Best Antonio Medina Podcasts (2024)

1
The Battlefield(s) of Medina? 13:41

1M ago13:41

13:41

We found another site. But so did someone else. And there's a rumored fourth site out there as well now? What in the name of Miguel Menchaca's ghost is going on? www.BrandonSeale.comBy Brandon Seale

1
Alliance and Advantage 16:37

6M ago16:37

16:37

Proto-Apaches, Jumanos, and Puebloans vie for control of the Texas Plains in the face of Spanish entradas, epidemics, and slaving expeditions. www.BrandonSeale.comBy Brandon Seale

1
Apache Empire 23:38

6M ago23:38

23:38

Thanks to the horse, Plains Apaches expand their influence over an increasingly broad swath of the Great Plains and Northern Mexico. In the course of one remarkable generation, they drive the Spanish out of New Mexico and absorb their old Jumano rivals, despite an epic last-ditch effort by Jumano Captain Juan Sabeata to frustrate them. www.BrandonS…

1
Lipanes at Last 30:45

6M ago30:45

30:45

Following the great peace of 1749, San Antonio becomes the great outlet for native North American trade and for the mediation of Native Texas culture into Spanish society. In turn, Texas Apaches commit to a symbiotic existence with the settler communities around them, and come to take on a distinct identity as “Lipan” Apaches – the "People of the I…

1
Changing Woman 21:48

6M ago21:48

21:48

A new Spanish outpost on the San Antonio River represents an opportunity and a threat to the Apaches' Texas plains trade. The great empires test each other with equal turns generosity and violence. And a new rival appears on the Texas Plains. www.BrandonSeale.comBy Brandon Seale

1
San Sabá 31:16

6M ago31:16

31:16

In the course of a single generation, Spanish policy toward Lipan Apaches shifts from alliance to extermination. But a generation of alliance-making by Lipan Captain Bigotes makes the Lipan alliance more powerful than ever. They beat back the Comanches to the Red River and the Spanish to a line of presidios that still cuts across the North American…

1
Indios Bárbaros 21:58

6M ago21:58

21:58

Spanish army officers prove reluctant to change their mindset, however, even as the Lipan alliance under the great Captain Picax-Andé brings to a definitive halt the advance of Spanish conquest. www.BrandonSeale.comBy Brandon Seale

1
The Unbroken 24:33

6M ago24:33

24:33

Pressed on all sides by European and native rivals, the Lipanes never should have survived into the nineteenth century. Yet not only had they survived, they had done so with their numbers and their range undiminished. They were wealthier than ever, and more powerful too, and would play a vital role in driving the Spanish out of Texas for good. www.…

1
Unshared Sovereignty 25:50

6M ago25:50

25:50

In the turmoil of the War for Mexican independence, Lipan Captain Cuelgas de Castro emerges as a beacon of stability in Texas. Perhaps no one saw the Texas geopolitical checkerboard better at this moment. Captain Cuelgas de Castro wins for his people recognition by the new Emperor of Mexico. But it won't be enough to secure true sovereignty for his…

1
Fidelity to the Texian 25:16

6M ago25:16

25:16

No Native Texan captured Anglo-Texians’ hearts like Lipan Captain Flacco the Younger. His exploits as a Texas Ranger and his people’s defense of Texas’ borders against Mexico make him the darling of Texas newspapers. Texas newspapers fail to distinguish, however, between hostile native Texans and Lipanes living in their midst. And Lipan wealth beco…

1
Grass Will Not Grow on the Path between Us 22:59

6M ago22:59

22:59

The Lipan Apaches become proxies for a Texian guerilla war against northern Mexico, until Texian policies cut them off from their lands and their livelihoods. Ever adaptable, the Lipanes flip the script, relocating to their old haunts in Mexico and raiding Texas property. The Texas-Mexico border itself – and the freedom it offers – becomes an artif…

1
El día de los gritos 35:09

6M ago35:09

35:09

All pretense of accommodation with Native Americans disappears in the 1870’s. Lipanes are pursued equally and openly by American and Mexican forces on both sides of the border. One-by-one, they see their old native rivals picked off and carted off to reservations. But the Lipan Apaches refuse to play the doomed savage. After a brutal massacre by US…

1
Emergence 23:21

6M ago23:21

23:21

Contrary to popular usage, an “Apocalypse” isn't an ending. In Greek it means an “unveiling," an "uncovering," a “revelation.” But what have we really revealed about the most powerful, most unconquerable, most exceptional people in Texas history? www.BrandonSeale.comBy Brandon Seale

