Texas-Born, Tejano-Raised

Texas has been in my heart since before my first breath. My Texas story begins long ago with my ancestors. My ancestors were here in Texas when it was still a part of Mexico and my relatives, even distant, to this day all reside in Texas. I come from a long line of Tejanos on both of my parents' sides. My great-great-grandparents were born in the late 1800s in and around the San Antonio and Austin areas on my mother's side. My great-grandparents on my dad's side were native Americans from South Texas.

Now, if you’re a native Texan, or you were fortunate enough to have been educated here in Texas, you know a little about Texas history and you would know that Texas used to be a part of Mexico until 1836 when it gained its independence. That is a big part of my history. My parents were both born in San Antonio and they both come from very large Hispanic families. In 1995, my parents moved out to Houston for my dad's job. They were sad that they were leaving their family and their heritage behind in San Antonio, but they did it anyway, and they had no idea what was waiting for them in Houston. Upon moving to this strange new city my parents had been set on moving back to San Antonio. But after they gave it more thought they realized they wanted to start a family. Shortly thereafter my parents decided to move out to the suburbs of Houston and after searching for the right place they settled in in a small town called Cypress. After a few weeks of living in their new home they slowly realized how this predominantly white community seemed very cold and unwelcoming to them.

A story that has been engraved into my memory was one of my mother’s. My mother grew up in the 70s so she had this image of what a suburban community should be with cookie-cutter houses in a row and the new neighbors bringing an apple pie to their door. So my mother waited for her apple pie. But as the weeks went by, she slowly realized her apple pie would never come. Even after that my mother would wave to the neighbors as they drove by or walked by or even as they were in their driveway. But she never got a wave in return, only a few blank stares. After being around there for a while and seeing how they acted around one another and how that differed so greatly from the way they acted around my parents, they began to realize that maybe it wasn’t how these people were, but it was because my parents looked different.

But even with all of this, my parents never became discouraged. Instead, they brimmed with determination. My parents were determined to change the way people saw them and to educate them on who they were and where they came from. So, my mother went and knocked on all the neighbors' doors and introduced herself to them. Many were shocked at how well my mother spoke and as they heard her story, they became more accepting. My parents also realized a lot of these people around the community were not from Texas due to the oil industry bringing a lot of these people into Houston. So my parents took it upon themselves to educate these people on Texas history and who they were as Tejanos. This brought more and more acceptance and understanding to the community overall.

A few years after they moved to Cypress, my parents had me. I am their only child and that was all they needed. Of course, their family gave them much grief for having waited fifteen years to have a child and then only deciding on one. That was unheard of on both sides of the family, But, eventually, the family learned to accept the fact. As I mentioned before, my entire family resides in and around the San Antonio area and as I continued to grow my parents had always taken me to San Antonio to visit family and show me around the city that they grew up in.

But there was one moment in particular that made my parents decide to show me all of Texas. I was in elementary school and we were learning about Ellis Island. I still remember coming home to ask my parents when my ancestors had arrived from Ellis Island. That was when my parents knew that they needed to teach me who we were and show me where we came from. My parents took me all around Texas to show me that this is where we come from and that we have lived on this land for generation upon generation. They took me to the Alamo and the Riverwalk and then we explored the missions of San Antonio. We have been up as far as Route 66 and we've been down to the San Jacinto monument and over to Washington on the Brazos and to the State Capitol in Austin. We’ve explored deep in the heart of Texas places like Brady and Eden and have ventured off into the deserts of West Texas stopping in places like El Paso and Laredo. Even to this day, as we travel on our annual road trips around the west in the summer, we still like to stop at historic landmarks and look around. My dad, who plans the trips, will do some research and take us to places just to see the history of these old towns. And if we take a new path we stop in at those little ghost towns and see what there is in the area and talk to the locals in the shops and hear the stories of these small towns that may be too small to even be on the map.

My parents learned a lot about Texas and its rich history from their parents and grandparents and they’ve passed that on to me. I feel so fortunate to have received this and I hope to pass it on to future generations as a Tejana. My parents have always instilled in me that it is our responsibility to continue to educate others around us and to not be afraid of who we are because this is where we come from and this history is what makes us, us.

Mia Villalpando is currently a Freshman at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, and is a Marketing Major. Mia is from Cypress, Texas and is the child of Carol and Ralph Villalpando.​​

Posted March 22, 2018

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