The Forgotten Founders of Bexar County

Blacks, Berbers, and the Canary Islanders: The Forgotten Founders of Bexar County

According to Father Juan Morfi (1778), the mission at San Saba, just 140 miles northwest of San Antonio, reported that 151 Blacks were located within the mission walls during the 1700s. What is often ignored or erased were the cultural influences of the original Canary Island population by Berber, Black, Islamic, and Moorish customs and traditions. This is seen with the whistle language (Silbo) which was adopted by the Spanish colonial settlers, but is clearly Moorish or Berber in origin. Much of the original island customs and traditions of the original inhabitants off the coast of Africa, were Hispanicized (turned White) and their origins purposefully erased from history. Genetic evidence indicates that many of the Canary Islanders have African DNA. From 1402 to 1496 the original Black, Berber and Moorish inhabitants of the Canary Islands fought against Spanish rule in at least three major wars.

The Canary Islanders who arrived in San Antonio in the 1700s included White Spaniards and Blacks. This is noted in Kenneth Mason’s 1997 research, which provides evidence that darker-skinned Canary Islanders – people of color quebrado, or broken color – were forced to live east of the river. Mason wrote: 

“Racially conscious Islanders associated blacks with slavery and lower-class status. Class or ‘castas’ designation established social standing, and persons identified as ‘whites’ were held in higher esteem than the darker Indians and blacks. Islander attitudes reflected these views, and physically dissociated themselves from the darker residents. A separate community, Villa de San Fernando, was established by the Islanders on the west bank of the San Antonio River, leaving Villa de Bejar, east of the river, as the resident [sic] of the blacks, mission Indians and the racially mixed.”

Archaeological evidence indicates that the population of the Canary Islands, located 62 miles off the coast of North Africa, were Berber, Moorish, and Black African. Spain conquered the territory in 1496, and more Europeans (often of erased Arab ancestry) were added to the population along with enslaved peoples from Sub-Saharan Africa. Spanish officials provided a physical description of the Canary Islanders who came to San Antonio, and they came in a wide range of complexions indicative of the Islands’ diverse population.  Joseph Cabrera, for example, was described as of “medium height, broad shoulders, dark complexion, round face, flat nose, pitted with small pox, grey eyes, chestnut hair and eyebrows, blubber-lipped.” 

Spanish authorities were determined to occupy Texas with Spanish subjects.  The imperial regime settled on a scaled back initiative that resulted in 15 families (56 individuals in all with many of African ancestry) emigrating from the Canary Islands and arriving in 1731. Some of them were clearly Black, but this is ignored in San Antonio’s History. Inducing the immigrants to undertake such a long and perilous voyage called for extra incentives. The new arrivals were accorded upper class status as lower ranking members of the nobility (hidalgos), which earned them the title of “Don” or “Doña.” Political authority in the civil settlement was to rest in the hands of the Canary Islanders and their descendants. They also claimed ownership of farm lands cleared by the community’s original settlers – Native Americans.

The financially wealthy families of Bexar, who claimed a false “White racial category,” carried the surnames of Seguín, Navarro, Veramendi, Ruiz, Musquiz, Arciniega, Flores and Padilla. They generally lived in stone houses surrounding San Antonio’s Main Plaza. This is why you often see old stone houses in the downtown area. These “Whites” affirmed their social status in San Antonio at the expense of Blacks, Native Americans, and Mexicans.