1
Bronco Apaches 23:43

6M ago23:43

23:43

The United States dispenses with the pretense of Native American sovereignty and adopts a policy of forced assimilation. Mexico waxes poetic about the “cosmic race” while sending airplanes to track down "Apaches broncos” living free in the mountains. The Lipan Apaches avoid the reservation by dispersing and using the reservation system to project t…

1
The Whirlwind 18:19

6M ago18:19

18:19

Killer-of-Enemies teaches the proto-Apaches, the “Nde,” how to treat with the peoples they meet as they descend into the Texas panhandle: the Puebloans to the west, the Jumanos to the South, and the Caddoan-speakers to the east. Yet the arrival of yet another newcomer – this one from across the ocean – challenges the diplomatic skills of even the m…

1
The Last Lipanes in Uvalde 7:59

7M ago7:59

7:59

Despite centuries of conflict with Spanish, Mexican, Texan, United States, and native rivals, the Lipan Apaches managed to do what perhaps no other native community in the United States has been able to: carve for themselves a place in their ancestral homeland without surrendering it. Join us this season on “Lipan Apocalypse” as we pull back the ve…

1
The Conscience of a Republic 16:13

7M ago16:13

16:13

José Francisco Ruíz's reputation and personal relationships went a long way toward preserving Tejanos' status in the newly independent Republic of Texas. They weren't enough, however, to ensure true equality. That was a fight that his nephew, his great-great-grandson, and many other Tejanos would have to carry on. Yet Ruíz's life stands as perhaps …

1
The Die is Cast 15:25

7M ago15:25

15:25

For the fourth time in his life, José Francisco Ruíz had to decide where his loyalties lie: to his flag or to his ideology. In 1835, however, there would be no hesitation. Too old now to carry a rifle, Ruíz became a sort of "first quartermaster" of the 1835-36 Texas Revolution, in addition to one of only two Texas-born signers of this second Texas …

1
Immigrants and Indians 9:16

7M ago9:16

9:16

1820's East Texas was a melting pot of native Texans, old time Tejanos, Indian immigrants pushed out of the United States, and newcomer Anglos. For all their distaste of José Francisco Ruíz's revolutionary past, the old Mexican officer corps had no choice but to turn to him once again to manage the chaos. It would leave Ruíz more disillusioned than…

1
The Impossible Peace 14:34

8M ago14:34

14:34

If there was anything more improbable in Texas history than the Lipan-Comanche alliance orchestrated by José Francisco Ruíz in 1816, it was the peace brokered WITH the Lipanes and Comanches on behalf of the newly-independent Mexican empire in 1822. It would culminate in one of the most memorable scenes in Texas history, the journey of Ruíz and a ha…

1
Comancheros in Exile 8:29

8M ago8:29

8:29

José Francisco Ruíz would remain a focus of Spanish royalist vengeance after the Battle of Medina. For good reason. From his exile in Louisiana, Ruíz orchestrated a proxy war by his Lipan and especially Comanche allies against Spanish royalists' fragile hold on Texas. It would bring Spain to the brink of abandoning Texas. Eventually royalists would…

1
Blood in the Sand 14:53

8M ago14:53

14:53

The Battle of Medina left José Francisco Ruíz the highest-ranking Tejano revolutionary in the state...and its most wanted man. What drove him to abandon a promising future in the Spanish army and turn on his old comrades-in-arms? And what price would he have to pay for this change of heart? Click here to purchase the complete audiobook of "Tejano P…

1
The Man for Texas 9:25

8M ago9:25

9:25

José Francisco Ruíz lived through the most turbulent years of Texas history. What was it about Ruíz that always seemed to place him at the center of the action? What made him the man to whom Tejanos, Anglos, and Native Americans all turned in uncertain times? Join us to find out what made José Francisco Ruíz "The Man for Texas." Click here to purch…

1
When Texanity Fails. And When it Doesn't. 22:14

11M ago22:14

22:14

Winter Storm Uri. Texas's unique legal system. And Juneteenth. All together in one episode. www.BrandonSeale.comBy Brandon Seale

1
The Texas Love Triangle 27:22

11M ago27:22

27:22

Southwest Airlines was born of a uniquely Texan model of regulation and a uniquely Texan appreciation for the challenges of distance. More than that, however, it came to represent Texan ascendancy onto the national political and economic scene, in ways that discomforted the old coastal centers of power, and found them agitating against the Texas mo…

