SanAnto History & Culture
Tejanos Under Spain Supported the American Revolution
Spanish Tejanos Support American Revolution
Abridged Version
A few weeks after the Fourth of July, some in San Antonio honored Spanish Texas’ role in the American Revolution by celebrating the birthday of Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana who aided the American cause.
Gálvez led successful military campaigns against the British and relied on support from Texas, including cattle and horse drives from Béxar. One key figure in those drives was Joseph Félix Menchaca, a senior military officer in San Antonio.
Spanish soldiers in Texas were also settlers, providing defense while farming and ranching. Their communities, like San Fernando, were shaped by a mix of soldier-settlers and Canary Islanders.
Trade routes during the war shifted from Saltillo to Louisiana, where goods were cheaper. Tejanos supported Gálvez's efforts and, over time, developed a distinct sense of identity and independence.
Because of this legacy, July is remembered as more than just America’s Independence Month — it also honors Texas’ deep and unique role in that struggle.
A Bountiful San Antonio River Has Always Attracted People Here
The San Antonio River was christened 307 years ago tomorrow
(March 3), the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua. The river "is as
bountiful," one missionary remarked, "as its namesake is generous in
answering prayers."
Calling the San Antonio River "bountiful" seems
somewhat overstated to us today. It's barely a stream; in fact, water has to be
pumped into it daily. But that's because daily millions of gallons are drawn
for irrigation from the aquifer that feeds it.
In the late 1600s and early 1700s, however, the river and
the San Pedro Creek were bountiful indeed, supporting seven towns; the five
missionary-led Indian pueblos (missions); the soldier-settler Presidio de
Béxar; the civilian community of San Fernando.
These towns were settled by area natives and by peoples
moving northward from central Mexico. This population movement was driven by
powerful socio-economic and demographic forces set in motion since the
conquest.
The movement of mestizos, Indians, and Spaniards northward
in the 1700s has been overshadowed by the involvement of Spanish imperial
objectives, which were carried out by the missionaries, the military, and the
officials who organized the civilian towns.
These objectives were designed to counter intrusions into
the area by the French who were determined, in the 1680s, to control trade with
the Indians along the Mississippi Valley.
To this end, Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, set off
from Canada down the Illinois River in 1681, then down the Mississippi to the
Gulf of Mexico. Subsequently, he persuaded the court in Paris that the French
should have a foothold at the mouth of the Mississippi in order to reach the
silver mines of northern New Spain. Eventually, the French managed to build
Fort Saint-Louis on the Texas coast.
The Spaniards responded in 1689 with an expedition that
found the fort sacked and the soldiers and their families massacred. The
discovery of the French presence led to the Spanish government's decision to
establish a buffer line of forts in east Texas.
The missionaries seized on this geopolitical objective to
carry out their own goal: the Christianization of the Caddoan peoples in that
area. But these Native Americans did not move into the missions.
The friars’ hope remained, as did the Spanish government’s
objective to protect this frontier. Thus,
the settlement of the headwaters of the San Antonio River.
This area, with its many hunters and gatherers, seemed an
excellent location for the missionary-led towns. So, eventually, in 1718, the
Spaniards established five Indian pueblos and a mestizo soldier-settler town
here.
Civilians arrived from the Canary Islands in 173l to form
their own community. They were later joined by other Mexican-born settlers.
Originally, the San Antonio settlement was to serve as a half-way station to
East Texas establishments, but the towns here quickly became the heart of
Spanish Texas.
The international rivalries that prompted Spanish
expeditions to the area - and occasioned the naming of the San Antonio River on
June 13, 1691 - gave way to the northward movement of peoples and the formation
of the San Antonio community.
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