Texas A & M: A Short Story

My geographic narrative isn’t your typical Texas A&M student story, 2 years ago I moved to College Station from my home in Salinas, California but once you read my story you’ll realize that move isn’t as random as it seems. My mom grew up in San Antonio Texas, but lived in several different places in her younger years because her father was an Air Force Kernel. She attended Texas A&M University in College Station and was a part of the graduating class of 1980. After college my mom moved by herself to Los Angeles, California and after a couple years met my father there. My dad is a third generation Californian, with his grandparents settling by the Sacramento River in northern California and his father and mother settling in Los Angles where

My father’s side of the family escaped religious oppression in Yorkshire, England and travelled to America to practice their Puritan beliefs in peace with others. My mother’s side of the family came to America as a volunteer group in one of 16 families who came from the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco under the rule of the King of Spain in 1731 to establish themselves in the province of Texas. A recession had just hit the Islands because of cash crop competition from the American colonies, so during this time many people were immigrating to various other Spanish territories. My ancestor that emigrated from those Islands, Juan Curbelo, became the 6th mayor of San Antonio in 1737, again in 1739 and his son was elected mayor for 3 different terms. His granddaughter married a man named John William Smith in San Antonio, who was the first mayor under the Republic of Texas and twice more after that, which has been credited to his wife’s influence as an original settler. During his time of being mayor he served a diverse population of about 2,000 people which were about 1/3 American English, 1/3 German and the last third very mixed nationalities. John Smith had a role in a very important piece of Texas history when he served as a messenger twice during the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. He was sent from the Alamo to observe the oncoming Mexican troops to assess their size and location, and then to Washington- on- the Brazos to bring more troops for support, which allowed him to escape the final attack of Santa Anna and the fate that the defenders of the Alamo suffered that day. He stayed very involved in the government of Texas, serving as a senator for the Republic of Texas for 3 years under