Juan Seguín

Juan Seguín (born October 27, 1806, Bexar, New Spain [now San Antonio, Texas]—died August 27, 1890, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico) was a Tejano (Texan of Hispanic descent) revolutionary and politician who helped establish the independence of Texas.

After Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, Stephen Austin—a friend of Seguín’s father—received Mexican approval to found settlements of English-speaking people in the Mexican territory of Texas. Seguín and his father, convinced that Spanish-Mexican unrest and Mexican governmental interference were contributing to economic upheaval in Texas, sided with Austin in his subsequent quest for autonomy for the region. Seguín became active in local politics, and he was elected alderman in San Antonio in 1829 and became that city’s mayor in 1833. Political tensions escalated between the Mexican government and both the Anglos (European-descended American settlers or European immigrants) and Tejanos in Texas, and both groups objected to Mexican Pres. Antonio López de Santa Anna’s harsh regime.

In order to quell the resulting rebellion in Texas, Santa Anna and his troops entered the territory and subsequently laid siege to the Alamo, a mission-fort in San Antonio, in February 1836. Seguín was in the Alamo when the siege began, but he was dispatched with a letter to Sam Houston, the commander in chief of the Anglo settlers’ army, requesting reinforcements. He was thus absent when nearly all those within the Alamo were killed by the Mexican forces on March 6, 1836. The following month, Seguín and his Tejano troops fought alongside the Anglos at the Battle of San Jacinto, which ended in the defeat and capture of Santa Anna and the independence of Texas.

In 1837 Seguín became the first Tejano to serve in the Republic of Texas Senate, a position he held until 1840, when he was reelected mayor of San Antonio. By that time tensions had increased between the Tejanos and the ever-increasing numbers of Anglos who were settling in Texas. Many Anglos distrusted the Tejanos—or simply coveted their land—and sought to remove them from the Texas territory. Seguín was eventually accused of aiding the Mexican government in trying to recapture Texas, and he was forced to flee with his family to Mexico in 1842. Seen as a traitor by the Mexican government for his role in the winning of Texas’s independence, Seguín was given the choice of a lengthy prison term or service in the Mexican army. He chose the latter, and he fought against the United States in the Mexican-American War (1846–48).

Seguín returned to Texas after the war and became a rancher; shortly thereafter he was elected a local justice of the peace. He lived in Texas until 1867, when lingering American resentment forced a final move to Mexico, where he remained until his death. The city of Seguín, located just outside of San Antonio, is named in his honour.