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In search of 18th century town and ranch life in South Texas
This paper describes early-stage research that seeks to understand the lives and built environment of settlers in Spanish colonial Texas. The Lower Rio Grande Valley was first settled by citizens forming the new colony of Nuevo Santander (today the Mexican state of Tamaulipas) in the mid-18th century. This area, below the Nueces river, was never…
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Province of Interiors: Drawing Edges on the Northern Frontier of New Spain
The language the Spanish used to describe their North American frontier in the 18th century simultaneously evoked the condition of edge and interior. Las Provincias Internas and Tierra Adentro were both at the edge of Spanish civilization and deep within the unknown heart of the continent. My paper explores the lives of the people who…