1
The Integrated Circuit 23:16

12M ago23:16

23:16

Jack Kilby's integrated circuit set off the "Second Industrial Revolution" and I want to believe that it was the product of Texans' finely-tuned attention to energy density, going back to the likes of Gail Borden and every plains Indian that ever sat a horse. And yet, is the integrated circuit perhaps a better example of land-obsessed Texans' faili…

1
Making Texas Cool 22:28

12M ago22:28

22:28

Texas's first true industrial "cluster" might have been ice-making. In the twentieth century, Texans lead the way in applying the science of refrigeration to human comfort and notched many significant firsts in the history of air conditioning. Most Texans' first experience with air conditioning was in movie theaters, and the movie industry repaid t…

1
Spindletop 25:50

12M ago25:50

25:50

Anthony Lucas's gusher at Spindletop marked "a new era of civilization," yet was the product of the humility, persistence, and practical genius of three Waco-area farm boys. Oil rapidly transformed the Texas economy from stubbornly agrarian and colonial into a first-world industrial power. For the first time in Texas history, Texans began to accumu…

1
The Iron Horse in Texas 20:22

1y ago20:22

20:22

Railroads made Texans wealthier than they had ever been. They brought labor-saving and efficiency improving implements like riding plows, threshers, mechanical harvesters, and soon, tractors, which collectively lifted the standard of living of most Texans far beyond anything their parents could have imagined. And Texans hated them for it! Texans ve…

1
Comanche Superfood 22:10

1y ago22:10

22:10

From "terraqueous machines" (??) to air conditioning prototypes to "condensed milk," Gail Borden was nineteenth century Texas's most prolific inventor. And yet he may owe the inspiration for his most successful inventions to a form of Comanche "superfood," developed with a uniquely Texan appreciation of the power of energy density. Cover art by Dav…

1
"Peacemaker" 24:24

1y ago24:24

24:24

Samuel Colt certainly benefitted from the association of his revolving pistol with the state that most found widespread application for it use. And Texans, by and large, returned the love, coming to believe that "God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal." Did the Colt Revolver blaze the trail for Anglo immigration into the Western half of the …

1
The Republic of Cotton 29:48

1y ago29:48

29:48

When they hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936, Dallas boosters had good reason to rename their football stadium and associated bowl game based on a bad pun. The "Cotton Bowl" was a nod to the unmatched roll that "King Cotton" had played in shaping the demographics and politics of Texas, where it constituted as much as 90% of the output o…

1
The Font of Texas Government 20:06

1y ago20:06

20:06

When Don Juan de Oñate crossed the Rio Grande on May 4, 1598 at a spot which he called “El Paso del Rio del Norte”, he didn’t just bring with him the horses that would redraw the map of Native Texas. He brought with him the Spanish model of self-government centered on a locally-managed flood irrigation system that still serves today as the philosop…

1
Season 5: The Engines of Texanity 3:35

1y ago3:35

3:35

In telling these new histories of old Texas, I worry that I’ve been focusing too much on individuals. Individuals can move history, no doubt…but just as often, I’ve come to believe, they ride historical waves, rather than make them. Every now and then, however, some invention, some innovation, or just some change in how technology is used comes alo…

1
Don't Mess with Texas (Horsemen) 27:06

1y ago27:06

27:06

The return of the horse to the North American continent and its domestication by people of the Texas plains redrew the map of Native North America and defined the spheres of influence of European colonial empires for three centuries. It led to the formation of highly decentralized, individualistic frontier societies that either successfully adopted…

1
Cabeza de Vaca as Interpreter of Lower Pecos Rock Art 39:22

1+ y ago39:22

39:22

From a speech I gave at the Witte Museum a while back, this is my attempt to argue that we can actually hear the themes of the famed Lower Pecos Rock Art expressed by Cabeza de Vaca in his attempt to take on the role of a "spirit guide" for the native Americans who joined him on his journey. If true, this would be a really cool confirmation of our …

1
Connecting the Dots 37:19

1+ y ago37:19

37:19

This is a speech I gave recently to the San Antonio Conservation Society about our Battlefield of Medina search with American Veterans Archaeological Recovery. Jump to 34:38 for the big reveal, and the connection we discovered between our finds and the "Blue Wing Body" found in 1968. www.BrandonSeale.com…

1
Autonomy Within a Tradition 27:19

2y ago27:19

27:19

Maybe the reason that Texans are so vocal about their "independence" is because they have a different notion of what it means to be independent. And maybe the reason they're so loud about it is because they've been trying - without success apparently! - to explain their notion of "independence" for more than 200 years now. These are some of the ide…

