I Would Rather Sleep in Texas - by the McAllens

Nanoneno reviews I Would Rather Sleep in Texas: A History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the People of the Santa Anita Land Grant by by Mary Margaret McAllen Amberson, James A. McAllen, and Margaret H. McAllen   http://nanoneno.wordpress.com/2008/12/26/i-would-rather-sleep-in-texas-a/ The review begins ... "The lower Rio Grande and its harsh Texas wilderness lay at the fringe of Spain's North American territorial claims. For centuries empires, colonists, and native inhabitants struggled over this region. It was a land visited by conquistadors, that gave rise to the American cowboy, and where Civil War generals honed their skills in the Mexican War. Steamboats used the inland waterway as a major transport route and fortunes were made while serving as the Confederacy's only outlet for money and munitions. It is the land from where cattle were driven to the Chisholm Trail and where men, women, and beasts braved the unrepentant climate. It was and remains a crossroads of international cultures."