Colonization of the Lower Rio Grande Area

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, friends, and it's a story worth tellin' slow. Now, if you want to understand how this stretch of the lower Rio Grande came to be anything more than frontier wilderness, you have to go back to 1746. That's when Spanish officials reached down into their roster of capable men and selected one José de Escandón to be chief colonizer for the lower Rio Grande Valley.

This was Mexico's northern frontier: raw, vast, and not yet anybody's in the settled sense of the word. Escandón was a native of Spain, born in 1700, and he hadn't gotten this appointment by sittin' still. He had proven himself as both an administrator and a military leader through his service with the Spanish forces in Mexico.

When you needed something done, something organized, something disciplined, Escandón was your man. And what he did first tells you everything about how he operated. Before he laid out a single settlement, he went lookin'.

He took over seven hundred people with him on that initial exploration: missionaries, soldiers, and Indians, more than seven hundred souls movin' through rough country to see what was actually out there. That is not a scouting party. That is a statement of intent.

His findings from that venture gave him what he needed to complete his colonization plans. And he moved fast. By 1748, just two years after his selection, thirteen settlements had already begun in the area.

The region came to be called Nuevo Santander, after Escandón's home province back in Spain. But he wasn't done. Not by a long shot.

When all was said and done, nineteen settlements owed their foundings to Escandón; among them Laredo, San Ygnacio, Falcon, and Lopeno. Nineteen towns, scratched into existence along this river valley by one man's vision and seven hundred people's labor. Now here's where it gets personal for the settlers themselves.

Escandón issued royal land grants in tracts known as porciones. But nothing came free. In return, settlers were required to fulfill certain obligations: the marker doesn't spell out every condition, but there were requirements, and folks were expected to meet them.

For years, those grants existed somewhere between promise and possession. Then came 1767, the General Visitation of 1767, the final inspection of all those land grants. And that moment mattered.

Because when valid applicants were given possession of their porciones, it marked the beginning of private and individual land ownership in this part of the state. Before that inspection, the land was granted. After it, it was yours.

And what did people do with land of their own along the Rio Grande? They farmed it. They ranched it.

Those farming and ranching settlements took root and grew, and from that growth rose the immense cattle industry of South Texas. The same cattle culture that would eventually define an entire region, an entire identity, traces its roots back through those porciones, back through Escandón's nineteen settlements, back to one exploration party of more than seven hundred people pushing into the frontier in 1746. One man selected.

Seven hundred people moving. Nineteen towns founded. And a cattle industry that changed the shape of Texas.

That's what a single appointment in 1746 set in motion.

What the marker says

In 1746, Jose de Escandon was selected by Spanish officials to be chief colonizer for the lower Rio Grande Valley, then a part of Mexico's northern frontier. A native of Spain, Escandon (b. 1700) had proven himself a capable administrator and military leader as part of the Spanish forces in Mexico. Escandon took over 700 people, including missionaries, soldiers, and Indians, on his initial exploration of the area. His findings from this venture allowed him to complete his colonization plans. By 1748, thirteen settlements had begun in the area, which came to be called Nuevo Santander after Escandon's home province. A total of nineteen settlements, including Laredo, San Ygnacio, Falcon, and Lopeno, owe their foundings to Escandon. Escandon issued royal land grants in tracts known as "porciones," and in return the settlers were to fulfill certain requirements. The final inspection of the land grants, known as the General Visitation of 1767, marked the beginning of private and individual land ownership in this part of the state, as valid applicants were given possession of their "porciones." The colonization efforts also resulted in the farming and ranching settlements from which grew the immense cattle industry of South Texas. (1986)