PASSAGES the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio Winter 1986 Vol
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TEXAS ~----------------------------~ PASSAGES The University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio Winter 1986 Vol. 1, No.1 From Happenings to Passages Letter written by Sam Houston Gravesite in Union Cemetery, Eastland, County to his daughter Nannie Label from recording made Fourth of July celebration, Karnes City, 1914 in San Antonio during the 1930's The names of institutional These difficulties in the task of Texas need come from a magazine newsletters usually cover a variety naming, and our hope to win you ad or television commercial. of sins. The choosers of such names as readers of this newsletter, prompt The enormous amount of sheer must avoid things that offend their this slight offering of explanation for movement that characterizes Texas readers, either by being too bland our new title, Passages, and of its history and culture flows into Pas and noncommittal or too esoteric. future contents. It is, if you will, sages. Passages are the actions of Hence, if an association of spiders a justification. travelers and the places they tread - decided to publish a newsletter, they The celebrations and solemni explorers of New Spain (who left us might choose 'The Spider Newslet ties which mark human existence names such as EI Paso), immigrants ter" or 'Arachne;' but would more are passages - rites of passage, birth, crossing the Red River or landing at likely descend upon something like marriage, death. In a state like Texas, Galveston, cowboys driving cattle "The Spinner" - the assumption where the variety of ethnic and reli herds up the Chisholm Trail, mi being, of course, that readers would gious traditions makes even broadly grant workers threading their way immediately see the connection be human activities hard to compre up from the Valley. Even the urban tween spinning and spiders, and hend, keeping track of rites of pas commuters who may someday soon proclaim the sagacity of the editors ride bullet trains between Texas sage and the hundreds of other fes in choosing such a clever name. cities and the tourists who scuttle tivities and celebrations is a big job. The Institute of Texan Cultures through massive airports are, in the A pinata-breaking at a children's is a grand name, but a little too long old phrase, "taking passage:' birthday party, a wedding march in to prefix to the blandness of "News The written and spoken word letter:' Sometimes, too, the name a Cajun dance hall and a gravesite forms other passages, in books, in seems a bit esoteric; judging by the in a Panhandle cemetery neatly scriptions, newspapers, letters, dia number of times it is misspelled, lined with clamshells all symbolize ries, sermons, speeches, legends. that may be the case. A name like the passages of lives. Celebrations Passages emerge, too, from music, "Ethnologist" or "Cultural Advertis expand from individuals to families and from film and television. Every er" would not enlighten many read and communities, and provide the day scribblings and artistic expres ers either. Above all, however, the special times for commonality and sions gathered from one time and need here is to avoid suffixing some confrontation. Frontier days, EI place become historical evidence thing corny or pedestrian to the Cinco de Mayo and Juneteenth re or accepted fictions - in another. name of the state. mind us that not every image of From the Chinese writer, circa 2200 Passages, cont. from pg. 1 B.C., whose work may describe West Texas, to collections of La Llorona legends, to phonographic recordings of Lightnin' Hopkins and crisp tran scriptions of NASA astronaut ex changes, quoted passages echo from document to history book, from Antonio Rodriguez Mederos: speech to disk, and back again. Things - a carved cane, a bas Early Texas Entrepreneur ket, a quilt, a musical instrument are the final reminders of the pas and Politician sage of peoples, to be found and by Gerald E. Poyo handled, and to give tangible form to memory. Everyday happenings In 1731 Antonio Rodriguez Me (Spanish-Indian) population in the and once-in-a-lifetime spectacles deros at 18 years was the youngest presidial community. Predictably, ultimately become passages: the member of the cabildo (town coun the original settlers who lost lands things that happen, pass, pass on. cil) of the newly established Villa de and rights to the newcomers pro Texans move through ritual, expres San Fernando, the present-day city tested this usurpation. Conflict was sion, things and events in passages. of San Antonio. A contemporary inevitable, and during the next 20 As fieldworkers, archival re document describes him as having years, while the early settlers strug searchers, teachers and speakers, a "fair complexion, pitted with gled to obtain rights as legitimate Institute staff members and volun small-pox, grey eyes, chestnut hair vecinos (citizens) of San Fernando, teers