Customer Reviews

I Would Rather Sleep in Texas: A History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the People of the Santa Anita Land Grant

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This is the best volume on South Texas history ever. Full of first-hand quotes, the lives of the people of this region from 1750 through the early 1900's is witnessed. It should interest people who don't even live in Texas, so much American history is intertwined with this region. Especially great is the civil war section.

I spent the first 44 years of my life in the Coastal Bend area of Texas (Corpus Christi), and studying the settlement and development of it for the past twenty-five years. So I am intimately familiar with the history of that area, but knew very little about the Rio Grande Valley, only 150 miles away.

Due to the exhaustive research performed by Mary M. McAllen Amberson and her family, my knowledge of the history of the area has been vastly increased. For me, it ties together a number of events in the history of South Texas. I never realized the degree and amount of conflict that occurred in the border area as was documented in this book. It is obvious that the Wild West extended well into the 20th century. The book also provides another view of Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy that is absent from other published works - more detail about their persona and the diversity of their business interests.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but due to the long time period in history and large number of people, it was difficult to keep track of the family members. A diagram of the family tree would have aided in keeping track of the many people involved. Since I have traveled throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley, it would have been interesting to see more maps, particuliarly the current cities and towns overlaying the original Spanish Land Grant boundaries. Ownership of the property within these Spanish Land Grants is still being disputed today, with one of the most notable being the Balli' family claims on Padre Island.

Overall, a very good book for someone interested in the history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and the border areas of Mexico adjacent to that area.

This is absolutely a very well written history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It depicts the history of the McAllen, Young & Balli Families during this era. This book gives a very good insight of what was going on throughout the lower Rio Grande Valley during this time frame. Mary M. McAllen Amberson along with her father, grandfather and great-grandfather have done an excellent job in preserving the history with all their personal notes with James B. McAllen. I now have a better understanding of the struggles and hardships the people had to endure in order to survive this rugged time. I strongly recommend this book to all people who are interested in learning more about the history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley during their ancestors' time. Hats off to Mary M. McAllen Amberson on a very well written history of her family and the great Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Ricardo P. Balli

The history of Texas did not begin or end at the Alamo. This book is a true epic that follows intermingled families and fortunes from 1749 to the 1950's in deep South Texas. The first Spanish settlements in South Texas were entrepreneurial, rather than projects of the Crown or Church. Development on both sides of the Rio Grande remained market driven up until the present. This long and exciting history reminds us that the Rio Grande has more often been a juncture than a divide. As an example of the interdependence that spanned the shallow river, leaders of two northern Mexican states once considered seceding from Mexico to join their Texan colleagues as members of the Confederate States. As our Civil War ended, the citizens of Matamoros, Mexico, raised a militia to cross the Rio Grande to protect the citizens of Brownsville from marauders as the Army of the Confederacy retreated. There is also coverage of the very difficult period during the 1910's and 20's when bandit raids into Texas were linked to a plan, fomented in Germany, whereby Mexico would take back Texas, California, New Mexico, and Arizona, thereby distracting the U.S. from the war in Europe. This book does not simply look back at a tumultuous time but offers an understanding of the dynamics at play in the present.

It is very interesting to read about the goings on in South Texas in the past and to apply that history to today's map. It is equally as interesting to leearn the origin of the names applied to counties in South Texas and the players in those early days. This is slow reading but it is very important to me as the information gives me perspective.

I don't know how people can say that this book was well-written. It reads like an encyclopedia. It's obvious that the authors are researchers first and writers second. The book would be great if the authors would be able to take the dense - though fantastic - historical accounts and weave them into an interesting story.

I picked the book up after moving to the Rio Grande Valley from the East Coast, hoping to gain a better perspective of the area. Unfortunately, I will have to look elsewhere to gain that perspective.

I am a great grandson of James Balli McAllen and a great great grandson of John McAllen. No mention is made in this book of the four children James Balli fathered by Cleofas Guajardo, beginning when she was just fifteen. Dolores, Virginia, Herlinda and Avelina were their names. Avelina died of cancer at 36 in a shack on Polk Street in Brownsville, Texas. She was my grandmother. James fathered children by at least two woman not mentioned in I Would Rather Sleep in Texas. (See the film, Border Bandits, to learn a little about one of the others). It is possible that part of the land that now is the McAllen Ranch was taken as a debt owed from the Guajardos and that the ranch came with a girl who was promised marriage. Perhaps it was common then to have such affairs; however, the account of James' family is simply not accurate.

The book is well written. John B. McAllen is my grandfather. I see no mention of my mother nor her 3 sisters. In order to know all about John B. McAllen I think the author should have included this portion of his life and children in her book. There are many siblings involved who have done very well for themselves.