HistoricSiteMarkers
Colonial America

The Canary Islanders

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Earliest civilian colonists of San Antonio, this nucleus of pioneers from the Canary Islands formed the first organized civil government in Texas and founded the village of San Fernando de Bexar in 1731. Following a sea and land voyage of over a year, these weary travelers arrived at the Presidio (Fort) of San Antonio early on March 9, 1731. Totaling 56 persons, they had emigrated to Texas from the Spanish Canary Islands near Africa, by order of King Philip V. On July 2, they began to lay out a villa (village), choosing a site on the west side of the Plaza de las Islas (present Main Plaza) for the church and a site on the east side for the Casa Reales (government building). On July 9, the captain of the Presidio, Juan Antonio De Almazan, read to the islanders the decee of the viceroy naming them and their descendants "Hijos Dalgos", persons of nobility. The heads of the 16 families who settled in San Antonio were: Juan Leal Goraz, Juan Curbelo, Juan Leal, Antonio Santos, Jose Padron, Manuel De Nis, Vicente Alvarez Travieso, Salvador Rodriguez, Jose Leal, Juan Delgado, Jose Cabrera, Juan Rodriguez Grandillo, Francisco De Arocha, Antonio Rodriguez, Lorenzo and Martin De Armas, and Felipe and Jose Antonio Perez. (1971)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

In 1731, fifty-six colonists sent by King Philip V arrived at the San Antonio presidio after more than a year's journey from the Canary Islands, becoming the town's first civilian settlers. They laid out the villa of San Fernando de Bexar around a central plaza, siting a church and government house, and formed the first organized civil government in Texas. By royal decree they and their descendants were declared hijos dalgo, persons of nobility.

Why it matters

These families founded the first municipal government in what became Texas, seeding a Spanish civic and cultural legacy that still shapes San Antonio today.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

In the early eighteenth century, Spain held a vast and thinly settled frontier across what is now the American Southwest. Texas sat at the far northeastern edge of New Spain, guarded by scattered presidios (forts) and missions but almost entirely without civilian towns. The Spanish crown worried that empty land was vulnerable land, especially with French ambitions pressing from the east.

To anchor its claim, Spain needed not just soldiers and missionaries but ordinary settlers — families who would farm, build houses, and form a permanent civil community. This was a deliberate policy of colonization, and it reached all the way to the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago off the coast of Africa, where the crown recruited colonists willing to make an extraordinary journey to the other side of the world.

The San Antonio these colonists reached in 1731 was a frontier outpost, not a town: a presidio and nearby missions along the river, surrounded by the open country of Spanish Texas. What they were asked to do was nothing less than plant the first organized civilian settlement in the province — to turn a military and religious frontier into a place where families could put down roots.

People & events

By order of King Philip V, a party of colonists set out from the Canary Islands, enduring a sea and land voyage of more than a year before arriving, weary, at the Presidio of San Antonio early on March 9, 1731. They numbered fifty-six people — men, women, and children — who had crossed an ocean to build a town from nothing.

They did not rest for long. On July 2 they began laying out their villa, choosing a site on the west side of what is now Main Plaza (the Plaza de las Islas) for the church, and a spot on the east side for the Casas Reales, the government building. In doing so they founded San Fernando de Béxar and established the first organized civil government in Texas.

On July 9, the presidio's captain, Juan Antonio de Almazán, read the colonists the viceroy's decree naming them and their descendants *hijos dalgo* — persons of nobility. The sixteen family heads who settled here are named on the marker, among them Juan Leal Goraz, Juan Curbelo, Vicente Álvarez Travieso, and Francisco de Arocha. These were ordinary people granted an extraordinary status, and their family names would echo through San Antonio's history for generations.

Its place in the American story

This is a founding story of civic America told in a Spanish and Catholic key — a reminder that organized government on what became United States soil did not begin only with English colonists on the Atlantic seaboard. Decades of Spanish civil life were taking shape in the Southwest at the same time, and San Antonio is one of its clearest monuments.

The Canary Islanders created the first municipal government in what is now Texas. The plaza they laid out, with a church on one side and a government house on the other, still organizes the heart of downtown San Antonio today. That continuity — a living city center rooted in a 1731 town plan — is remarkably rare in American urban history.

Their legacy is also cultural. The Spanish civic institutions, family lines, and traditions these settlers established became a foundation of San Antonio's identity, one that endured through Spanish rule, Mexican independence, the Texas Republic, and statehood. To understand the deep Hispanic roots of the American Southwest, you begin with families like these.

If you visit

Come to Main Plaza in downtown San Antonio and orient yourself the way the colonists did in 1731: a place for the church on one side, the seat of government on the other. Standing here, you're in the very heart of the town they planned — one of the oldest continuously used public spaces in the country.

Let the scale of the journey settle over you. These families spent more than a year traveling from islands off the coast of Africa to reach this spot, and then set immediately to the work of surveying streets and marking out lots. The monument names the sixteen founding households; read them slowly, and know that many San Antonians today trace their families back to these names.

A visit here fits naturally into a walk through Spanish colonial San Antonio, a city where the missions, the river, and the old plaza tell a story centuries older than most people expect from Texas. Take your time, and let this be the place where that longer story begins.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

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Related people

  • · King Philip V
  • · Juan Leal Goraz
  • · Juan Antonio De Almazan

Themes & tags

ImmigrationFrontier HistoryMonument

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