Velasco Aftermath

Description 

The fighting may have stopped in May of 1836—but that didn’t mean everything was settled. 

After the Treaties of Velasco were signed at Velasco, Texas and Mexico stepped into a strange in-between world. On paper, there was peace. On the ground, there was still uncertainty, disagreement, and unfinished business. 

In this episode, we look at what actually happened after the ink dried—and how a treaty that never fully held still helped shape Texas, its borders, and its future.  

Show Notes 

•  Recap of May 14, 1836: signing of the Treaties of Velasco
•  Public vs. secret promises: what each side expected from the agreement 
• Antonio López de Santa Anna and the controversy over his release 
•  Mexican troop withdrawal led by Vicente Filisola
•  Rising tension in Texas: public anger and delays in honoring treaty terms 
•  Mexico’s response: refusal to recognize the treaties as valid 
•  Life in the “in-between”: Texas acting as an independent nation without full recognition 
•  The disputed boundary between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande 
•  How unresolved tensions helped lead to the Mexican–American War
•  The real lesson: ending a conflict isn’t the same as settling it 
•  Personal takeaway: learning to live and build in the “already but not yet” 

This isn't just a podcast, it's a Texas state of mind.

Transcript

Signing The Velasco Treaties

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Freedom on paper, trouble on the ground. Yesterday, we walked into that little coastal settlement of Blasco on May 14th, 1836, and White Santa Ana and David G. Burnett signed two treaties, one public, one secret, trying to put an official end to the Texas Revolution. Now, on paper, the public treaty looked straightforward. Hostilities would cease, Mexican troops would retreat across the Rio Grande as they went. They weren't supposed to loot or seize property without paying for what they used. Now, that included any livestock and slave people or other private property taken during the invasion. They were all supposed to be returned. Now, prisoners on both sides would be exchanged, and at some point, Texas would put Santa Ana on a ship and send him back to Mexico. Now, the recent, I should say, the secret treaty went further than that. In that one, Texas agreed to release Santa Ana quickly, and he agreed to push for Mexican recognition of Texas independence, arranged for friendly treatment of Texas ambassadors, and there was support of a border of the Rio Grande once he got back home. On those pages, Texas wasn't just safe, it was big. Now, for a moment, they must have felt like they had wrapped everything up. But the aftermath of Velasco shows how fragile paper piece can be.

Retreat Begins And Tension Rises

SPEAKER_00 1:43

At first, some things did move in the right direction. General Vincente Filisola, in charge of the Mexican forces after San Yacino, began pulling his army back towards the Rio Grande in late May, just as the public treaty called for. Texian scouts watched those columns head south, and families along the routes could finally breathe without wondering if they'd wake up to find soldiers in their yards again. But even as those troops moved, the treaty itself was starting to unravel. On the Texas side, anger towards Santa Ana ran white hot. Many soldiers and citizens didn't want him released at all, much less quickly. Demonstrations and treaties forced the government to move him multiple times just to keep him alive, which meant Texas was not keeping its end of the bargain about sending him home promptly. On the Mexican side too, leaders in Mexico City looked at the situation and said, no way, Jose. Within weeks, the Mexican Congress declared that anything that Santa Ana had signed while a captive, especially anything recognizing Texas independence or giving up

Mexico Rejects The Agreements

SPEAKER_00 2:57

land, well, that wasn't going to happen. That's just flat, null and void. As far as they were concerned, the treaties of Velasco did not bind Mexico to accept Texas as a separate republic or to honor that Rio Grande border. So you ended up with a strange in-between kind of world. In Texas, people started to live life as though that they were an independent nation. And they had a president, a Congress, and a capital. They pointed to Velasco and then to the victory at San Yacino as proof that Texas had earned its place on the map. Now, on paper, those treaties loosely set the southern boundary at the Rio Grande, and Texas leaders claimed everything up to that river as theirs. Even the strip between the Nueces and the Rio Grande where almost nobody agreed who was really in charge. In Mexico, officials kept treating Texas as

Living In A Legal Limbo

SPEAKER_00 3:58

a rebellious province. They did pull troops back for practical reasons, but they never ratified the treaties. To them, Santa Anna's signature at the Velasco was just one more mistake by a disgraced leader who had already lost a battle and an army. And out in the countryside, well, ordinary people were left to sort out the details. Some Texian prisoners did make it home under the exchange arrangements after the fighting stopped. Some families reclaimed their horses and cattle. Others never saw their property again. Regardless of what Articles four and five said about returning or paying for what had been taken. Towns burned in the runaway scraped. They had to rebuild with no real way to send a bill to a government in Mexico that no

Border Claims And War Fallout

SPEAKER_00 4:48

longer recognized any obligation. Over the next decade, that unresolved status became more and more of a problem as well as a legal question. Texas kept pressing its Rio Grande's claim and Mexico kept rejecting it. And when the United States later annexed Texas and accepted that border claim, American and Mexican soldiers ended up facing each other in that disputed strip of land. Skirmishes there became one of the sparks that lit the Mexican-American War. Now that's a conflict that eventually ended with Mexico not only losing its claim to Texas, but also ceding vast territories in the West. In other words, the ink that dried at Velasco on may 14, 1836 was still casting shadows on maps more than a decade later. A treaty that never quite took still helped shape who lived there, which flag flew over which town, and what we mean when we say Texas today.

Lessons Beyond Texas History

SPEAKER_00 5:54

So what do we do with all that sitting here nearly two hundred years later? The aftermath of Velasco is a reminder that ending a fight and settling a conflict are not always the same thing. The guns at San Yacinto stopped, the columns marched away from Texas soil, but the questions about borders, recognition, and responsibility, well, they echoed for years. In our lives, we'll have moments where it feels like a battle is over. You know, a divorce is finalized, a lawsuit settled, perhaps a business partnership is dissolved, or a long argument finally gets called off. The paperwork may be done, but the healing, the rebuilding, the long-term consequences, we both know that can go on for a long time. Texans after Velasco had to learn how to live as free people in a world where not everyone agreed that they were even free. They had to defend what they believed those treaties meant, and they had to build farms, towns, and a government in the middle of all that uncertainty. That's still part of the Texan spirit to this day, making a life in the already but not yet, holding on to what you know is right and working it out on the ground. One decision, one day at a time.

Closing And How To Support

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Hey, I'm uh I'm Tweed Scott, and this has been your Texan Edge for the day. If you liked hearing this story and you think someone else you know just might enjoy it too, well, share it with them. Better still, tell them how to find us here on the porch at substack.com slash Texan Edge. Well, that's it. Till next time. Plan is we'll see you on Monday for more of the Texan Edge. Take care now.