The Other American Founders

We know the story of America's founding. It started at Jamestown in 1607 with the first permanent English colony, then moved on to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620. We followed these English-speaking colonists whose stern impassioned tread blazed a trail across the wilderness, eventually growing their settlements into the thirteen colonies who declared their independence from Britain in 1776. We are the heirs of those visionaries who fought for freedom and the creation of a country conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. It's a wonderful story, even if marred by the presence of African slavery and the tragic fate of Native American nations displaced by the tidal wave of European immigration.  

But there is another story, one that precedes the 250th birthday we are celebrating this 4th of July. This other story happened long before the English. The often-ignored reality is that other Europeans, usually in cooperation with native peoples, had traversed the continent, exploring, building plantations, ranches, Catholic missions, military posts, and cities and towns, leaving their permanent mark on the vast pristine wilderness. If we are to understand the complete story of America's founding, we need to know the Spanish part of it. 

The first European soldier and explorer to "go native," in North America, like famous fictional Anglos such as Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking and the mountain man Jeremiah Johnson, and real ones like Daniel Boone and Kit Carson, was a Spaniard named Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. This scion of a noble family with the distinctive surname "Head of a Cow" trekked across Florida and what is now the southeast United States, was shipwrecked on Galveston Island off the Texas coast and then walked across the Southwest and into what is now Mexico in 1528-1536. His account of the epic journey is the first recorded description of interior North America. Hernando de Soto followed in his footsteps in 1542-1545, going as far north as Virginia then westward to the Mississippi River, on whose banks he died, failing to discover the gold and riches he and his soldiers were seeking. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado blazed a trail through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas in 1540-1542. He also did not find the legendary Gran Quivira, whose king ate off golden platters. But the chimera of fabulous wealth did not last. Very soon permanent settlements sprung up. Many of them are still here, living reminders of a past presence. Juan de Onate founded the Spanish colony of Nuevo Mexico in 1598. Building on Onate's efforts, Pedro de Peralta established La Villa Rica de la Santa Fe de Nuestro Padre San Francisco de Asis in 1610. Pedro Menendez de Aviles build St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. For a long time it was the only successful European town in what is now the United States. In Texas, Martin de Alarcon founded San Antonio in 1718. The famous Alamo was a Franciscan compound with a large church and quarters for the friars. The Catholic buildings still stand, drawing tourists who come to "remember the Alamo." Some of us want to remember the sons of St. Francis who were just as instrumental in the colonial enterprise as any soldiers or settlers. The string of California missions was established by the soldier Gaspar de Portola and Padre Junipero Serra starting in the 1760's. When I was in the 4th grade, I went to Catholic school at San Carlos Borromeo mission in Monterey. The beautiful 18th century structure is still the parish church. Close to us here in Colorado, Juan Bautista de Anza led a force of New Mexicans and Indian allies against the predatory Comanche chief Cuerno Verde in 1779, and defeated him, saving New Mexico from the fierce warriors and ensuring the survival of the isolated colony. Anza attacked a Cuerno Verde's village at the confluence of Fountain Creek and Monument Creek where America the Beautiful Park now stands. Can we convince the Colorado Springs City Council to put up a monument there to Anza and his band of presidial soldiers, Hispanic pobladores and Ute and Pueblo Indian allies?

No summary of the Spanish contributions to the country we call home can be complete without mentioning the direct help given by the Spanish empire in North America to the patriot cause. It can be argued that the American Revolution would have had a different outcome if the Spanish soldier, Bernardo de Galvez, had not waged war against the British in Alabama and Florida, capturing Mobile and Pensacola. As the governor of Spanish Louisiana, he provided huge assistance to the struggling Americans, supplying money and war material to the rebels. Galvez kept the British out of New Orleans, a feat emulated by Andrew Jackson in 1815. The indigenous people are not the only ones who lack a rightful place in American history. The descendants of the Spaniards and Mexicans who did so much to create the American nation are still not afforded the recognition we deserve. 

Joe Barrera, Ph.D., is the former director of the Ethnic Studies Program at UCCS. He teaches Mexico/U.S. Border Studie and U.S. Military History.