Why do some Texans celebrate El Diez y Seis de Septiembre (September 16), and why does a Mexican national holiday mark the beginning of a month of recognition in Texas history?
What happened that day had great effect!
You will remember that both Spain and France had laid claim to the land that became Texas. You may also vaguely recall that Spain and France had been on unfriendly terms at several points in their history. Spain didn’t particularly relish the thought of having France as it’s next door neighbor in the New World, too. When the latest of their several clashes in Europe ended, Spain won claim to the Louisiana territory, but in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso they agreed to return Louisiana to France in exchange for other benefits on the condition that France promise never to sell their territory in the New World to the United States. Spain had also had unpleasant experiences with the British Empire and feared that the United States, being strongly influenced by their British history, would try to take Texas in order to broaden their own territory.
France broke their promise.
The French Emperor Napoleon needed money to fund his military campaigns. In 1803, he sold the Louisiana Territory to the American President Thomas Jefferson to raise war funds. Then in 1808, under the pretense of sending reinforcements to his French army occupying Portugal, Napoleon invaded Spain and put his little brother, Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte, on the Spanish throne as King José I.
The fight was on!
Spain rebelled against their French conquerors, and Spaniards in the New World also rebelled, demanding to be free of both French kings and Spanish overlords. The fever of freedom ignited into flames of rebellion, and a little priest, Miguel Hidalgo, was the one who “lit the match” that started the Mexican War of Independence. On September 16, 1810, he issued his Grito de Dolores, or “Cry of Dolores,” called for an end to 300 years of Spanish rule in Mexico, a redistribution of land, and racial equality for thousands of Indian and Mestizo peasants. So popular was his cause that the letters of Father Hidalgo’s name were rearranged to form the new name of the fortified Texas town of Goliad.
With the help of the British, Spain defeated Napoleon on June 13, 1813 and put a Spanish king back on the throne. But the Mexican War of Independence continued, and colonists in Texas seized the opportunity to free themselves from Mexico, as well. (During this time the region we call Texas was still just an isolated and largely unsupported part of the Mexican state of Tejas y Coahuila.)
So it was the sale of land bordering Texas that started the trouble, and it was the Mexican War of Independence, begun on el Diez y Seis de Septiembre, that first inspired Texas colonists to fight for freedom from Spain and Mexico as well.
That’s why a Mexican national holiday is also observed with significance in Texas…and now, as Paul Harvey used to say…you know the REST of the story!
