Globalizing the Lower Rio Grande

“The Rio Grande borderlands may seem like an unlikely El Dorado, but that is how it once appeared to many Europeans. In Globalizing the Lower Rio Grande, Kyle Carpenter tells this long-neglected story, arguing convincingly that the economic development of the region owed much to Europeans investors and entrepreneurs. Well-written and deeply researched, Carpenter’s book is a splendid and indispensable addition to the literature on the Rio Grande Valley.” -Sam W. Haynes, author of Unsettled Land: From Revolution to Republic, the Struggle for Texas

“I found this work to be engaging, well crafted, and competently researched. Carpenter’s dramatic retelling of the Beales Colony disaster on Las Moras Creek is particularly engaging. His research into such individuals as José San Román and John Z. Leyendecker is impressive.”—Jerry Thompson, author of Cortina: Defending the Mexican Name in Texas and Tejano Tiger: José de los Santos Benavides and the History of the Texas-Mexico Borderlands, 1823–1891
 
“This is an important and understudied subject, and this book fills a gap in the existing literature. It is a work of competent scholarship that makes a key contribution to the field. A book about the role of Europeans is an important addition to the literature because so much of the historical material on the region emphasizes Spaniards, Mexicans, Tejanos, and Anglo Americans and rarely acknowledges the full diversity of people who came to the region to seek their fortunes.”—Alicia M. Dewey, author of Pesos and Dollars: Entrepreneurs in the Texas-Mexico Borderlands, 1880–1940