In Texas, the 1930s Depression coincided with the preparations for the Texas Centennial of independence from Mexico (1836-1936). The Texas Legislature and local business communities tried to combine the two as they involved history and the Centennial in their efforts to attract business from the rest of the United States. With the dominant Centennial narrative about Texas and the grand values and qualities that came with it – hard work, individualism, civilization efforts and bravery – Centennial planners defined not only the Texas past, but also the state’s present and not least its future potential.
In this paper I zoom in on how this combination worked in one particular place, the small town of Gonzales. As part of the Centennial activities, the local business community worked on securing for itself a central position in the developing highway infrastructure and a long list of historical markers in and around Gonzales.
With the Gonzales case I show how business and historical narratives are part of a complex cooperation that went beyond the business community as such and included small-scale industry, ranching and commerce, but also organizations such as the local newspaper, historical clubs and the schools, whereby gender and ethnicity became involved too.
With the study of this cooperation, the Gonzales business community is placed within a broader framework of both time and space. It shows how the combination of business and history in Gonzales had its roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the local efforts of securing for the town a railroad connection and a cotton mill among other initiatives, as well as the first monuments to Texas and Southern history. With regards to space, the study shows how the cooperation draws on local and state-, but also national and transnational interactions and understandings of place.