1
Digging Medina 1:33:24

2y ago1:33:24

1:33:24

The boots hit the ground and the shovels start turning dirt. Listen along for an (extended) account of our first season of archaeologic digs in search of the Battlefield of Medina with our partners from American Veterans Archaeological Recovery. Go to @54:20 if you don't have the patience for the whole build-up. A special thanks to the American Bat…

1
Y todo para que? 21:40

2+ y ago21:40

21:40

Was there really ever a "Republic of the Rio Grande"? And what to make of the legacy of Antonio Zapata. Image available on the Internet: https://laotraesquina.mx/2020/02/19/un-guerrero-viejo-sumergido-en-el-agua, retrieved 10/15/2021 www.BrandonSeale.comBy Brandon Seale

1
The Republic of the Sierra Madre 30:40

2+ y ago30:40

30:40

Fiery San Antonian José María Carvajal refuses to give up the dream of a northeastern Mexican republic, only to be defeated by his old commander, Antonio Canales. Carvajal - and his reputation - recover in the turmoil of the French Intervention, however, and he rises to his own moment in the sun as the regional hegemon of Tamaulipas. For a few year…

1
The Concessions of Camargo 21:28

2+ y ago21:28

21:28

Antonio Canales lays down his sword...and emerges as the new kingmaker of northeastern Mexico. Photo of Brandon Seale at the approximate location of Zapata's last stand, Morelos, Coahuila. www.BrandonSeale.comBy Brandon Seale

1
Rescuing Zapata 21:04

2+ y ago21:04

21:04

The normally reserved Antonio Canales throws everything he has at Centralist General Mariano Arista in a desperate bid to rescue his estranged brother-in-arms, Antonio Zapata. Photo: "Zapata's Defeat" inset from Arista's Campaign map, 1840, courtesy Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The Universi…

1
The Battle of Morelos 21:06

2+ y ago21:06

21:06

Frustrated with Antonio Canales, Antonio Zapata breaks away from the Rio Grande Federalist Army...and rides into an ambush in Santa Rita de Morelos! Photo: Battle of Morelos campaign medal, photo courtesy of Art Martinez de Vara. www.BrandonSeale.comBy Brandon Seale

1
Desperate Measures 20:44

2+ y ago20:44

20:44

Just days after declaring the formation of a new "provisional government of the northern border," Federalist commander Antonio Canales opens up communications with Centralist General Mariano Arista to surrender! Antonio Zapata finds out...and the rift grows between the two Rio Granders. Photo Courtesy of the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum, Lared…

1
The Casa Blanca Articles of Convention 15:36

2+ y ago15:36

15:36

The text of the "Casa Blanca Articles of Convention," as transcribed by Professor Stan Green, and as translated by Brandon Seale, with comments from Professor Green and Lic. Jacqueline Pasquel. Photo: Canales's call to convention, photo courtesy of the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum, Laredo, TX. www.BrandonSeale.com…

1
The Republic of the Northern Border 18:48

2+ y ago18:48

18:48

On January 26th, 1840, the Republic of the Rio Grande was formed. Or rather, the "provisional government for the northern border" was declared. Commentators then and podcasters now consider whether there is in fact a difference between these two ideas. Photo courtesy of the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum, Laredo, TX. www.BrandonSeale.com…

1
The Battle of Alcantra 32:46

2+ y ago32:46

32:46

Under the command of Antonio Zapata, Antonio Canales and José María Carbajal, the Rio Grande Federalists win their greatest battle to-date. Yet diplomatic recognition eludes them, as a new Centralist opponent emerges with a knack for the public relations game – General Mariano Arista. www.BrandonSeale.com…

1
The Kingdom of Zapata 24:44

2+ y ago24:44

24:44

Antonio Zapata - the "mulato" son of a domestic servant and a cowboy - establishes himself as the kingmaker over Northeastern Mexico. And led by San Antonian José María Carvajal, the Rio Grande Federalists call on some old allies in the fight against Centralism - the Texians. www.BrandonSeale.comBy Brandon Seale

1
Zapata Unleashed 22:42

2+ y ago22:42

22:42

In one of the most remarkable campaigns in Mexican military history, Antonio Zapata and a small band of Rio Grande vaqueros and Carrizo Indians immobilize three Centralist armies and launch a punitive expedition against a Comanche war party, establishing the Rio Grande Federalists as the de facto government of the region. www.BrandonSeale.com…

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