-1835

            My name is Mario Manuel Díaz Contreras, and this is my story.

 I am from Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. I am 22 years old.  I am a junior in college and  I am  getting a degree in the career of foreign languages. Yes, I am intelligent. I like to ride horses, I have a girlfriend whom age is nineteen, and I am a bodybuilder. My dad died eleven years ago, back when I was 11. Exactly on my birthday. That gave me depression for 7 months,  because I loved him too much.

-February 13, 1835

            One day I was at “Ciencias & Letras,” my school, and I was  with my mom, and I noticed that a championship for bodybuilders was about to come in two months. I thought I had time to prepare myself. What I did not think about was the other compromise that I had with Elizabeth, my girlfriend. Elizabeth and I were supposed to go to a horse race the school was having. But I really wanted to go and do both things at the same time. To make this worse, both championships were taking place on the same date, April 13.

April 13, 1835

            The day came, and I decided to go with Elizabeth to that race. I am a good boyfriend. Everything was going well in the race, until Elizabeth’s dad showed up in the middle of the race. What Elizabeth’s dad did not realize was that a horse was coming toward him, killing Elizabeth’s dad in the middle of the race. After that happened I took care of Elizabeth, and now Elizabeth hates horses because one killed her dad. And now Elizabeth does not want me to ride horses anymore.

-December 26,1835  

             I heard that something was happening on the border of Mexico-USA,  and I wanted to go and find out the problem. So I decided to go with some friends to that border. When we arrived there, we saw a lot of people waiting for instructions. They looked like they were American soldiers, and these people had somebody called ‘Davy Crockett. Better known as “King of the wild frontier”. This guy was saying that he is soldier and a member of the House of Representatives in the United States of America. Besides that, he was being peacefully for a while. All of this reminded me that In 1834 a Mexican soldier and politician became dictator of Mexico. His name was Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, he sought to crush rebellions in Texas and other areas. Even I remembered that two months ago, residents of Gonzales, 50 miles east of San Antonio, responded to Santa Anna’s demand that they return a cannon loaned for defense against Indian attack by discharging it against the Mexican troops sent to reclaim it. The Mexicans were routed in what is regarded as the first battle of the Texas Revolution. What I want to say with this is that I had an idea why this army was on that side of the border.  When I realized why they were there, my friends and I took our horses and quickly left, horrified. When we got home, Elizabeth got mad at me just because she saw me ridding a horse. She told me that she was disappointed at me and she hated me for a while. I answered her that I did not have an option, because I could have died if I did not take a horses and leave as quickest as I can.

            After I went home, I turned on the TV and I saw the news. The news was communicated that after some concerns over attitudes of US citizens in Texas,  Law of April 6 of 1830 outlawed further immigration of US citizens to Texas. Several new prisoners were established in the region to monitor immigration and customs practices. Angry colonists held a convention in 1832 to demand that US citizens be allowed to immigrate. A convention the following year in 1833, proposed that Texas become a separate Mexican state. When I saw that I stared to get desperate with myself, because I did not know what to think or what to believe.

-1836

            The political environment and friendship in both countries started to get worse, and I was frustrated because I got selected in the Mexican army. When I got selected, I started to wonder, who is going to take care of Elizabeth and my mom if I die in the war. To my surprise, the war had not started yet, and I had time to talk to my mom and Elizabeth about it. I asked my mom what she would do if I died, and she answered that if I died, she would cry, but she would be knowing that I died for my country. Then I told her to not forget about Elizabeth, my wife. After that I went to Elizabeth to a land in the Pacific Ocean because we felt that we needed to talk peacefully about our relationship. I asked Elizabeth the same I asked my mom, what she would do if I died.  Elizabeth answered, “I will take care of your mom.” When she said that, I told Elizabeth that I loved her more because she loves my mom. This is another reason why I decided to married with Elizabeth. She is kind and lovely. Elizabeth and I were in the pacific because we wanted to built  a strong relationship before the war.

-1836

            Unfortunately, the day of the war came and I had to fight for my country even though I did not really care because I am not patriotic. What I did really care about was my mom and my girlfriend. I wanted them to be safe; that is why I fought. Regardless, I could not get kicked out of the Mexican army. Yeah, I tried to get kicked out, but it did not work. They needed as many people as possible. Mexico ended up losing a lot of stuff like money, territory, people, and food.

-1850

            Now that I am 37 years old, Few years ago, nine to be exact, Elizabeth and I got married. My mom was so happy and so proud of us, even more than I did. The only thing that would made it better was if I could stand up next to my wife. During the war I lost both legs. This is why I am saying this. And for my surprise, Elizabeth got pregnant before the wedding. Now that my little princess, Elsa, is almost nine, we can go together and visit Elizabeth’s grave at Mexico. Elizabeth died few hours later she gave birth. Now that everything has gone and my mom is getting older, I have to take care of her. I started giving some History classes to 11th graders at a Christian school in the United States.

            Now that I know more about History because I lived the history, I know that  the political instability, Indian revolts in the northern part of the country, and the expansion of the United States led to the Mexico-USA War in 1846, with the result that two years later Mexico had lost 2.5 million km of its territory: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and part of Wyoming. Inheritance of this ancient Mexican territoriality. After that as a result of the subsequent border contact, a hybrid genre of the ranchera song emerges: the country music, which like the cowboy parties, widely share both nations in a musical genre today called Tex-Mex.

-1871

            The time passes very quickly and I’m getting older. The doctor says that I have several health problems, and one of them is tuberculosis. Now I am just waiting for him, laying on my bed about to die. Now I think that my daughter Elsa is old enough to take care of herself. Even I am losing my memory and I say things that does not make sense. My mom is old now, and somehow she has a better health than I do. Now I am praying to God to take care of me and my mom. We want to be in the glory of heaven with him for the eternity and do not have any kind of problem anymore.

Works Cited

Crutchfield, James A. The settlement of America. Armonk: Sharpe Myron E, 2011. Print.

“Texas Declares Independence,” History.com. 2010, Web. April 05, 2017.

Bibliography

Stephen L. Hardin, Texian Iliad. 1996.

“History of Country music.” Englishclub.com. Web. April 12, 2017.

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannia, “Antonio López de Santa Anna.” Britannica.com. May 22, 2015. April 05, 2017.