Lorenzo de Zavala

Manuel Lorenzo Justiniano de Zavala y Sáenz was born in Tecoh, Yucatán, in 1788 and entered politics long before he came to Texas. A journalist, writer and advocate of federal republican government, he served in Spanish, imperial and republican institutions, including the Spanish Cortes and Mexican Congress, and held state and diplomatic offices. His politics repeatedly put him at odds with centralist governments; he spent years imprisoned earlier in life and later went into exile after political reversals in Mexico.

Zavala arrived in Texas in July 1835 as Antonio López de Santa Anna dismantled Mexico's federal system. He initially argued that Texans should fight to restore the federal Constitution of 1824 rather than immediately separate from Mexico. As events moved toward independence, he joined the March 1836 convention, signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, helped draft the Republic constitution and was elected vice president of the ad interim government. He also served as interpreter and liaison in dealings with the captured Santa Anna. Zavala resigned amid disputes inside the provisional government and died in November 1836 after developing pneumonia following a boating accident on Buffalo Bayou.

Zavala's importance to Texas is inseparable from his Mexican political career. He did not emerge from an Anglo-American settlement network or from a native Tejano political family; he arrived as an experienced Yucatán-born Mexican liberal whose federalist struggle against Santa Anna eventually converged with the Texas independence movement.

Texas memory preserves Zavala in the name of Zavala County and in the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building in Austin. His writings and surviving political documents also make him useful for understanding how the Texas Revolution evolved from a federalist revolt into a movement for a separate republic.