For over a century, Texas public schools have attempted to acculturate Mexican-American children by denigrating Mexican-American culture, language, and history. These efforts have largely failed, as Mexican-Americans in Texas have not lost their cultural heritage and assimilated into the larger society. However, this ethnic group has been shorn of its historical heritage and pride by the distorted history presented in school, a fact that continues to doom many Mexican-American children to school failure. Chapter I of this dissertation examines the history of the American public school as an acculturating agency, discusses a pluralistic approach to education, and reviews public policy and attitudes toward immigrants since 1900. Chapter II discusses the "lost past" of Mexican-Americans, and compares Mexican and Anglo accounts of the Texas revolution, the Alamo, and Texan independence. Chapter III presents evidence of the institutional invisibility of Mexican-Americans, and describes the treatment of Mexican-Americans after Texan independence, the exploits of Mexican-American militant Juan Cortinas--a folk hero of the period, and the dual approach to schooling begun at this time. Chapter IV examines Mexican-American participation in the Civil War and parochial education of Mexican-American children from 1850 to 1870. Chapter V discusses the development of free public education by the 1880s, and de facto segregation of Mexican-Americans due to demographic patterns of spatial separation. This dissertation contains 208 references. (SV)