Welcome to Finding Medina.

Episode 5, The March on Goliad.

I'm Brandon Seal.

Have you heard of Don Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara?

A colleague from Monterey asked me one day.

I thought he was joking. Why in the world was this employee of mine, actually, asking me about

the commander-in-chief of the Republican Army of the North, the man who almost single-handedly

carried the torch of Father Miguel Iago's revolt in the north of Mexico through the

winter of 1811 and 1812, the man who had traipsed halfway across the North American continent

in search of allies and supplies to fight for a cause that appeared for all intents and purposes

to have been crushed, and the man who was the central character of my upcoming podcast.

I mean, I make no secret of my historical projects when I'm working on them, and everyone I've

shared a meal with in the last year knew that I was working on the Battle of Medina.

But I don't typically bore regular people with names and dates and details of these projects.

I save that for you, my dear podcast listeners.

Anyway, I eventually learned that when my colleague, Sergio Robles Gil Gutierrez, had asked me

his question, he had no idea that his great, great granduncle, Bernardo Gutierrez

De Lara, had any connection to the Battle of Medina. He simply had a

faint idea that his ancestor had been involved in some sort of trouble in Texas around this time.

After I responded enthusiastically to Sergio's question, yes, I have heard of Bernardo Gutierrez

DeLara, and oh my God, you're related to this guy.

Sergio then shared with me copies of some of his personal documents, which I'll link to on the

...