An officer of “The Saldado de Cuera”. For over a century they defended all of New Spain’s frontier including Mexico. Their name comes from the armor they wore, which consisted of a jacket made from seven layers of cured buckskin.
In 1731 fifteen families from the Canary Islands arrived at the Spanish presidio on the San Antonio River to establish the first civil settlement in Texas. The Islanders were a volunteer group, financed by their King, Philip V, to assert Spanish possession in the New World. The journey took almost a year, with rest-stops at Havana, Vera Cruz, and Saltillo and at San Antonio, they were provided with supplies, domestic animals, and allowances for one year. The observers named their settlement the Villa de San Fernando in honor of Philip’s son, Don Fernando, Prince of Asturias, who succeeded his father n 1746. After platting their townsite, plowing, planting the fields and building their Church of San Fernando, they held the first free election in Bexar, naming Juan Leal Goraz the first mayor. The name of the township was legally changed in 1837 to San Antonio de Bexar.
To these noble founders who were the first settlers in all of Texas, the State of Texas owes its legacy of Spanish culture, the basis for their laws, and the first language of Texas, Spanish, to Las Canarias. The City of San Antonio owes its traditions of festivals and feasting also to Las Canarias!
(Source: from the historical collection of the Omni, La Mansión del Rio Hotel on the Riverwalk.)
