Welcome to a new history of old San Antonio.

Episode 10, the Republican Army of the North.

I'm Brandon Seal.

I'm my city, San Antonio. Tonight I'm looking at your love. The Mnchaca family was one of the oldest and most

Respected in San Antonio.

They were direct descendants of Jose de Urruthia, that Spanish leather stocking who had

gone native, risen to command the East Texas

Indians against the Apaches, and later served as one of San Antonio's first presidio commanders.

Munchaka's great uncle and father had also served as commanders, and the latter had risen to

become the wealthiest man in the province in his day. As an established military family,

the Munchakas were generally conservative and not inclined toward radical

ideologies. Yet like all San Antonioians at the time, they acutely felt the neglect of the Spanish

government, and like all military families, they shouldered more than their fair share of the

burden of defending the province that the crown refused to. They largely sat out the Kassas

revolt from the previous episode, but that wasn't good enough for the deposed Governor Manuel Sars.

And upon his return to power, he executed the patriarch of the Menchakas, Jose Felix Menchaca, for his sympathies with the Republicans.

It was a foolish move on Salcedo's part. In one stroke, he not only horrified the citizens of San Antonio, who had in fact just put down the Kasa's revolt.

He radicalized a wealthy, prominent family with a lot of soldiers in it. The executed Jose

Felix Minchaca's son, also named Jose, and his nephew, Miguel Manchakra, had followed the family

tradition and joined the military, serving his officers in the Spanish Army and postings throughout Texas.

After Jose Felix's execution, the Menchaca cousins would spend the next year ginning up support

from known San Antonio Republicans, such as Juan Martin de Veramendi, Jose Antonio Navarro, and

...