de Zavala Plaza
San Jacinto, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Name honors Lorenzo de Zavala, vice president of the Republic of Texas (ad interim, March 17 - Oct. 17, 1836). Born in Yucatan and educated in the seminary of Ildefonso, de Zavala was an ardent liberal who was jailed 1814-1817 for political activities. In prison he learned English and became a medial doctor. In 1821 he was a member of the Cortes in Madrid, Spain, and later was governor of a province of Mexico. After Mexico win independence from Spain, he kept working for democratic reforms. Loyal to the 1824 Constitution of Mexico, he opposed Dictator Santa Anna, and moved to Texas to seek freedom. On March 2, 1836, he signed Texas' Declaration of Independence. Later he signed the Republic of Texas Constitution. Married twice, he had six children. The family honored his memory by keeping alive his ideals after his early death. The Legislature of Texas in 1858 named Zavala County in his honor. Lorenzo de Zavala, many of his descendants, and some of their neighbors and friends were interred in the de Zavala family cemetery, on the plantation across Buffalo Bayou from this site. This plaza is dedicated to the memory of Vice President de Zavala, his family, and others buried in de Zavala Cemetery.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This plaza honors Lorenzo de Zavala, the Yucatán-born liberal who was jailed for years for his politics, taught himself English and medicine in prison, and served in the Spanish Cortes and as a Mexican governor before opposing Santa Anna's dictatorship. Loyal to Mexico's 1824 Constitution, he moved to Texas, signed its Declaration of Independence in 1836, and became the Republic's first vice-president; he, his descendants, and neighbors lie in the family cemetery across Buffalo Bayou.
Why it matters
De Zavala's life bridges the Mexican and Texan struggles for constitutional liberty, and Zavala County still bears his name in tribute to that legacy.
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Related people
- · Lorenzo de Zavala
- · Antonio López de Santa Anna
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Crown Hill Cemetery
Pasadena, TX
As permanent settlers arrived near Buffalo Bayou in the 1890s, the new town of Pasadena needed a place to bury its dead, and this knoll overlooking Vince's Bayou became its community graveyard in 1906. Renamed Crown Hill after World War I, likely for the nearby Crown Central Refinery, it holds veterans of four American wars and generations of early settlers and community leaders. It also became a resting place for Mexican-American farm families beginning in the 1920s, earning it the name the Mexican Cemetery.
Humphrey Jackson
Crosby, TX
Trained in law and opposed to slavery, Irish emigrant Humphrey Jackson left his Louisiana sugar plantation to join Stephen F. Austin's colony in 1823, unknowingly settling just outside its bounds. He helped petition Mexican authorities to form the San Jacinto District under Austin's control and was elected its alcalde, becoming one of the earliest civic leaders in what is now Harris County before his death in 1833.
Lorenzo de Zavala
Houston, TX
Born in Mexico in 1789, Lorenzo de Zavala was a statesman of two nations — a liberal reformer who served in the Spanish Cortes, as Mexico's treasury minister, and as ambassador to France before Santa Anna's tyranny drove him to Texas in 1835. There he threw himself into the cause of independence, signed the Texas Declaration, and became the Republic's first vice-president; his home near the San Jacinto battleground served as a hospital for both sides after the fighting.
Persons Known to Have Been Buried in de Zavala Cemetery
San Jacinto, TX
This burial ground near the San Jacinto battlefield holds the remains of Lorenzo de Zavala (1789–1836), the statesman who served as the first vice president of the Republic of Texas, along with generations of his family. It also received figures caught up in the 1836 revolution, including the Mexican general Manuel Fernández Castrillón, who fell at San Jacinto, and other men who died that pivotal year. The recorded roll of names spans from the republic's founding into the early twentieth century.