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LATINO/BORDER STUDIES A Texas Patriot on Trial in Mexico: Jose Antonio Navarro and the Texan Santa Fe Expedition. By Andrés Reséndez. Dallas: William P. Clements Center for Southwestern Studies, 2005. Pp. xxxii, 134. Illustrations. Notes. Index. $55.00 cloth.
This is an interesting study of the trial of José Antonio Navarro after the ill-fated attempt by the Texas Republic to seize eastern New Mexico. Navarro was one of three commissioners appointed by the president of the Texas Republic to persuade governor Manuel Armijo to "voluntarily" join Texas. Well edited, written in both Spanish and English as well as including an excellent introduction, A Texas Patriot on Trial in Mexico describes very well a key event during the conflict between Texas and Mexico during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Navarro managed to talk his way out of being executed. After the expedition failed, Navarro insisted to Armijo that he was only serving as a translator, that "my participation would serve only to avoid a crisis among my fellow citizens" (p. 32) and that he was ill. After his capture, Navarro was kept in the Acordada prison in Mexico City until his trial,...