Folk Hero Cortina Topic of TAMIU Sánchez Lecture April 9

Discover the truth about the life of legendary outlaw, hero, rancher and defender of social justice, Juan Cortina, with Dr. Jerry D. Thompson’s “Defending the Mexican Name in Texas: The Incredible Life of Juan Cortina” at the next Texas A&M International University A.R. Sánchez, Sr. Distinguished Lecture Series Wednesday, April 9 at 7 p.m. in the TAMIU Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Recital Hall.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

Dr. Thompson, TAMIU Regents Professor of History, explores the life of Mexican folk hero and revolutionary, Juan Cortina in the last installment of the Lecture Series.

His “Cortina: Defending the Mexican Name in Texas” was published last fall by the Texas A&M University Press.

The prolific author has written about Cortina before. In 1994, his “Juan Nepomuceno Cortina and the Texas-Mexico Frontier, 1859-1877” was published by Texas Western Press. He also edited “Fifty Miles and a Fight: Samuel Peter Heintzelman’s Journal of Texas and the Cortina War.”

Author of more than 20 books, Thompson is considered one of the country’s top scholars on the Southwest Campaign of the American Civil War and Border History.

The Texas Institute of Letters awarded him the Best Scholarly Book Published in 2006 award for his “Civil War to the Bloody End: The Life and Times of Major General Samuel P. Heintzelman.”

Thompson has received numerous awards from the Texas Historical Commission, Western Writers of America, Texas State Historical Association, Historical Society of New Mexico and the Arizona Historical Society.

Conceived by A. R. Sanchez Jr., the A. R. Sánchez, Sr. Distinguished Lecture Series has attracted national and internationally known scholars to TAMIU. Lecturers have ranged from Nobel laureates and prominent political figures to some of the most gifted world scientists and award-winning authors and artists. Last September marked the 10th Anniversary of the Sánchez Lecture Series.

For more information, contact the College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Dean at the 326.2460 or visit offices in the Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center, room 301.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu