History of Texas: forming community in San Antonio - Essay Example

San Antonio After having experienced several years of succeeding indigenous cultures, Payaya Indians had t coalesce as people. As such, they lived adjacent to the San Antonio River Valley. A Spanish explorer (Cabeza de Vaca) visited the area that was later named Texas in 1536. This led to the emergence of several expeditions on the Texas region by majority of the Spanish. These expeditions focused on the possibility of establishing settlements in this region. Fray Antonio was the most significant contributor towards these expeditions who encouraged authorities to focus on establishment of missions in San Antonio River.

Fray Antonio later wrote to New Spain Viceroy in 1716 on plans and hopes of future missions and families settlements. This was approved by the Viceroyalty, which created an opportunity for the engagement in the mission. This granted an opportunity for the Fray Antonio to organize the first missions in the area. As such, buildings and construction works started in the region courtesy of the missionaries, and this made San Antonio to grow to be one of the biggest Spanish settlements in Texas. Several accounts argue that the 1731 arrival of Canary Islanders was the foundation date of San Antonio.

But this was not the case since a sizeable community “Islenos” had already arrived in the area. The soldiers had their base in local mestizo and Presidio population and provided the needed support since 1718 after the first arrival of the missionaries. However, the new community interacted effectively with the soldiers and there was no distinction between the two groups, which resulted in intermarriage. In his article, De la Teja argues that the formation of San Antonio society was based on the response that people in this community developed.

As such, people depicted shared dangers, limited economic opportunities and isolation on the frontier. This had the consequence of making the people to forge strong kinship ties, which resulted in the emergence of a dynamic community. San Antonio also formed a community association, which was aimed at improving the quality of life for all the community members in this region. Works CitedDe la Teja, Jesus. “Indians, soldiers and canary islanders: the making of a Texas frontiercommunity”. Locus 3 (1): (1990) 81-96.