During our school's fall break, I visited San Antonio, Texas. While there, I noticed that the city had a rich cultural heritage deeply rooted in history, and I was intrigued by the brief history that was presented to me when I visited the Alamo or Mission San Antonio de Valero, a popular tourist attraction and famous mission Spanish. In analyzing the complex history of the Alamo, I discovered that there were five different missions preserved throughout San Antonio, each with its own history and unique architecture. I decided to visit the other four missions in the area, and when I did, I discovered an ethnic group known as Tejanos, whose ancestors were both Spanish from Europe and Native Americans from Texas. Their culture developed in an unusual way due to intermarriage between two very different groups. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Tejano people of South Texas came from hunter-gatherers in early times or from Native Americans who worked in the fields. At this point, Native Americans in South Texas were known as Coahuiltecans. The Coahuiltecans moved into southern Texas and northeastern Mexico depending on the season in search of food. As a result, they found it difficult to start farming and have a stable source of food, so many died of famine or disease. For food, they rarely ate game and, for the most part, nuts, fruits and seeds, and survived nomadically by moving through the surrounding areas. By the 1700s, the Spanish had migrated across the New World to southern Texas to spread Catholicism. In southern Texas, the Spanish built many missions, many of which were located in present-day San Antonio. These missions, located about three miles apart, are known as the Alamo or San Antonio de Valero, Concepción, San José, San Juan, and Espada. The Spanish rounded up Native American tribes they found in the surrounding areas and placed them on missions. The Spanish converted the Coahuiltecans, then taught them how to farm and grow crops in a controlled manner, as well as other skills with European tools. Some Native Americans were forced to go on missions, while most others went on their own accord due to famine, lack of protection, or diseases brought by Europeans. Coahuiltecans were often willing to convert and provide their own labor because of the hardships they were facing outside of the missions and saw the missions as a gateway to a better life (National Park Service). Despite all this progress, many Coahuiltecans felt out of place and confined within the walls of the missions. They fled the missions and continued to lead their old lives as they missed the life they were used to. However, other Coahuiltecans conformed to Spanish ways of life and took part in Spanish society by pledging allegiance to the Spanish crown and learning to defend themselves from attackers using European weapons and methods. Seventy years later, European diseases brought by the Spanish had devastated the Native Americans, and very few, if any, remained on the missions, even after each subsequent generation intermarried with the Spanish. As a result, the Spanish secularized their missions to ensure their future success. For the most part, the Spanish went west or back to Spain. This left the remaining Native Americans and their future Spanish generations to fend for themselves, after being dependent on the missions for so many years. These people who had to survive using their skills.