By Mary Margaret McAllen Amberson, James A. McAllen, and Margaret H. McAllen

This superb work of history tells the story of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the people who struggled to make this daunting land their home. Spanish conquistadors and Mexican revolutionaries, cowboys and ranchers, Texas Rangers and Civil War generals, entrepreneurs and empire builders are all part of this centuries-long saga, thoroughly researched and skillfully presented here.

Steamboats used the inland waterway as a major transportation route, and fortunes were made when the river served as the Confederacy's only outlet for money and munitions. Mexican presidents and revolutionaries, European empires and investors, and American cattle kings and entrepreneurs all considered this river frontier crucial. Men, women, and beasts braved the unforgiving climate of this land, and its cattle and cowboys gave rise to the great cattle drives along the Chisholm Trail to Kansas. It was, and remains, a crossroads of international cultures.

In this moving account of the history of the families of the Santa Anita land grant, almost two hundred years of the history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (1748–1940) are revealed. An important addition to any collection of Texas history, I Would Rather Sleep in Texas is one of the most complete studies of the Lower Rio Grande, abundantly illustrated with maps and photographs, many of which have never before been published.

In 1790, the Santa Anita Spanish land grant was awarded to merchant José Manuel Gómez. After the land passed to Gómez's widow, part of the grant was acquired by María Salomé Ballí, the daughter of a powerful Spanish clan. Salomé Ballí married Scotsman John Young, and her family connections, combined with his business acumen, helped assemble the Santa Anita under a single owner.

In 1859, after Young's death, Salomé struggled to hold on to her properties amid bandit raids and the wave of violence waged throughout the region by borderland caudillo Juan Nepomuceno Cortina. Soon after the beginning of the Civil War, she married Scottish-Irish immigrant John McAllen. Together, they participated in the rapid wartime cotton trade through Matamoros and had business associations with a group of men—Mifflin Kenedy, Richard King, Charles Stillman, and Francisco Yturria—who amassed fortunes that influenced businesses nationwide. Rare firsthand accounts by Salomé Ballí Young de McAllen, John McAllen, and their son, James Ballí McAllen, provide a deeper understanding of the blending of the region's frontier cultures, rowdy politics, and periodic violence.

Throughout it all, the Santa Anita remained the cornerstone of the family's business interests and stability. As the Lower Rio Grande Valley entered the modern era, land speculation drove economic activity from 1890 through 1910. The construction of railroads brought improved transportation and led to the founding of new towns, including McAllen, Texas, in 1905. The book's conclusion reveals how, in 1915, Mexican warfare once again spilled across the Rio Grande with deadly consequences, tragically affecting this family for the next twenty-five years. I Would Rather Sleep in Texas tells a remarkable story that spans a broad sweep of Texas and borderlands history.