From the Handbook of Texas online (edited for length): (
visit link)
ZAVALA, LORENZO DE (1788–1836). Manuel Lorenzo Justiniano de Zavala y Sáenz, first vice president of the Republic of Texas, . . . was born in the village of Tecoh near Mérida, Yucatán, on October 3, 1788. He founded and edited several newspapers in which he expressed those democratic ideas that were to be the hallmark of his political career. His support of democratic reforms in Mexico led to his imprisonment in 1814. He taught himself to read English and learned medicine from medical textbooks while jailed. He was released in 1817, but continued his role in Mexican politics.
After serving as secretary of the provincial assembly of Yucatán in 1820, Zavala went to Madrid in 1821 as a deputy to the Spanish Cortes. Upon his return to Mexico, he joined the leaders of the new nation in establishing a republican government.
From 1822 until 1834 he was one of the nation's most active political leaders, representing Yucatán as a deputy in the First and Second Mexican Constituent congresses of 1822 and 1824 and in the Mexican Senate from 1824 to 1826. In the following two years Zavala served intermittently as governor of the state of Mexico.
When Vicente Ramón Guerrero became president, Zavala was appointed secretary of the treasury and served from April to October 1829. When the Centralist party, led by Vice President Anastacio Bustamante, ousted Guerrero late in the year, Zavala, a strong Federalist, was forced into exile in the United States.
Upon his arrival in New York, Zavala sought to interest eastern capitalists in the empresario grants he had received before his exile, which authorized him to settle 500 families in a huge tract of land in what is now southeastern Texas.
Zavala resided in New York City until he returned to Mexico in the summer of 1832. From December 1832 until October 1833 he again served as governor of the state of Mexico, before returning to the Congress as a deputy for his native state of Yucatán.
Named by President Antonio López de Santa Anna in October 1833 to serve as the first minister plenipotentiary of the Mexican legation in Paris, he reported to that post in the spring of 1834. When he learned that Santa Anna had assumed dictatorial powers in April of that year, Zavala denounced his former ally and resigned from his diplomatic assignment.
Disregarding Santa Anna's orders to return to Mexico City, he traveled to New York and then to Texas, where he arrived in July 1835. From the day of his arrival, he was drawn into the political caldron of Texas politics. He became an active supporter of the independence movement; he served in the Permanent Council and later as the representative of Harrisburg (now Houston) in the Texas Consultation and the Convention of 1836.
Zavala's legislative, executive, ministerial, and diplomatic experience, together with his education and linguistic ability, uniquely qualified him for the role he was to play in the drafting of the constitution of the Republic of Texas. His advice and counsel earned him the respect of his fellow delegates, who elected him ad interim vice president of the new republic.
In the weeks after adjournment of the convention, Zavala rejoined his family at their home at Zavala Point on Buffalo Bayou, from where they fled to Galveston Island as Santa Anna's army pursued Zavala and other cabinet members across Texas.
Shortly after the battle of San Jacinto established Texas' independence from Mexico, Zavala returned to his home on Buffalo Bayou (near Houston). His health declined, causing him to resign the vice presidency on October 17, 1836. Less than a month later, he died on November 15, 1836." [end]