Sam Houston and Santa Anna The Controversial History of the Texas Revolution's Leaders

Though he was born and raised elsewhere, Houston is considered one of Texas' truest sons, and during his life he fought for its independence from Mexico and then for its submission to the United States. He owned slaves himself but spent his entire political career fighting against the spread of "the American cancer" to the West. Then, when his beloved state seceded from the Union, he not only opposed secession but sacrificed his own position to protest it, only to turn around and support the Confederacy during the last years of his life.
What cannot be questioned is how profound an impact Sam Houston had on Texas, Mexico, and the United States over the course of several decades. He had a storied career both in times of war and peace, and he proved to be a stubborn but canny politician who represented multiple states.
The butcher of the Alamo and Goliad. The traitor who sold half of Mexico. The Napoleon of the West. Mr. Fifteen Nails. The Mother Country's seducer. Almost 150 years after his death, a lot of name-calling is still being directed towards Antonio López de Santa Anna, president of Mexico 11 times in the 19th century, and today, the vast majority of his compatriots consider him the greatest traitor in history. It was not like that in his day; actually, there had never been a more popular man in Mexico, or anyone more eulogized and essential than General Santa Anna. In life he was the most famous - and at intervals most infamous - Mexican general and politician. Justo Sierra, the eminent writer and historian who watched him when he was a child, wrote that the masses came to regard him as a Messiah: "The people had a vague confidence that he could do miracles." Sierra wrote that Santa Anna was "the indispensable man, the man for our times of crisis, our deus ex machina." The political factions that rose against him and sent him into exile, a couple of years later were knocking at his door begging him to come back when the nation was coming apart at its seams. Then Santa Anna returned to Mexico, and he seduced her, united the people, and formed armies out of thin air to fight the new threats to the motherland: Spain, France, and the United States.
Like the old Caesars, Santa Anna embodied political and military power, but he also possessed a quasi-divine aura. Half of the time he was worshipped by his compatriots, the aristocracy of Mexico City´s salons and the peasant class, all of whom saw in him a country´s protector. In this sense, he was like an emperor of ancient Rome, but even though he was president 11 times (a record unmatched in history), he was not a dictator in the traditional sense of the word. In fact, when combining the 11 times he served, he sat in the presidential chair for less than five years. The power bored him; he would rather go lead armies, like Alexander or Napoleon, and risk his life and put his breast in front of the bullets, either to return covered with glory or die on the battlefield.

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