The Canary Islanders

A New History of Old Texas

Brandon Seale

Arts, Cabeza De Vaca, The Alamo, Battle Of Medina, San Antonio Missions, Texas, Mexico, Gutierrez-magee, Education, Comanches, Apaches, Society & Culture, San Antonio, Courses, Philosophy, History

2.4 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 4 January 2018

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When sixteen Canary Island families arrived in San Antonio in March of 1731, they quickly made an impression on the small town. Their first fourteen years in San Antonio would be marked by political conflict, as they formed the first civic government and used their political savvy to advance their vision for their new home. Selected Bibliography Alessio Robles, Vito. Coahuila y Texas en la época colonial (1978). De La Teja, Jesús F., ed. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs an...

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to a new history of Old San Antonio.
0:13.3	Episode three, the Canary Islanders.
0:15.5	I'm Brandon Seal.
0:19.9	I'm a city of San Antonio. tonight I'm looking at your lovely life.
0:27.6	On March 8th, 1731, a band of 56 men, women, and children made camp on the Medina River.
0:34.6	They've been traveling now for the better part of a year, having left their homes in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1730. The Spanish crown had promised to provide them everything
0:43.0	they might need for the entire first year of their lives in their new homes here, down to
0:46.6	handkerchiefs and socks. And the crown had promised to furnish each family a yoke of oxen, five
0:51.3	breeding cows in a bull, five mares in a stallion, and farming implements, as well as a mill for their community, and a proper church for them in the
0:57.6	center of their new town. When that still wasn't enough, these hard-trading canary
1:01.7	islanders finally extracted from the king promises of land, the right to form their own government,
1:06.0	and titles a minor nobility to each head of household. Still, 11 months into the journey, it felt like meager recompense for all that they'd had to endure.
1:14.5	Four of their fellow travelers had died along the way, and one had tried to kill himself.
1:18.7	They had landed first in Havana, disembarked briefly, then boarded another ship for Veracruz,
1:23.5	from which they had moved overland, walking mostly, but a few on burros or draft animals,
1:31.8	to Mexico City, San Luis Potosi, Monterey, Saltillo, and Monclova.
1:36.1	Their numbers grew along the way as well, when a few young couples paired off,
1:39.9	a child was born, and two other Canary Islanders already in New Spain joined them.
1:48.3	But the extra bodies didn't make travel any easier or any quicker. As they neared the end of their journey, the Canary Islanders, or Isleños, as they were called,
1:52.7	couldn't help but feeling that maybe the whole enterprise was just a way for the Crown to get rid of them.
1:56.7	They had a reputation as being hearty, yet self-important and difficult to govern.
2:00.9	In their defense, to get the Crown's attention to their needs, they had to be.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Brandon Seale, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Brandon Seale and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.