page_title: José Antonio Navarro
section_title: Texas patriot
hierarchical_section_title: José Antonio Navarro / Texas patriot
caption_attribution_description: English: I took photo with Canon camera of Celso-Navarro House at Witte Museum in San Antonio. Earlier, I misidentified the Twohig House as Celso-Navarro.
context_page_description: José Antonio Navarro was a Texas statesman, revolutionary, rancher, and merchant. The son of Ángel Navarro and Josefa María Ruiz y Peña, he was born into a distinguished noble family at San Antonio de Béxar in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. His uncle was José Francisco Ruiz and his brother-in-law was Juan Martín de Veramendi.
  Navarro County, Texas, established in 1846, is named in his honor, as is the small town of Navarro, Texas.
context_section_description: Navarro was proficient in the laws of Mexico and Spain, although he was mainly self-educated. As a native Texan, he had a vision of the future of Texas like that of Stephen F. Austin.  Austin and he developed a steady friendship, and worked together to found the new state of Texas. An early proponent of Texas independence, he took part in the 1812–1813 Magee, Gutiérrez, and Toledo private invasions launched from the US.
  Working with the empresarios of the period, he helped  Austin obtain his contracts to bring American colonists into the area. He became a land commissioner for Dewitt's Colony, and soon after, for the Béxar District. In 1825, he married Margarita de la Garza and they raised seven children. His son José Ángel Navarro III served three terms in the Texas Legislature.
  During the early 1830s, Navarro represented Texas both in the legislature of the state of Coahuila y Tejas and in the federal Congress in Mexico City. Navarro, collaborating with Austin, worked to pass legislation.
  Navarro later served as a leader in the Texas Revolution. He was at the Convention for Texas Independence, when he received the news from Juan Seguin of the Alamo's fall.  With the death of James Bowie (his nephew by marriage), Navarro had to secure the release of the surviving Navarros, two women and a child, who were being held by the Mexican army at the Músquiz house. They were removed to the Navarro family home. The surviving noncombatants  thereby avoided execution as traitors to Mexico by General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
  José Antonio Navarro was one of the first signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, in early March, 1836, in Washington-on-the-Brazos. He later signed the Constitution of the Republic of Texas.
  In 1841, Navarro reluctantly participated in the ill-conceived Texan Santa Fe Expedition sent by President Mirabeau B. Lamar, when he tried to persuade the residents of New Mexico to secede from Mexico and join with Texas. He was captured, put on trial, sentenced to death, and imprisoned for years. He escaped with the help of sympathetic Mexican Army officials, sailing back to Texas.
  José Antonio Navarro became a representative in the Republic of Texas Congress from Bexar County, Texas. Attempting to keep a balance of power, he worked closely with Senator Juan Seguin to promote legislation favorable to the Tejano citizenry, who were quickly becoming the political minority. Education was one such priority, working to bring academic institutions into the San Antonio area. He supported the annexation of Texas by the United States. In 1845, Navarro was instrumental in drafting the first state Constitution of Texas, ensuring future political rights for all people. He served two terms in the Texas Senate before temporarily retiring from politics in 1849.
caption: In 1835, Navarro built the Celso-Navarro House, relocated to the Witte Museum in San Antonio, where it houses some administrative offices.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2011:05:29 15:21:47", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "240", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8192", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:05:29 15:21:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:05:29 15:21:47", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "1847/250", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4320", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3240", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "4320", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "3240", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3344", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "160000/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1620000/91", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}