Welcome to the Republic of the Rio Grande.

Episode 9, The Battle of Alcantra.

I'm Brandon Seal.

Growing up in Guerrero, which of course back then was known as Rebilla, as the poor son of a cowboy,

Antonio Zapata,

probably grew up admiring Jose Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara.

Gutieres Delara was a generation older than Zapata. He had land. He had some money, and he'd received an education. But what made Gutierrez de Lara really stand out was his charisma,

particularly after 1810 when he became one of the most outspoken advocates of republicanism

against the ancient rights and privileges of Spanish royalists.

Even as a poor boy from a radically different background, Antonio Zapata likely could have related

to this cry for autonomy.

It was, after all, the lived ethos of the entire Spanish-North American frontier.

Which is what makes it so strange that now, in 1839, the 65-year-old Gutierrez de Lara found himself in

command of nearly 500 centralist government soldiers

arrayed against the 1,000 or so federalist insurgents under the command of Antonio Zapata.

Indeed, even the composition of Zapata in Canales' Federalist Army

should have reminded Gutierrez de Lara of his old Republican army back in 1813,

comprised in near equal parts of Spanish frontiersmen, Anglo-Americans, and Native Americans.

Hell, the commander of the Anglo-Americans in Zapata and Canales' army in 1839 was actually

the nephew of the Anglo-American who had eventually commanded the Anglos

in Gutierrez de Lara's army. He even had the same name, Ruben Ross. So how could Gutierrez de Lara

justify his apparent flip-flop, his conversion into an establishment man this late in his career?

...