twenty plowshares, ten comales,20 and ten field tents.21
On November 8, 1730, under the authority of the viceroy, Don Juan, marquess of Casa Fuerte, a representative undertook an official accounting of the islander families. At that time, they consisted of fifteen families and four single men who were grouped together officially as the sixteenth “family.” The total persons listed numbered fifty-six.
The Rodriguez family was officially listed as the eighth family and consisted of Salvador and Maria Rodriguez, both aged forty-two, and their son, Patricio, aged fifteen. The others listed were the families of, in order, Juan Leal Goraz, Juan Curbelo, Juan Leal, el Mozo Antonio Santos, Joseph Padron, Manuel de Niz, Vicente Álvarez Travieso, Francisco de Arocha, Antonio Rodriguez, Joseph Leal, Juan Delgado, Joseph Cabrera, Maria Rodriguez-Provayna, and Mariana Meleano. The sixteenth family was made up of the four adult, unmarried men: Phelipe Perez, Joseph Antonio Perez, Martin Lorenzo de Armas, and Ignacio Lorenzo de Armas. Each of the fifty-six persons making up the sixteen families was paid eighteen pesos, equivalent to two months of advanced wages.22
The islanders remained in Quantitlan until November 15, when they continued on their challenging journey towards their new home on the San Antonio River. The Spanish government had mapped out their traveling route, leading them through San Luis Potosi to the villa of Santiago del Saltillo de la Nueva Vizcaya, where they arrived on January 28, 1731. Captain Don Mathias de Aguirre greeted them. Having found the group of weary settlers to be short of provisions, losing their horses to exhaustion, and loaned mules returned to their owners, he notified the group that he had been authorized by the viceroy to restock their supplies adequately. In total, eighty-six horses were given to the group, alongside seventy-seven mules, loaded with provisions to sustain them for the rest of their journey. Of those mules, twenty-seven were loaded down with meat, biscuits, and other foodstuffs; also, four mules were used to carry four cargas de arganas, or panniers.23 Additionally, sixteen yokes of oxen were given, one for each family and one for the group of single men collectively referred to as the sixteenth family.24
They continued on their journey traveling north ever closer to their new home, stopping at the Presidio of San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande where their exhausted horses were left behind. As they grew nearer their destination, the sound of bands of Indians could be heard yelling in the distance. One particular night, near the end of their journey, the islanders were awoken by the sound of frightened horses and restless oxen. Indians had entered the camp of the sleeping travelers and were making away with horses. This raid, believed to be perpetrated by Karankawa tribesmen, took its toll on the frightened islanders. The women and children were frantic, and the men alarmed. That same night, a request was made by messenger to Captain Juan Antonio Pérez de Almazán of the Presidio at San Antonio de Béxar, requesting he send soldiers with haste. Captain Almazán dispatched twenty cavalrymen to guard the new settlers and escort them the final night and day of their journey.
In the early morning hours of March 9, 1731, the islanders began to undertake the last few miles of their trek from the Canary Islands to San Antonio de Béxar. By approximately 11:00 a.m., the wide-eyed new settlers had finally crossed the San Pedro Creek and made their way through the stockade gate that surrounded the fort, today known as San Antonio’s military plaza. It had been nearly a year since they left their homes in hopes of a new start in a new home.25
The new settlers, led by Juan Leal Goraz, presented themselves to Captain Almazán. They checked in the equipment they had been issued by Captain Aguirre previously in Saltillo. Captain Almazán received the supplies and stock goods from them as detailed in a letter received from Captain Aguirre. As a group, the settlers returned all the tools and implements, and Salvador Rodriguez, along with the heads of the other families, checked in all the equipment he and his family were issued, except for seven horses. Those horses were thoroughly worn out and had been left behind in various locations along the route.
Don Juan Antonio Bustillo y Ceballos, governor of the Spanish colony of Texas, ordered that the new settlers quarter in whatever housing may be available once they arrive at the presidio. He further ordered that current residents should assist in the caring for and tending to the islanders’ horses, oxen, and other animals until such a time that the new settlers had been taught how to tend to their livestock on their own. Every effort was to be made to ensure that the new settlers and their stock enjoyed all bounty of their lands and received all the assistance they would need to make a successful transition. Each of the fifty-six settlers would also receive four reales per day, roughly fifty cents, for the period of one year to help cover the costs of food and supplies as needed. This was so decreed by the governor and put into writing in a letter dated November 28, 1730, addressed to Captain Almazán.26
This letter, sent by Bustillo to Almazán, also contained a decree by the marquess de Casa Fuerte, Viceroy of New Spain. This viceroyal decree, also dated November 28, 1730, as read by the captain, honored the settlers, proclaiming them and their descendants, from that point on, as Hijos Dalgo, landholding nobility commonly known as hidalgos, “with all the honors and prerogatives that all landed nobles and knights of these kingdoms of Castille should have and enjoy, according to the laws and privileges of Spain.” This allowed for Salvador Rodriguez and his son to be known by the style Don Salvador and Don Patricio.27
The site of their new homes was found and planned on a low, flat hill not far from the presidio. The settlement would be named La Villa de San Fernando, in honor of Don Fernando, a Spanish prince, and the future King Ferdinand VI.28
On July 20, 1731, Juan Leal Goraz, as the eldest and most respected of the settlers, was appointed the first regidor, or councilman. Salvador Rodriguez was named the fourth regidor of a group of councilmen that totaled six. A system was devised to have an alcalde to administer justice and administrate the villa. Within two weeks, on August 1, an election was held, and Goraz was formally elected alcalde. This was historic as it was the first election in the first civil settlement in the Spanish province of Texas, creating the administration of the first municipality “legally and officially recognized by the highest authority in New Spain.”29
With their newfound status as hidalgos, the other residents of the villa begrudged the islanders, or Isleños, their status and privileges.30 The Isleños, accustomed to farming, were not very proficient with horses and knew nothing of ranching. Their reluctance to build fences was often the cause of many quarrels with their neighbors as their livestock would sometimes trample through their fields.31 By the early 1740s, the divide between the original settlers and the new Isleños narrowed as intermarriage and the necessity for closer community economic bonds became apparent. Additionally, original settlers were soon allowed to serve in municipal roles and as regidors.32
By December 31, 1788, the first formal census was conducted and referred to the municipality as the Villa de San Fernando, with the villa, surrounding settlements, the mission (commonly referred to now as the Alamo), and the presidio collectively known as San Antonio de Bexar. In 1832, Spain was ousted from Mexico, and Texas was divided into five separate regions with San Antonio de Bexar as the capital of the entire Texas province. Soon after, in 1836, the Republic of Texas Constitution reorganized the old settlements into counties, with San Antonio de Bexar lending its name to the new Bexar County. The county seat was to be the villa, which had now grown. The area’s name was simplified to San Antonio on June 5, 1837, and later, on December 14, 1837, became officially the city of San Antonio.33
In 1971, the Texas State Historical Survey Committee, later renamed the Texas Historical Commission, authorized a historical marker to be placed in the main plaza, between San Fernando Cathedral and the Bexar County Courthouse. It denoted the site where the Isleños completed their five-thousand-mile journey and made a new home.
The Isleños, including Don Salvador and his family, founded what would ultimately become the seventh largest city in the United States. Though the journey was arduous and the life they volunteered for was hard, they willingly chose to leave their island and start a new life in what would be a new world for them. Today, all Isleños are remembered for the sacrifice they made and the legacy they left.
Title of Nobility Granted to Male Canary Islanders of San Antonio, Texas, and their Descendants in Perpetuum
What follows is a translation of a portion of a certified copy