Many of the Tejanos who belonged to the Alamo Company were Bejareños, that is they were born and raised in Bejar. Many of them were descendants of the Canary Island colonists or their fathers and grandfathers had belonged to the Bejar Presidio. Many had families in San Antonio. Several of these soldiers deserted and joined the Texas Army. José Toribio Losoya of the Alamo de Parras company died in defense of the Alamo.

Other than familial ties to Bejar, what were some
of the reasons Mexican soldiers of the Alamo Company
deserted to join the Texian Army?

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At somewhat of a loss to go at this issue directly in depth because of lack of familiarity with individual cases, my gut reaction is to answer simply that general loyalty to race and military duty was overridden by love of their Texas regional homeland, sympathy for libertarian federalist principles of regional self-determination, distaste for dictatorship and corruption and a belief that the Texian cause would win. I do find distasteful the modern authors, desperate for readers, who try to capitalize on racial differences and try every futile avenue possible to apologize and rationalize for this patriotic element‚s position by implying that they were somehow coerced into their actions. The worst example is the continuing struggle to argue that the most unwavering Tejano Texian patriot of them all, José Antonio Navarro , was somehow coerced into the Santa Fe Expedition and his unrelenting stay in Mexican prisons, punished and at risk of execution because he would recant not one inch in his position despite appeals of family and friends (compare this stance to Seguin and Flores).

In diversion of the question to a case history in which I am knowledgeable, I have been equally interested in analysis of the motives of individuals of typical Southern Anglo background who loyally served the Republic of Mexico in Texas, foremost examples John (Juan) Davis Bradburn and Peter Ellis (Pedro Elías) Bean . A distant cousin, Bean is the most intriguing, leading a career stranger than fiction while plotting his way from adventurer/filibuster, 10 years in Spanish prisons (vacillating between minimum and maximum security after escape attempts), revolutionary captain and trusted emissary of José Morelos , acquaintance of Jean LaFitte and participant under Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans, Mexican Colonel and Commander of Ft. Teran in implementation of the Bustamante Plan under Gen. Manuel Mier y Terán  in Texas, trusted Indian agent during the Fredonian Rebellion and the Texas Revolution, self-imposed prisoner and subsequent parolee of Texian forces, and successful Texian businessman and extensive landholder in the Republic of Texas.

While in Spanish prisons during periods of minimum security, he was a shoemaker, hatter, gunpowder chemist and explosives expert, while a Mexican Revolutionary a successful commander and munitions expert, while a Texian (both pre- and post-revolution) a lumber mill owner, building supply dealer, retail merchant, landlord, farmer, rancher and salt distributor. Although raising a Texian family of pure Tennessee stock with a Tennessee wife, he returned to a last few years of continued happiness with his waiting wife from days of the Mexican Revolution, the Doña Magdalena Falfan de los Godos at La Banderilla in Jalapa, dying just short of seeing Texas become a part of the United States of America. To this day, scholars cannot clearly peg him as Tennessee semi-literate hillbilly, nation-less soldier of fortune, Spanish army turncoat (he entered service of royal Spain and surrendered and joined insurgents under Morelos), Mexican revolutionary chieftain, Mexican Federalist, Mexican Tory during the Texas Rebellion, or discreet Mexican sympathizer with the anti-centralist Texian forces. I believe one thing he was clearly not, in contrast to Bradburn, was a Mexican centralist. He was clearly a steady, productive and active Mexican-Texian, and as can be gleaned from the records, an optimistic, ingenious and resourceful one within the moment to moment maze of conflicting races, cultures, philosophies and individuals through which he plotted. Dissection and understanding motive and how he pulled all this off without a clear rupture in security of his person, reputation and legal status, as well as his race, culture, country (whatever it was), colleagues and general environment hopefully may help answer the original question concerning Tejanos who joined the predominantly Anglo-Texian cause. Maybe it was his appreciation for the little things in life, e.g. his good and only friend the quija while in Acapulco Solitary, the shine smuggled through the peephole of his cell by his lady friend , and his daily, but modest, appreciation for fine Tennessee whiskey and Virginia tobacco that was apparent on his receipts in the Nacogdoches Archives.

Wallace L. McKeehan