National Hispanic Heritage Month is a celebration of the contributions of Latinos to U.S. history, culture, and society observed annually between September 15 and October 15, a time of many historical mileposts in the Americas. The observance emphasizes the deep historical imprint of Hispanic cultures on the United States and honors the place of Latinos in the contemporary American melting pot, where they number over 55 million. In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’ll focus for several weeks on the impact of Hispanic historical figures in Texas. We’ll also be participating in the Tejano Genealogy Society of Austin’s 2017 Conference, including providing tours of the GLO Archives, September 28–30.

Long before that fateful day in March 1836, and long before Mexican troops renamed it “El Álamo” after their company and sequestered its buildings and walls, Mission San Antonio de Valero served as a place of worship for the indigenous population of the region.

Compromise between the missions and the cabildo of San Fernando de Béxar pertaining to the limits of the settlement and resolution of other disputes, 14 August 1745, Box 122, Folder 5, Records of the Spanish Collection, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin.

There, mission friars followed centuries of traditions of educating, protecting, and defending their flock. As crown-appointed “protectors,” friars provided legal counsel and representation in civil matters.

This document from the holdings of the Spanish Collection at the Texas General Land Office offers a window into the various legal representations afforded by the friars on behalf of the indigenous peoples of Mission Valero.[1]

As the Villa of San Fernando de Béxar grew, individual factions vied for the survival of their vested interests, especially in regards to land ownership. Although this document does not delve into the root of their discords, evidence supports that a long-standing conflict existed over special privileges from the crown.[2]

The isleños (Canary Islanders), who had arrived in the 1730s and founded the town, claimed the title of original settlers for themselves, regardless of the fact that other families living near the presidio, friars, and indigenous peoples had already made the San Antonio area their home. Their economic situation notwithstanding, first settlers controlled posts at town councils and access to land, pasture, and water, which often “endowed them with high social status” within the community.[3] As such, colonists vied for viceregal dispensations of farmland and indigenous labor, both of which were essential to the survival of both Mission and town. By the early 1740s, the residents’ encroachment of Mission Valero’s lands had led to bickering between the governing body of the town, the friars, and the captains of the presidio.

This document, penned by Francisco Joseph de Arocha, the royal notary, outlines some of the main grievances voiced by town residents and by the Mission Valero friars.

According to Arocha, the members of the Ayuntamiento (municipal council) had pursued three issues:

the presidio captains buy the corn harvested by the town residents;

the friars allow the Indians to work the farmlands;

the Indians (and with them, Mission Valero) be relocated elsewhere to prevent further damage to the residents’ plowed fields, which they blamed on the Indians’ unfenced farm animals.

In his response, the president of the Franciscan friars, Friar Benito Fernández de Santa Anna, noted that the Indians enjoyed the protection of various “causes, reasons, privileges, and laws” that safeguarded them from forced employ by the townspeople and that the Royal Tribunal in Mexico City had ruled against moving the mission.

On August 14, 1745, as the future site of the Battle of the Alamo was still under construction, the parties agreed to reconcile their differences. Despite the advantages each side stood to gain if they pressed their cases to the Viceroy, the representatives from each faction gathered at the Cabildo homes to agree on the future of San Antonio. In ceding to each other’s demands through their own “spontaneous will,” the friars of Mission Valero and the town council of San Fernando sought to form a better union.

For their part, the friars renounced their claims to the lands on which the town had been built. In return, the town council agreed to create a buffer zone between them and the mission and established the home of Juan Banul as the boundary of the town.[4] The only exception allowed in the treaty would be the construction of a church or any public building that would not impede the work of the mission. More importantly, to prevent any further discord between the town and the mission, both groups surveyed the land, established clear boundaries between them and promised to respect any prior and future ruling from the viceroys.

As the town continued to grow in both importance and size, and as the population at the Mission began to falter, the treaty gave way to the town’s demand for vacant land. In the 1760s, residents of the town began to settle the Potrero area between the Mission and San Fernando.[5] Eventually, the secularization of Mission Valero in 1793 helped to ease some of the pressure from the population growth.

Despite the short life of the treaty, during those middle years of growth and settlement of San Antonio de Béxar, the residents of both San Fernando and Mission Valero enjoyed a period of relative “peace, union, and conformity.”