DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. Way back in 1792, the King of Spain had a decision to make, and he made a big one. He awarded a land grant to Don Jose Narciso Cavazos, and when I say big, friend, I mean big.
We're talking over one-half million acres in South Texas. One man. One grant.
Half a million acres. Let that settle in for a second. This was the largest land grant in all of South Texas, and it covered virtually everything you'd recognize today as Willacy County.
Sebastian, Lyford, Raymondville, Lasara, San Perlita, Port Mansfield, all of it, sitting right there inside the boundaries of what belonged to one Don Jose Narciso Cavazos by decree of a king an ocean away. Now, a grant on paper is one thing. But in 1793, Cavazos made it real.
He rode out and took formal possession of the land, right there seven miles north of where this marker stands. You can almost picture it, the ceremony, the moment, the sheer weight of standing on ground that stretches farther than the eye can follow in any direction. The land was his.
In time, most of it was sold off by Cavazos' heirs, parcel by parcel, the way big things tend to go. But here's the part that sticks with you. Some of his descendants never left.
To this day, they still live within the boundaries of what their ancestor received from a king in 1792. The land changed hands, but the bloodline held on.
What the marker says
The largest land grant in South Texas, the San Juan de Carrictios lands were awarded to Don Jose Narciso Cavazos in 1792 by the King of Spain. Comprising over one-half million acres, the grant included virtually all of present Williacy County, including the sites of the towns of Sebastian, Lyford, Raymondville, Lasara, San Perlita, and Port Mansfield. In 1793 Cavazos took formal possession of the land grant seven miles north of this site. Most of the grant was later sold by Cavazos' heirs, although some descendants still live within its boundaries. (1988)