The San Antonio Missions and Their System of Land Tenure
Author: Jr. Félix D. Almaráz
List Price: $19.95
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ISBN: 0292746539
Publisher: Univ of Texas Press (1989)
Sales Rank: 1,342,940
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San Antonio Missions - A Part of the Spanish Borderlands
"Established in a wilderness environment in order to convert and acculturate Texas Indians to a Hispanic way of life, the missions served the goals of church and state by safeguarding remote regions in the Borderlands." This statement about the Spanish missions has another side to the story. It is comprised of the following questions. How did the missionaries and the Indians survive in those remote regions of Spain's colonial frontier? Did the colonial authorities periodically supply them with necessary provisions? Dr. Felix D. Almaraz, Jr. in his book The San Antonio Missions And Their System of Land Tenure argued that the main aspect of economic survival of the Franciscan religious establishments in Texas, particularly in the San Antonio area, was the Spanish mission system of land tenure. He further stated that the land not only served as the basis for economic self-sufficiency, but also for the purpose of the Spanish Crown. That is, the mission land tenure in general obliged the subjects of Spain to transform the wilderness into productive farmlands-one of the main elemets necessary to settle Spain's frontier. Dr. Almaraz defined and explored not only judicial grounds of Spain to establish the missions, but he also provided details on their political standing within the broader context of Spain's imperial politics, emphasizing that success of the mission expansion relayed upon Spain's "fortunes in global politics," against other emerging European powers. For better understanding, the author identified two periods in the Spanish colonial history (1793-1794 and 1823-1824) during which the process of secularization took place. A large part of the author's research is attributed to the analysis of this process and its consequences which subsequently altered the purpose of the Franciscan religious establishments in the San Antonio area. Dr. Almaraz stated that the missions experienced considerable decline in their independent standing within the frontier society by being transferred from Church control to the local civil authorities. This change of hands contributed to the encroachment of the civilian as well as ecclesiastical authorities on the farmlands and pastures under mission control. Dr. Almaraz concluded his book by discussing the San Antonio mission existence during the Texas Republic (1836-1845) and the following decades. That time proved to be the most devastating to the mission buildings. As the author's research showed, it was partially due to the secular authorities' land reduction efforts around the missions, permission to use stones from the buildings as construction material elsewhere, and it was due to the city's expansion itself that pushed the missions into a further state of neglect. The signing into existence of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in 1978 has raised the importance of these Spanish edifices as the subject of research and preservation for new academic endevors. The author has added a flavor to his book by providing the reader with the actual excerpts from the Franciscan friars' inventory documents about the physical descriptions of the San Antonio missions, conditions of their adjacent pueblos, conventos, and farmlands. Along with the first hand sources, Dr. Almaraz provided his own commentary thus making it easier to understand the character of Spain's christianization efforts in the New World. In addition, the maps of Spain's Texas and San Antonio along with the tables of statistics ranging from the registries of land grants to the summaries of purchases,and most importantly, Dr. Almaraz eloquent language give the book a particular dynamism and harmony. The author's research radiates a unique insider's look at one aspect of Spain's colonialism - the Spanish friars' practices to establish a material basis (building missions and using surrounding land) in order to propagate religion and the Spanish lifestyle among the Indians in the ever-changing frontier environment.
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