I grew up in South Texas in a small town just a short drive from Kingsville.

Like Kingsville, the area has a rich prehistory.

I have always been interested in the lost native peoples, the settlement by the Spaniards and later, the businessmen who prospered from the oil boom.

Texas is such a large state that the most northern city, Texarkana, is actually closer to Chicago than it is to the most southern city, Brownsville.

It’s identity as a state largely overlooks South Texas, its native peoples, and the Spanish influence. I’ve even had people tell me that when they think of South Texas, they imagine everyone speaks Spanish.

To walk through this area means scratched arms and legs, snakes, mosquitoes and intense heat.

Curious about these native peoples, I learned that they were tougher than I could ever imagine.

Called Coahuiltecans, these people did not exist in tribes with hierarchies, but rather traveled in relatively small groups. Before the Spaniards spread diseases, they were hunters and gatherers who enjoyed a prosperous life in the lush environment of the Little Ice Age.

They often lived in portable huts called wikiups. Made of twigs and thin, bendable branches, the frame bent into a small dome with the sticks settled directly in the dirt. The branches were tied together with strips of animal skins and covered with branches, animal skins, or large leaves. Cooking was done outside and they usually lived near streams or lakes.

After diseases spread, the population dwindled and the climate changed all at the same time. Coahuiltecans became people who wore little if any clothing because the climate was so extreme. They no longer used wikiups because that took too much energy and most of their efforts went into searching for food and water.

They constantly faced water shortages as many of the rivers, streams and lakes had dried up.

They were forced to the most desperate means of survival, eating anything they could find. It is no surprise that these people assimilated to the Spanish culture and converted to Christianity when housing, meals and stability were offered.

While the Spanish missionaries didn’t have much, they had much more than the Coahuiltecans.

These native peoples went extinct by the end of the 1800’s. Still, they no doubt have current descendents.

The earliest Mexican families preferred to build with blocks of caliche or limestone because this was the best material for insulation.

Masons hand cut these blocks to about eleven inches wide, eight inches thick and twenty-four inches long from deposits of hard caliche from around the banks of the river. Builders created smooth walls with white stucco.

It wasn’t until about 1900 that wood became easily obtainable through local lumberyards.

Wooden two-story homes became more common among the more wealthy families.

Shutters were very popular since they blocked out the sun, but allowed the breeze in, cooling the inside.

Many houses were set on post pilings called peones, which were used as foundation supports for many of these homes. The peones raised the house about a foot and a half off the ground.

The open space below the home served two purposes.

It allowed air circulation below, which cooled down the house, and it also kept out rattlesnakes and rodents. Houses also had fences to keep out wild animals that sometimes wondered into town from the nearby brush.

In San Diego, George Parr’s “mansion” now sits near one of its main streets. It is a two-story house with a smaller first story since there are two driveways for his automobiles. The second story has the majority of rooms.

By today’s standards, it is a sizeable home with beautiful Spanish arches, but contrasted with the house my grandfather grew up in, it is indeed a mansion.

Driving through the landscape of South Texas today, it might be easy for someone to pass through and see the area as architecturally insignificant, but I disagree.

We live in an area with a rich cultural history and a diversity of architecture. Not everybody speaks Spanish.