Author Thompson to Lecture for LCC, TAMIU History Majors

History majors from both Texas A&M International University and Laredo Community College will have an opportunity to visit with one of the State’s most recognized historians on Tuesday Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library Great Room.

The event is free of charge and sponsored by the Killam Library’s Outreach Office.

Dr. Jerry Thompson, TAMIU Regents Professor of History, will explore the life of Mexican folk hero and revolutionary Juan Cortina, the subject of his award-winning “Defending the Mexican Name in Texas: The Incredible Life of Juan Cortina.”

Thompson said he is looking forwarding to meeting with Laredo’s historians in the making.

“I’m honored to speak before a group that shares my passion for history and look forward to an opportunity to also discuss their historical interests and research. I would also encourage anyone who would also like to major in history or enjoys the topic to join us,” Dr. Thompson said.

Thompson’s “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.

For more information, please contact Celita Borchers at the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library’s Outreach Office at 326.2400, visit offices in room 214 or e-mail cborchers@tamiu.edu.

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