Biography

Don Muzquiz Ramón González was born in 1797 in San Antonio, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, in an environment where he lived with presidio soldiers and settlers, both Spanish and Mexicans and Anglos, mostly of northern Texas. Coming from a Basque family, his life was spent in the company of missionary friars and people from Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

, and Basque origin like himself. He developed friendships with prominent families, such as the Leal, Arocha or Veramendi. With these influences, he managed to become vice governor and acting governor of Coahuila

Coahuila

Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...

 and Texas in the early 1830s. He resigned in 1831 and was replaced by Juan Martin de Veramendi

Juan Martín de Veramendi

Juan Martin de Veramendi was the governor of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas from 1832 until 1833.Veramendi was born on December 17, 1778 in San Fernando de Béxar, known as Bexar, to Fernando Veramendi and Maria Josefa Granados...

, friend of he.
During the Texas Revolution

Texas Revolution

The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was an armed conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836...

 and in the presence of President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, was ratified Don Ramon Muzquiz in office as governor in early 1836, but in May of that year, he submitted his resignation citing "family reasons". Muzquiz, knew the effects and consequences of central power and its impact on Texas, for that reason, in 1836, he moved with his family in the colonial city of Monclova in the Mexican state of Coahuila, where in addition to experience security of his nation, lived some of his relatives, including his sister Josefa Muzquiz, who was the mother of the first medicine man of Monclova, Don Simón Blanco.
Known by people of Monclova its experience in Texas government, he was appointed political prefect as ad interim in 1853 and 1858. In addition, he was one of the largest shareholders in terms of water rights, in the bags of water from San Francisco and San Miguel (now part of the Pueblo

Pueblo

Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...

), to whose inhabitants he championed for endorse guarantees to the state government of Nuevo Leon

Nuevo León

Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...

and Coahuila, headed by former resident of Monclova, Santiago Vidaurri Valdés.
While he defended him, the government that he represented, required the delivery to ecclesiastical authorities all the funds in support of the army of the north, where they fought many of the inhabitants of Monclova. Following this, in 1857, Father José María Villarreal Montemayor, claimed the water from the Confraternity of the Immaculate, property of the inhabitants of the village of San Francisco in Tlaxcala, and, although he gave a large sum of money, he got to be given title of ownership. He refused to deliver the flow of the confraternity of the Virgin of Zapopan, that he previously divided among his family, forcing the political boss Don Ramon Muzquiz, to banish him sending him into exile (he return to years later). On 27 November 1867, after evacuating Jeaningros French troops in Monclova, he died.

Family

Don Ramon Muzquiz married
with Tejano Francisca Castañeda and together they had, inter alia, two sons: Octaviano Múzquiz (who served for a time as mayor of Monclova, was wounded, he entered the city on October 18, 1871, by the forces of Comanchero Pedro Advíncula Valdés, on November dying due to shooting ) and Ramon Muzquiz Castañeda (who followed the example of his father occupied for long periods of Monclova political leadership and the mayor).