January-March is stock show and rodeo time here in Texas. Beginning with Fort Worth’s in January, to San Antonio’s in February, followed by Houston’s in March, folks in this state have opportunities galore to re-call, re-connect, or just discover the heritage that began in this part of Texas…south of the Medina.
OUR AREA’S RANCHING HERITAGE DATES BACK TO MISSION SAN JOSÉ Y SAN MIGUEL DE AGUAYO
Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, better known as San José, was founded by Franciscan Father Antonio Margill in February, 1720, several miles south of The Mission San Antonio de Valero, known to day as The Alamo. Because each mission needed to be self sufficient by growing all agricultural products, both plant and animal, as well as have fabric/clothing production (wool from their sheep – no cotton yet), construction trades available from everything from metal working (Blacksmithing, for example), wood carpentry and stone masonry, to a church and housing for the religious and secular folk. Everything needed for the survival of the religious, military, and Native American inhabitants had to be produced at the Mission. There was no HEB or Home Depot around. Mother Spain was too far away and even resources from Nueva España (Mexico) were several days into weeks away. Our Mission San José came to produce enough goods to supply not only itself but four Spanish presidios, or forts, in Texas.
Each of the five San Antonio missions had their own separate ranchos for raising their horses, mules, and donkeys, sheep, goats, swine, and cattle. Mission San José’s unfenced land lay to the south and southwest of the Mission were for grazing and grazing their own herds. About 30 miles south of the Medina River. Headquartered somewhere near the Atascosa River, it was known as the mission’s Rancho El Atascoso. It provided ample space for the herds of animals needed by the Mission. One visitor, Fr. Solís, in 1768, said there were 5000 head of sheep and goats, 10 droves of horses, donkeys, and 1500 head of cattle…some for eating and some for working. That same writer said of the Pastia Indians who worked the Rancho, they “take complete charge of the ranch,” not needing European overseers. “They are industrious and diligent and skilled in all kinds of labor. They act as mule drivers, masons, and cowboys,…old men make arrows, the girls weave cloth, card wool, and sew; the old women catch fish…and the younger boys and girls go to school and recite their prayers.” The Native Americans were also said to be so polite and well mannered that they must have been civilized a long time.
LIFE AT THE MISSION AND ACCESSING THE FOOD SUPPLY FROM THEIR RANCHO ATASCOSO
Father Marion Habig, one of the San José’s historians wrote of a typical day in 1778 that better describes for us the life of this mission. Each morning, he wrote, 275 Indians attend Mass at sunrise. They then return to their stone apartments for their morning meal, a breakfast of Atole, a gruel made of roasted corn, cooked in iron kettles. Once finished, the Indians set to work at the tasks assigned them: the men go to smithy, carpenter shop, the cultivated fields while the women and girls weave cotton and wool, then make garments for all, as well as making pottery, baskets, and the meals. Indians at the Rancho must have had a similar schedule.
One historian, Father Habig, wrote, “Armed and mounted sentinels protect the agricultural workers as they keep on the lookout for any marauding bands of Apaches or Comanches. One mounted group heads south for the mission’s Rancho El Atascoso, situated between the Medina and Atascosa Rivers, some 25 miles from the mission.”
“Here at the Rancho, “he wrote, “are some 5000 sheep and 1500 head of cattle. These riders will relieve some of the shepherds and cowboys at the ranch. The returning shepherds and cowboys will take back sheep and cattle back to Mission San José for its regular supply of mutton and beef.”
The author stated that there used to be 4000 head of cattle on the ranch, but Apache raids had reduced that number to less than half.
SPANISH MISSION CATTLE BEFORE TEXAS LONGHORNS
What kind of cattle were these first vacas, or cows, herded in the vast mission rancho? This author, vacuously, always assumed they were “Texas Longhorns.” Then I got to thinking about this article…what was the original stock found in the 1700s? Were they Longhorns or something else. I discovered the “Criollo Cattle,” the Spanish cattle brought to the Caribbean Islands and North America.
One of my favorite sources are the folk at the Land Heritage Institute (LHI) on Neal Road, south of San Antonio, and just north of Loop 1604. They have a beautiful herd of “Hertiage Longhorns” whose parentage is certified back to the 1800s in this area. Peggy Oppelt of the Land Heritage Institute, told me that the area’s earliest cattle were said to be Andalusian cattle.
In checking out her information out, I discovered that the first cattle reached the New World in 1493. Most were, indeed, that Andalusian breed of beef cattle, which were brought first to Santo Domingo, Spain’s first great colony in the Caribbean. They became known as Criollo Cattle, meaning, cattle of pure Spanish descent, but born in the New World.
