José Francisco Ruiz

José Francisco Ruiz (c. 28 January 1783 – 19 January 1840) was a Tejano military officer, schoolmaster, diplomat, ethnographer, and politician. Born in San Antonio de Béxar under Spanish rule, he fought as an insurgent in the Mexican War of Independence, and was forced into exile in Louisiana, where he traded among the Comanches and Lipan Apaches.

After Mexican independence he was commissioned in the Mexican Army, rising to captain with the rank of lieutenant colonel, founded and commanded Fort Tenoxtitlán, and served as a commissioner between the Mexican government and several Indigenous tribes. A federalist who had wanted Texas self-governing within Mexico, he concluded by 1835 that Mexico could not govern itself and supported separation.

Age and health kept him off the field during the Texas Revolution. On 2 March 1836, he and his nephew José Antonio Navarro became the only native-born Texans to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence. He then served as senator for the Bexar District in the First Congress of the Republic of Texas.