Juan Nepomuceno Seguín (1806–1890) was a prominent citizen of San Antonio from the time of Mexico’s independence. As migrants from the United States moved to the Mexican state of Texas in the 1820s and 1830s, he sided with them in their distaste for the government in Mexico City, considering it dictatorial and anti-democratic. Thus, when the Texans fought for the state’s independence in 1835, Seguín joined their fight. He was at the Alamo, and only the fact that he was sent on a dangerous mission to deliver messages from the garrison there kept him from being slaughtered with the rest of its defenders. Later, he led a Tejano unit—a unit of Latino soldiers like himself, living in Texas—into battle at the climactic Battle of San Jacinto. Naturally, he was considered a hero when Texas won its independence in 1838 and served the Republic of Texas in a number of political capacities, most prominently as the mayor of San Antonio. Yet prejudices remained against the Spanish-speaking citizens of Texas, and over time, Seguín experienced resentment from Anglo Texans who wanted his wealth and his land for themselves. Eventually, they got it. In 1842 a mob of Anglos drove him out of Texas into Mexico, where he agonized as he was made to take up arms against the United States in the U.S. War with Mexico.