Lorenzo de Zavala

Zavala wrote uncounted articles, editorials and pamphlets in Mérida and Mexico City. He is best known for his two-volume Ensayo histórico de las revoluciones de México desde 1808 hasta 1830, published in Paris and New York in 1831 and 1832, and for his Viage á los Estados-Unidos del Norte de América of 1834, describing what he saw on a visit to the United States in 1830 and 1831. Under the Treaties of Velasco he was named, on May 27, 1836, a peace commissioner to accompany Santa Anna to Mexico City.

What the plaque says

Lorenzo de Zavala (1789-1836) Three miles east is homesite and grave of a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and first vice-president of the republic of texas-- an illustrious statesman of two nations. He was born in Mexico. De Zavala, an ardent liberal and earnest advocate of democratic reforms served his native country as representative in the Spanish cortes, Madrid; minister of the treasury; president of Chamber of Deputies; governor of State of Mexico and ambassador to France. De Zavala tired of Santa Anna's tyranny, resigned his ambassadorship and moved here in 1835. When Mexican officials learned of his taking refuge in Texas and ordered his arrest, he became a strong leader in cause of Texas independence. Voters in Harrisburg sent him in 1835 to the Consultation at San Felipe de Austin and later to the Independence Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos. The de Zavala home, a plank-covered log house across from San Jacinto battleground, served as a hospital for both sides after the battle. An observer on the scene described de Zavala as "the most interesting man in Texas"-- he was a leading author, learned publicist, philosopher, historian, economist and constant lover of liberty. SUPPLEMENTAL PLAQUE INSCRIPTION: Marker moved from Channelview community. Grave marker moved to San Jacinto Battleground. 1936 granite Centennial marker at homesite, 16 miles east. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Emancipation Park — 4.5 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 5.2 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 5.3 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 6.1 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.

More markers nearby

• "Constitution" Bend — 0.8 mi
• Thomas H. Ball, Jr. — 0.8 mi
• Site of General Offices, Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad — 1.2 mi
• Glendale Cemetery — 1.5 mi