 39.39% Annoying