The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 107, July 2003 - April, 2004 Page: 11
660 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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2003 Sacred Space, Profane Reality 11
On February 17, 1738, governor of Texas Prudencio de Orobio y
Basterra, parish priest Recio de Le6n, and members of the town coun-
cil reviewed the best site for the church that was to serve both the town
residents and presidial soldiers. No doubt, the town survey made in July
1731 determined the placement of the church building. That survey
used the "spot designated as the door of the church" as the center of
the town, the point of reference for public and private lots. The town
council appointed chief constable (alguacil mayor) Vicente Alvarez
Travieso and Francisco Jose de Arocha as the overseers (mayordomos) for
its construction.4 Dedicated to Nuestra Sefiora de la Candelaria (The
Virgin of Candlemas), Our Lady of Guadalupe, San Fernando (King of
Spain) for the villa, and San Antonio for the presidio and first mission,
the church was to face east and be located between the main plaza and
the presidio. Although information is contradictory, the cornerstone
was laid most likely on May 11, 1738, or perhaps May 1. Thus, a few
short years after the arrival of the Islefios, town leaders began to con-
struct their largest building. The town council decided that the build-
ing should be 30 varas (83.325 feet) in length and 6 varas (16.665 feet)
in width, should be similar to the church of Mission San Antonio de
Valero, and have a sacristy and baptistry.25
The first fervor for the church's construction gave way to the hard
reality of too little money and too few laborers. Among the latter were
four Indians from Mission San Antonio de Valero, who each received
two reales a day for their work. A succeeding Franciscan friar at the mis-
sion, however, rescinded permission for the Indians to continue working
24 Governor from 1737 to 1740/41, Orobio y Basterra was a merchant of Saltillo and the for-
mer alcalde mayor of Parras, see Marion A. Habig, "Orobio y Basterra, Prudenclo de" in The New
Handbook of Texas, IV, 1168-69. See also "The Grant and First Survey," 85 (quotation).
Biographical sketches of Alvarez Travleso and Arocha are in Benito Fernmndez [de Santa Anna],
"Memorial of Father Benito Fernandez concerning the Canary Islanders, 1741," trans. Benedict
Leutenegger, introduction and notes by Marion A. Habig and Barnabas Diekemper, Southwestern
Historical Quarterly, 82 (Jan., 1979), 266 n.4 and n.5.
2 The vara in Texas is assumed to be 33.33 inches, although it was not uniform throughout
the Spanish era. The proviso that the civilian church be similar to that of Valero is nebulous
since the mission's first stone church was not begun until 1744. Was a plan for the church of
Mission Valero known in 1738? Habig, The Alamo Chain, 259, asserts that the comparison was to
Valero's adobe church of the 1730s.
Carlos E. Castafieda, Our Catholzc Heritage, III, 94-95, correctly questioned Frederick C.
Chabot's assertion in San Antonio and Its Beginnings (San Antonio: Artes Graficas Printing Co.,
1936), 103, that the cornerstone of the church was laid on May 13, 1734. Not surprisingly,
Castafieda was unable to verify the date of 1734. The date of the event, however, is given as May
11, 1738, in a document dated May 2 [!], 1738; a copyist's error, seemingly, obfuscates the cor-
rect date. Nacogdoches Archives, I, 68-86 (Archives Division, Texas State Library); transcripts
(CAH); cited hereafter as NAC-T. Citations to the transcripts have been verified against the origi-
nal Spanish manuscripts reproduced in The Nacogdoches Archives (microfilm, 27 reels; Texas
State Archives, Austin; cited hereafter as NAC), reel lo; Bar6n de Rapperdi [and others], Feb. 7,
1771, and continuing documentation through Jan. 9, 1788, NAC-T, V, 27-46, 46a-46s. Indeed,
the contradiction between the two dates of May 1738 lies in the original document.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 107, July 2003 - April, 2004, periodical, 2004; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101224/m1/29/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.