Briscoe Museum of Western Art book publication of Tejano Legacy: Another American Origin Story.
In 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia, Latinos in San Antonio had celebrated 58 years since its settlement. Mexicans from colonial New Spain who settled the region in the 1680s adopted the name Tejas used by the Indigenous tribes. As a Spanish province, Tejas was settled before some of the original Thirteen Colonies. Tejanos, as the Spanish colonists of the province were known, built presidios, missions, and towns in Texas half a century before the inauguration of the first U.S. president.
Artist Once Known (New Spain), De español y mulata, produce morisca, from Mexican Castas series, ca. 18th century. Courtesy of Museo de Historia Mexicana, Monterrey, Mexico. Courtesy of the Briscoe Museum of Western Art.
When America celebrated its 250th anniversary on July 4th of 2026, the Briscoe Museum of Art in San Antonio opened its exhibit, Tejano Legacy: Another American Origin Story. The exhibit focused on the Tejano artistic contribution to Texas over the past 400 years. The Briscoe is among the few museums in the United States, if not the only one, that has celebrated the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United
States via a regional Hispanic story, not one driven solely by the events in Philadelphia and the thirteen colonies.
José de Alcibar, de español y morisca, nace albina, from Mexican Castas series, 18th century. Museo de Historia Mexicana, Monterrey, México. Courtesy of the Briscoe Museum of Western Art.
The Briscoe’s Tejano Legacy is a landmark bilingual exhibition exploring Tejano history, culture and identity, and the enduring influence of Tejanos on Texas and the American West. The exhibit demonstrates that families, communities, language, religion, land-use traditions, and local institutions in Texas did not begin with the establishment of the Republic of Texas in 1836 or with U.S. annexation as a state in 1845.
It is fitting that the Tejano Legacy exhibit opened this year given the announcement of the recent U.S. Census that Hispanics make up the largest ethnic group in the Lone Star state, with 40.2 percent of the population. The exhibit reminds us that much has changed over the last century. Earlier museum exhibits in Texas generally treated Tejanos or Latinos as a minority or marginalized group, while the Briscoe emphasizes the roles played by Latinos in the Southwest part of the United States.
José de Alcibar, De español y mestiza, nace castizo, from Mexican Castas series, 18th century. Museo de Historia Mexicana, Monterrey, México. Courtesy of the Briscoe Museum of Western Art.
The Tejano Legacy exhibition is the most ambitious in the Briscoe Museum’s history and features more than 100 rare artworks and artifacts. It includes immersive storytelling drawn from extraordinary private collections, the Briscoe’s permanent collection, and institutional lenders from across the United States and Mexico. Several works loaned from Mexican institutions, considered part of the Mexico’s cultural and historical heritage, will be seen in the United States for the first time. The exhibit offers visitors a rare opportunity to experience objects and artworks that deepen and broaden the understanding of Tejano identity and its connection to the story of the American West.
José de Alcibar, De español y albina, nace torna atrás, from Mexican Castas series, 18th century. Museo de Historia Mexicana, Monterrey, México. Courtesy of the Briscoe Museum of Western Art.
Spanning from the 16th century to modern times, Tejano Legacy traces the evolution of Tejano identity through art, ranching traditions, military service, music, faith, and community. Many of the historical objects, saddles, firearms, and textiles were loaned anonymously by prominent Tejano ranching families from South Texas and Rio Grande Valley communities. Through these objects and numerous paintings, the exhibition highlights the resilience, innovation, and cultural influences that continue to shape South Texas, San Antonio, and the Southwest today.
José de Alcibar, De coyote e yndia, nace chamiso. From the Mexican Castas series, 18th century. Museo de Historia Mexicana, Monterrey, México. Courtesy of the Briscoe Museum of Western Art.
Among the more interesting paintings in the Tejano Legacy exhibit are the ten artworks related to the Mexican castas social stratification system. For in depth discussion of the casta system, I consulted the work of Sindy Valdez, president of the Society of Hispanic Historical & Ancestral Research. Her essay, “Understanding the Mexican Casta System: A Historical and Cultural Perspective,” offered excellent insights into the casta paintings featured at the Briscoe exhibit.
Spain ruled Mexico as a colony for three centuries, 1520-1820. Over that period, the Spanish colonists introduced more than fifty new terms for racial and ethnic classification, including mestizo and Indio, which survive to this day in Mexico and Tejas. We learn from the paintings that Spanish colonial society in Mexico was highly stratified. The casta paintings, noted Sindy Valdez, “typically portrayed Spaniards and their pure-blood descendants in favorable, dignified positions, often juxtaposed against the less flattering depictions of mixed-race individuals.” She noted, for instance, that the “attire, posture, and accessories of the individuals provide subtle cues about their socio-economic status.”
Cesar Martinez, Bato Series. Courtesy of the Briscoe Museum of Western Art. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Some of the Spanish colonial terms for ethnic and racial groups used during the 19th century were popularized by war and conflict. When Mexico rebelled against Spain and its colonial rulers, the rebel armies that marched with Father Miguel de Hidalgo in 1810 shouted “Death to the gachupines.” The term referred to the Spaniards whom the colonial Mexicans perceived as arrogant, exploitative, and culturally condescending.
In an essay by Professor Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank titled “Casta paintings: Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo,” the author quotes an inscription on José Joaquín Magón’s painting, The Mestizo. Magón explained, “In America people are born in diverse colors, customs, temperaments and languages. From the Spaniard and the Indian is born the mestizo, usually humble, quiet, and simple.”
Sindy Valdez explained that by “depicting the different racial mixtures and their supposed societal roles, these artworks served as a form of visual propaganda that endorsed and normalized the racial stratification of the time.” She added further that the casta paintings offer us a “lens through which to view the complexities of Mexico’s colonial history and its lasting impact on contemporary society.”
Gladys Roldán-de-Moras. Courtesy of the Briscoe Museum of Western Art. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
The exhibit also included works by Chicano artist César Martínez and Tejana artist Gladys Roldán-de-Moras.
Cesar Martinez, a native of Laredo, lives and works in San Antonio. He is a veteran of many shows in Texas and beyond. Martinez attended college in Kingsville, Texas in the late 1960s, where he met the new generation of artists who identified as Chicanos. Martinez moved to San Antonio after serving in the U.S. Army, and by the early 1980s he began exhibiting nationally. He won major prizes for his paintings, including first prize in ¡Mira! The Canadian Club Hispanic Art Tour. Martinez’s painting in the Briscoe show, a Chicano wearing his high school letterman jacket, is a prime example of his “bato” series. His work is in major museums, including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
Gladys Roldán-de-Moras’s paintings of Tejano charros, horsemen, and missions are well-known in San Antonio and beyond. Her paintings include escaramuzas known as charras, a representation of women who ride sidesaddle in synchronized, high-speed equestrian competitions, wearing elaborate traditional dresses. Roldán-de-Moras’s painting in the Tejano Legacy exhibit is of a young girl dressed in a charra outfit holding a toy horse head, a representation of the larger equestrian culture and ceremonial world of Mexican charrería.
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Copyright 2026 by Ricardo Romo. All art work credits as indicated above.