DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Mision de las Cabras, out in Wilson County. Now, the full name is Mision de las Cabras — Mission of the Goats — and before you get too far down the road, I want you to sit with that name a moment. Because this place has a story that starts with cattle, runs through centuries of faith and frontier life, and ends with a woman on a great white horse who did things her own way.
Let's go back to 1731. That's when Mission Espada was founded in San Antonio. Mision de las Cabras wasn't Espada itself — it was what's called a fortified visita, a kind of outpost under Espada's watch.
And it was planted near a spot on the San Antonio River called Paso de las Mujeres — the Crossing of the Women — an important ford that just about everybody traveling between Mexico and San Antonio had reason to use. If you were obliged to make that journey, odds were good you'd come through right here. The meadowlands along the river and near that crossing made fine pasture.
Mission Espada ran cattle on that land, and Indians under Espada's protection were kept here to do the herding. Now, where you've got herdsmen, somebody's going to tend to their souls too — so a chapel was built. That's how a cattle operation on a river crossing wound up with a house of worship standing watch over it.
By 1895, a guide called San Antonio at a Glance was describing the Old Cabras site as a two-acre, diamond-shaped lot with bastions at each end. You can picture it — that fortified outline sitting on the south Texas landscape, corners anchored and ready. In 1794, the missions were secularized, and the lands here passed into the hands of Ignacio Calvillo, one of the descendants of Spain's colonists from the Canary Islands.
And when Calvillo was gone, the Cabras site was inherited by his daughter. And here's where the story really starts riding. Dona Maria Del Carmen was born in 1765.
The marker calls her flamboyant, and that word is doing a lot of honest work. She was noted for her independent spirit — and she put that spirit to use. She forsook her husband, Gavino Delgado, and took personal charge of the ranch herself.
When she rode out, she rode a great white horse, her long black hair flying in the wind behind her. She kept down Indian troubles by paying tribute in beef. She ran things on her own terms, full stop.
And through her time — and for a full century afterward — Old Mission Cabras remained in use for rites of the church. The chapel that was built for cattle herders on a river crossing outlasted empires, secularization, and the turning of centuries. Mission of the Goats.
Founded in faith, built for herdsmen, inherited by a woman who rode like the wind and answered to nobody. Some places earn their history quietly. This one earned it at a full gallop.
What the marker says
A fortified visita of Mission Espada, founded 1731 in San Antonio. Situated near Paso de las Mujeres ("Crossing of the Women"), an important ford on the San Antonio River, known to most parties obliged to travel between Mexico and San Antonio. Meadowland along the river and near the crossing was used to pasture cattle owned by Mission Espada. Indians under Espada's protection were kept here to herd the cattle. For the care of souls of the herdsmen, a chapel was built. The 1895 guide, "San Antonio at a Glance," described the Old Cabras site as a 2-acre, diamond-shaped lot with bastions at each end. After secularization of the missions in 1794, lands here were owned by one of the descendants of Spain's colonists from the Canary Islands, Ignacio Calvillo. In turn, the Cabras site was inherited by Calvillo's flamboyant daughter, Dona Maria Del Carmen (born in 1765). Noted for her independent spirit, she forsook her husband, Gavino Delgado, and personally managed the ranch, her long black hair flying in the wind as she rode a great white horse. She kept down Indian troubles by paying tribute in beef. In her time and for a century afterward Old Mission Cabras remained in use for rites of the church. (1970)