take passage around the state. and eyebrows, [and with a] mole on the islenos slowly confronted the The things they discover in their the right cheek:' Rodriguez was political and economic realities of travels, upcoming Institute projects named mayordomo de los propios the frontier. It was an arduous pro and items of interest to many sorts (administrator of public lands), but cess of community integration. of Texans will appear in these pages, during the 1740's he rose to promi Rodriguez helped to further this occasionally supplemented by no nence as procurador (town attor integration in a fashion which pro tices of good reading (or viewing) ney), alcalde (mayor/ judge) and duced some direct results. As town materials and articles from other regidor decano (senior alderman) to attorney and senior alderman dur publications. A calendar listing of become an important and influential ing the 1740's, he provided the pre Institute events will also appear. official. Unlike most political figures sidial community with opportuni So come, take passage with us! in the villa, Rodriguez used his pow ties to present their grievances to -J.C.M. er to promote a politically and eco crown authorities in Mexico City. nomically unified and integrated But his actions alienated his col community in San Antonio. leagues on the cabildo, who for the Texas Passages is published Rodriguez, his wife Josefa and most part opposed giving up their quarterly by The University of Texas her parents, Manuel de Niz and royally bestowed prerogatives. As Institute of Texan Cultures at San Sebastiana de la Pena, were among one of the legal documents in the Antonio as an informational re a group of 56 Canary Islanders who Bexar County Archives explains: "It source on subjects related to Texas arrived at the presidio (military out is true that the enmity which his history and culture as well as current post) of San Antonio de Bexar in [Rodriguez's] fellow countrymen issues affecting the state. Comments March 1731. They founded their have long harbored against him and suggestions concerning the pub villa near the military garrison and originated with a petition which, lication should be directed to the five mission establishments, and through the dictates of his con Office of News and Information, joined in the effort to secure the science, he presented ... in order The Institute of Texan Cultures, P.o. Box 1226, San Antonio, Texas 78294, province for the Spanish crown. to put an end to the unjust litigations (512) 226-7651. As part of their agreement with which this villa had instituted the king to settle in Texas, the Ca against the missions, the settlers, Editors: Jo Eckerman, Director of nary Islanders were granted the title and the captain of this jurisdiction:' News and Information of hidalgos (nobles), received exclu In 1750 Rodriguez was forced James C. McNutt, Director sive control of the cabildo and from office and temporarily impris of Research gained virtual monopoly over the oned. He then retired from political Contributing Authors: Gerald E. land and water rights in the area. In life and apparently lived out his Poyo, Research Associate addition, they brought with them days as a vecino in San Antonio, but David Haynes, Director of the attitude that as pure-blooded by the time of his death (sometime Production Spaniards they were socially supe after 1762) Canary Islander institu rior to the predominantly mestizo tional privilege had eroded. A fron- 2 This map of Bexar, reconstructed from the original documents by John 0. Leal, Bexar County archivist: and ' f' drawn by San Antonio artist Julian ~ C. Mungia, shows the presidio and f.: villa between the San Antonio River r and San Pedro Creek. The town was ,f built in customary Spanish fashion around a main plaza (Plaza de las Islas). Structures included the San Fernando Church, the Casas Reales JIL (government houses), the jail and '!b. , . homes of the original vecinos. A / :' .. t , rZ11 - ..... ...:. grain market building (designated Custom House on the map) was " . envisioned but never built. Original ' . ' , ,,'6 ., . ..~ :1!,. homesites were assigned by the '4: ,_:11-. presidio captain, Juan Antonio Perez de Almazan. In later years a home on the main plaza was an indication of social status in the community. tier elite continued to control the men ted his cane and corn growing personally in their construction, cabildo and community economic activities in the 1730's by directing since he has not permitted his pride resources, but its membership was the construction of the Mission as senior regidor to prevent his no longer exclusively isleno nor Concepci6n irrigation ditch. He later taking up the trowel in his work ethnically Spanish. helped in other acequia projects, and many times:' One might wonder why Rodri evidence suggests he may also have Clearly Rodriguez established guez pursued goals in the cabildo supervised a number of construction good relations with the broader that led to his political demise.