Mexican influence is all around our city, in agriculture, architecture, food, language, and laws.
Mexican influence is all around our city, in agriculture, architecture, food, language, and laws. Today, nearly a quarter of Williamson County’s population identifies as Hispanic or of Mexican heritage, belonging to a culture not just remembered but frequently celebrated.
Starting in 1519, Spanish explorers, missionaries, and conquistadors claimed parts of the American continent. They used a network of trails to establish Catholic communities among Native Americans. They introduced European livestock, fruits and vegetables, and culture. For example, Texas longhorn cattle are descendants of the original herds released into the wild by Spaniards. Their settlements were towns (pueblo) with fortified military bases (presidio) and included one on the San Gabriel River near Rockdale.
In the early 1800s, after gaining independence from Spain, Mexican citizens were reluctant to move to the remote and sparsely populated areas of Central Texas. Mexico awarded land grants to three of its citizens, Pedro Jose Zarza (1830), Jose Justo Liendo (April 1833), and Miguel Davila (October 1833) for vast tracts northeast of Hutto in Williamson County. These Mexican landowners encouraged immigration by “foreigners,” including Anglos from the United States.
In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Rio Grande River as the United States southern boundary for Texas. Mexicans in Texas at that time had to choose between becoming American citizens and retaining their land or returning to Mexico and losing their land and homes. As anti-Mexican sentiment among the Anglos grew, Mexican Americans in Texas faced harassment, discrimination, and even lynching.
The 1900 census listed 384 (1% of the total county population) men, women, and children of Mexican descent. Hutto’s precinct had the largest Mexican population (7.3%) in the county.
Most Mexicans and Tejanos worked in agriculture. Persons with Mexican surnames in the 1900 county census were farm laborers (111), day laborers (46), farmers (26), and railroad workers (13).
In 1911, a bloody decade-long civil war in Mexico caused a surge of hundreds of thousands of refugees into Texas, raising the Hispanic population in the state by 350%. Williamson County experienced a similar explosion, increasing by over 700%. In 1920, the Hutto area had the highest percentage of Mexican-born people in the county (20.2%).
Tomas (1863-unknown) and Manuela (1877-1962) were born in Mexico. When Tomas was about age 36 and Manuela was about age 22, they married in Mexico but soon sought better opportunities in Texas. Tomas first crossed the Rio Grande River in 1900. He chose the growing Mexican farming community of Hutto for his family. He sent for Manuela, who arrived one year later. Their first child, Lydia, was born in 1904 in Hutto.
Tomas was a manual laborer. In 1913 they purchased a home on the south side of Hutto.
Tomas learned to speak English. At age 53, Tomas became a trustee of the Mexican Presbyterian Church of Taylor.
In November 1926 Tomas and Manuela sold their Hutto home and moved to McLennan County. Sometime after 1930 Tomas died and was likely buried in a Mexican cemetery near Waco. Thomas, Jr married and became a machine operator in Dallas; daughter, Naomi, married and moved to Riverside, California. Manuela lived until age 85 and was buried near their youngest son, Thomas Jr, in Dallas, Texas.
By 1930, the contours of the modern-day Mexican workforce began to diversify. Manufacturing, railroad, and oil well jobs became more common among Mexicans, but farm jobs remained and Mexicans made significant gains. The towns of Round Rock and Taylor were the top places for Mexicans to live, while Hutto showed a dramatic decline.
After World War II, increasing numbers of Mexicans left agricultural work and found opportunities in the industrializing cities and towns. Most found improvements in wages and working conditions, and a growing number penetrated the professional, managerial, sales, clerical, and craft categories.
