Soy de Duval

James O. Luby While doing research for a Civil War paper I am working on, I have been researching Nueces County Commissioner Court minutes to see how Tejanos were involved in the political life of their county during the conflict between the North and South. Duval County was not yet organized and was attached to Nueces County. Recently, I ran across a trove of names that will, no doubt, be a small mine for genealogists. What is also interesting, is that I was able to connect several of the names to other research I have done, which contributes to a more meaningful story rather than just names. In 1874, James Luby was the Justice of the Peace for Nueces County Precinct 3, which included San Diego and the surrounding area. First, I should point out that under state law during Reconstruction “police courts” oversaw county operations. Instead of a County Judge and Commissioners, five Justices of the Peace ran the county. At the court’s Jan. 31, 1874 meeting, N.G. Collins, E. A. Glover, and...

TOPICS: Cooking Tejanos POSTED BY:  CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM   APRIL 29, 2017 I have had a lifelong affair with Tejano cuisine. Actually cuisine sounds too fancy, it is a French word after all. Let’s just say I love my comida Tejana. Recently, while reading “The Reminiscences of a Texas Missionary,” I ran across an observation by Father P. F. Parisot, OMI, which I found interesting. While on his way to Brownsville late in 1857, the good father stopped in San Patricio to buy a horse and while there was introduced to Tejano cooking. A far cry from the cuisine he was familiar with growing up in France. Father Parisot writes, …we became acquainted with the tortilla. Bread in the Mexican ranches is not a wheaten loaf, but thin tortillas made from corn meal without any yeast. The women soften the corn in lime water and place it on a flat stone called a metate, and then with another stone shaped like a rolling-pin they grind the corn into a paste. This paste is then patted with the hand...