About Zavala

ABOUT ZAVALA LODGE 1059 AF & AM

A Brief History of Bro. Lorenzo de Zavala

- First Vice President of the Republic of Texas –

Manuel Lorenzo Justiniano de Zavala y Sáenz was born on October 3, 1788. He graduated from the Tridentine Seminary of San Ildefonso in Mérida in 1807, and almost immediately embarked on a political career that spanned more than a quarter of a century. By the time that Lorenzo de Zavala arrived in Texas in July 1835, he had already held office on the local, state and national levels in the Mexican Colonial, Imperial, and National governments.

In addition to holding office, Zavala further affected political life in Mexico by his active part in establishing York Rite Masonry in Mexico in 1826. Serving as an alternative to the Scottish Rite Grand Orient style of Masonry favored by the politically conservative and centralist leaders, the York Rite boasted a membership that championed liberal ideals and a decentralized, federal plan for government. Zavala became the Charter Master of Independencia Lodge No. 454, and he continued in that office until his exile in 1830.

Texans, too, acknowledged Zavala’s importance. Zavala had been representing Mexico in Paris when he got word that Santa Anna had taken dictatorial control of Mexico. He came to Texas to work for the restoration of democratic government of his country.

Zavala hoped to involve all of the people of Mexico, including Texans, in a revolt against Santa Anna’s centralist government. At this time, Zavala favored separate statehood for Texas within a democratic Mexican federation.

Zavala realized that a national Mexican revolt against Santa Anna was not in the cards, and when the Convention met at Washington-on-the-Brazos in March 1835, Lorenzo de Zavala was forced to reassess his own beliefs. On March 3 he was among the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, an act that would brand him a traitor to his fellow Mexicans to this day. He and Jose Antonio Navarro were appointed to the committee to draft a Constitution. Zavala chaired the section on Powers of the Executive Branch and served on the defense, naval affairs, and flag design committees. On March 17 he was unanimously elected Vice President of the ad interim government.

PRINCIPAL SOURCES: [1] Henson, Margaret Swett. Lorenzo de Zavala, the Pragmatic Idealist. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1996. [2] Estep, Raymond. “Lorenzo de Zavala and the Texas Revolution.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Vol. LVII, pp. 322-335. [3] Excerpted from: Texas State Library & Archives Commission: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/treasures/giants/zavala-01.html