Happy Birthday, S.A.!

«Te saludo, San Antonio. ¡Feliz cumpleaños, mi ciudad!»

Yes, dear reader, today is the 290th birthday of the city of San Antonio. I celebrated, I suppose you might say, by attending the opening of the S.A. City Council meeting. I wished to make some comments during the opening of the meeting, regarding certain issues on the Agenda, along with comments on the related topic of no digital billboards. But I also devoted a few word, twice, to the significance of the date, 1 May.

On this date, in A.D. 1718, Franciscan friars founded Misión San Antonio de Valero. Years late, this mission that was the first permanent settlement here became a fortress known in Spanish as el Álamo, after a military unit that was stationed there and their source back in central Mexico.

Four days after the mission's founding, the Captain commanding the accompanying soldiers proclaimed the foundation of the protecting presidio (fort) and its adjacent village (for families of the soldiers and a few civilian settler families), San Antonio de Béjar (or Béxar). A few years later both la misión and el presidio/la villa got moved to better nearby locations, by el Marqués de Aguayo. This Spanish nobleman and rancher was appointed governor of Coahuila and Texas by the Spanish viceroy. Miguel de Azlor Virto y Vera -- no wonder he was usually referred to by his title of nobility! -- was sent to drive the French from far East Texas (the remote boundary of the French Louisiana and the Spanish Texas was uncertain and debatable). He succeeded in this effort and others to cement Spain's claim to its northeastern province of its Nueva España. And being a personal friend of the Venerable Fray Antonio Margil, he got included in the name of the mission that this tireless missionary founded near Misión San Antonio de Valero. This new mission's full name is Misión San José y San Miguel de Aguayo.

And so, already within its first decade of existence the new frontier settlement of San Antonio was well on its way to enlarging its presence and firming up its permanence. The first century was a difficult one, but since Texas became one of these United States, this city has continued to grow and prosper as a business center and a tourist target.

And in just ten years we can celebrate the city's tricentennial! I can hardly wait! ¡Viva San Antonio!