In recent decades, scholars such as Jesús de la Teja, Richard Flores, Leticia Garza-Falcón, John Morán González, and Raúl Coronado have deepened our understanding of how early Tejanos actively crafted narratives that pushed against negative stereotypes. A new addition to this intellectual project is Recollections of a Tejano Life: Antonio Menchaca in Texas History, edited by Timothy Matovina of the University of Notre Dame and Jesús de la Teja of Texas State University in San Marcos.

Antonio Menchaca (1800–1879) was a San Antonio soldier and landowner who led an active and public life. Matovina and De la Teja note, “of the four leading nineteenth-century San Antonio Tejano figures known to have left behind their recollections—Juan Seguín, José Antonio Navarro, José María Rodríguez, and Menchaca—the latter's reminiscences were the only ones to remain unpublished in their entirety until now” (p. 3). Recollections of a Tejano Life begins with the editors’ excellent contextualization of the iterations of Menchaca's narrative. It was partially published in serialized form in 1907 by a weekly San Antonio newspaper and then reprinted in 1937 by a local historical society. The editors utilize the underappreciated archival records of Menchaca's dictated narrative for this first publication of the second half of the narrative. The Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas houses the unpublished narrative, and the San Antonio Public Library houses the 1907 serialization. Matovina and De la Teja heavily footnote all of Menchaca's reminiscences, next present the 1937 publication of the first part of the reminiscences, and finish by supplying the unpublished part of the narrative in raw form.

In a literary recovery like this one, the editors’ ability to guide the reader through the period's prose, the subject's personal idiosyncrasies, and casual references now lost to time is crucial. Recollections of a Tejano Life succeeds in large part because Matovina and De la Teja have expertly performed this painstaking work. As Menchaca dictated his narrative shortly before his death, the editors carefully grapple with who his collaborator might have been and that collaborator's interpretive influence. Matovina and De la Teja rightfully hold that Menchaca's narrative is less a memoir than a testimonio, like those collected in California by Hubert Howe Bancroft in the 1870s. They define a testimonio in this context as a fundamentally mediated literary production in which an aged Latina/o figure orally relates his or her memories, often emphasizing public events over private lives, in an uneven power relationship to an Anglo scholar or publisher (p. 25). This results in a “strategic retelling of historical events” that produces counter-narratives that push back against demeaning historical interpretations (p. 26). This is important in Menchaca's case as he likely used Spanish in his oral dictation, and because he often defended the contributions of Tejanos.

Students of Texas history will be intrigued by Menchaca's interactions with famous figures during the Texas Revolution. The engaging Menchaca had a knack for keeping on very good terms with wartime opponents—he earned the gratitude of the captured Santa Ana after the battle of San Jacinto by serving as his interpreter. In 1842 this talent saved his life when he was in turn captured during Mexican General Adrián Woll's brief occupation of San Antonio. Woll accosted Menchaca as a notorious traitor who, nevertheless, had been singled out by Santa Ana to be spared. At the end of Recollections of a Tejano Life, Menchaca reflects more broadly on the history of San Antonio that was handed down to him, his knowledge of the missions and their vital role, and old legends of the place.

The book is learned, stimulating, and a necessity for serious students of Texas and the southwestern borderlands. Timothy Matovina and Jesús F. de la Teja have given a tremendous scholarly service by recovering this fascinating testimonio.