It is said that it was decreed that none of these cattle could be taken into Mexico. But, Don Heran Cortez, after his 1520 conquest of Mexico, evidently decided he’d like a beef steak or two, and “turned a blind eye” in 1521 as an enterprising Spanish ship’s captain brought a herd (one bull and six cows) of Andalusians to Vera Cruz, Mexico.
As Spanish explorers and Franciscan friars moved northward, they too brought these Spanish cattle with them…and many of those cattle wandered away to become wild.
THE WORK OF THE MISSION IS COMPLETE BY 1790s
When the mission completed its work of Christianizing and making good Spanish citizens of its Indian population, San José and the other missions were partially secularized. San José, in 1794, gave its Indios titles to land that they had worked. The mission’s church and any outlying chapels, however, continued to minister to spiritual needs.
In 1824, the Mexican government decreed that San José and the other missions were to be completely secularized and abandoned. The people of San José were now in the parish of San Fernando Cathedral.
In repayment of a debt owed by the mission to his father Ángel Navarro, the Rancho Atasocso was deeded under Mexican title to Ángel’s son José Antonio Navarro, as well as to Juan N. Seguín, José María Salinas, Joaquín de la Garza, Ignacio Herrera, and others.
TEXAS LONGHORNS, MUSTANGS, VAQUEROS AND COWBOYS
After 1824, San José’s mission system was no more. It had been reported in the mid 1700s that cattle and horses had run off, chased off by Apache and others who recognized a good thing. By 1800, there were thousands, some say tens of thousands, of wild Criollo cattle and wild horses – running on the area south of San Antonio that came to be known as the “Wild Horse Desert.” The animals were free for the taking and all took their turns at capturing them.
Many cattle aficionados have heard it said that Texas Long horns are “all the colors and patterns that cattle can come in.” I think these Spanish and English breeds must prove that observation. You can see the coat patterns and colors as well as horn style in these heritage ancestors. There in the Texas Longhorns in the image below are evidence of the solid coats, mottled coats, brindle coats, with coat colors or white and cream, yellow, through all the shades of brown to black.
Ranching historians have said that our Texas Longhorns are the Criollo cattle interbred with English Longhorns. These latest arrivals probably with cattle brought in by settlers and adventurers from the former British colonies including those who had been invited to settle Texas from the early 1800s.
By 1860, the missions and many great Spanish ranches were no more, but their ranching culture was established in our area south of the Medina River, the Somerset to Pleasanton area. Here our Texas’ vaqueros or cowboys developed and learned their craft. Other threads helping to weave the Spanish-Texas, cowboy-ranching story are those interesting Spanish offspring: the wild mustangs and of all those wild Criollo cattle. By the mid to late 1860s our wild cattle, Texas Longhorns, were captured, herded, then driven by the tens of thousands to northern markets, driven by cowboys riding half-broke mustangs. Puro Tejano; Pure Texas.
VAQUERO AND COWBOY FUN AND GAMES
From the Spanish vaqueros the more recently arrived easterners, (who became our Texas “cowboys,”) learned how to handle the ornery Longhorns. They also learned their new cowboy business of how to rope and ride from their vaquero. Fun time for vaqueros and their ladies were the charreadas. Charreadas were the Spanish ranch competitions featuring the vaqueros’ many skills on horseback, working cattle, and using la riata, that cowboys now called a lariat. These charreadas and cattle camp competitions soon became the rodeos that we and the world enjoy.
A traditional skill of men and women who work and then play with those critters.
So, when you are enjoying our rodeos and stock shows anywhere, rest assured you are celebrating, this year of 2020, the beginning of 300 years of Texas ranching heritage. This Texas heritage, born south of the Medina River with our first cowboys, the Pastia Indian vaqueros of Mission San Jose, (and the ranchos of our other area missions), is their gift to our world: vaqueros, cowboys, cattle, horses, charreadas and rodeos.
SOURCES FOR OUR AREA’S RANCHING HERITAGE
Campbell, T. N. and T. J. Campbell. (1985). Indian Groups Associated with Spanish Missions of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. San Antonio, Texas: Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio.
Habig, Father Marion A., O. F. M. (1968). San Antonio’s Mission San José. San Antonio, Texas: The Naylor Co.
Jackson, Jack. (1986). Los Mesteños. Spanish Ranching in Texas. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M Press.
Mission San Jose Visitor Center and docents. (1998). 6791 San José Drive, San Antonio, Texas. http://www.nps.gov/saan/planyourvisit/sanjose.htm
Smallwood, James M. (2004). The Indian Texans. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M Press.
Texas Longhorns: A Short History. (2020). World History Group. <www.HistoryNet.com/Texas-longhorns-a-short-history.htm> accessed 13 January 2020.
Photos from Pintrest “Rodeos” and Bing “Rodeos. Accessed 13 January 2020.
