Tejanos

Tejanos (/teɪˈhɑːnoʊz/ tay-HAH-nohz, Spanish: [teˈxanos]) are descendants of mostly Native Americans, but also Texas Creoles and Mestizos who settled in Texas before its admission as an American state. The term is also sometimes applied to Texans of Mexican descent.

The word Tejano, with a J instead of X, comes from the Spanish interpretation of the original Caddo indigenous word Tayshas, which means "friend" or "ally". Texas Mestizo refers to as person born in the New World that has one parent that is Spanish Texas born and the other parent as Indian born.

In colonial Texas, the term "Creole" (criollo) distinguished Old World Africans and Europeans from their descendants born in the New world, Creoles, who were the citizens of New Spain's Tejas province.

Texas Creole culture revolved around ranchos (Tejano ranches), attended mostly by vaqueros (cowboys) of African, Spaniard, or Mestizo descent who established a number of settlements in southeastern Texas and western Louisiana (e.g. Los Adaes).

Black Texas Creoles have been present in Texas since the 17th century and served as soldiers in Spanish garrisons of eastern Texas. Generations of Black Texas Creoles, also known as "Black Tejanos," played a role in later phases of Texas history during Mexican Texas, the Republic of Texas, and American Texas.

As early as 1519, Alonso Álvarez de Pineda claimed the area that is now Texas for Spain. The Spanish monarchy paid little attention to the province until 1685. That year, the Crown learned of a French colony in the region and worried that it might threaten Spanish colonial mines and shipping routes. King Charles II sent ten expeditions to find the French colony, but they were unsuccessful. Between 1690 and 1693, expeditions were made to the Texas region and acquired better knowledge of it for the provincial government and the settlers, who came later.

Tejano settlements developed in three distinct regions: the northern Nacogdoches region, the Bexar–Goliad region along the San Antonio River, and the frontier between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, an area used largely for ranching. Those populations shared certain characteristics, yet they were independent of one another. The main unifying factor was their shared responsibility for defending the northern frontier of New Spain. Some of the first settlers were Isleños from the Canary Islands. Their families were among the first to reside at the Presidio San Antonio de Bexar in 1731, which is modern-day San Antonio, Texas.

Ranching was a major activity in the Bexar-Goliad area, which consisted of a belt of ranches that extended along the San Antonio River between Bexar (San Antonio area) and Goliad. The Nacogdoches settlement was located farther north and east. Tejanos from Nacogdoches traded with the French and Anglo residents of Louisiana and were culturally influenced by them. The third settlement was located north of the Rio Grande, toward the Nueces River. Its ranchers were citizens of Spanish origin from Tamaulipas, in what is now northern Mexico, and they identified with Spanish Criollo culture.