The Wild Country: Mesteñas and Fighting Bulls in Mexico and Texas brings together two original studies that reveal how the movement, behavior, and mythology of animals shaped the history and identity of the borderlands.
In “Breaking Free: The Origins of the Borderlands’ Wild Horses and Cows,” José Roberto Campos Cordero (University of Texas at Austin) examines how domesticated livestock in northeastern Mexico and Texas became feral herds known as mesteñas and mostrencos. Drawing on extensive colonial archives, he argues that these animals displayed forms of agency that influenced both the natural and human landscapes of the region. Their persistence, adaptability, and defiance helped define the environmental and institutional development of Texas and northern Mexico from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries.
In “From Veracruz to El Paso: Tom Lea’s Search for Mexico’s Brave Bulls,” Matthew Butler (University of Texas at Austin) reinterprets Lea’s fascination with toros bravos, the fierce fighting bulls that inspired his 1949 novel The Brave Bulls. Using archival materials from the Tom Lea Collection at UTEP and the Harry Ransom Center, Butler shows how Lea’s encounters with Mexican bullfighting connected art, mythology, and the shared heritage of Mexico and Texas. For Lea, the bull was more than a spectacle—it was a living symbol of wildness and endurance linking Iberian, Mexican, and Texan traditions.
Together, these presentations uncover a layered story of the borderlands—where animal history, human imagination, and the search for identity converge to define the wild country.
Session Chair: Jesus F. de la Teja
