Ethnic Texans

Historian Donald Chipman writes the history of Spanish settlement and rule in Texas in this article.

The association was established to encourage and promote historical genealogical research of these brave individuals and enhance the historical, cultural, and civic significance of the accomplishments of the sixteen original Canary Island families who founded the Villa de San Fernando.

Mission Espíritu Santo
Spanish missionaries originally established the Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zuñiga in 1722 near Matagorda Bay. The church moved the mission to its present site in 1749.

This mission was the first large cattle ranch in Texas, supplying its own needs and those of Spanish colonial settlements as far away as Louisiana.

The mission closed in 1830. Neglect and plunder left the buildings in ruin.

The Civilian Conservation Corps rebuilt the mission in the 1930s.

The Diocese of El Paso is home to three of the oldest historic missions in the United States: Ysleta Mission, Socorro Mission and San Elizario Missions. All three missions are Texas Historic Sites, included in the National Register of Historic Places, and certified by the National Parks Service as part of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. The missions are owned and operated by the Diocese of El Paso and managed by a parish administrator.

​The Presidio de San Saba is located one mile west of Menard, Texas on Hwy 190. Founded in 1757 and was operated by the Colonial Spanish Army until abandoned in 1772 by order of the Viceroy of New Spain.

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is a National Historical Park and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site preserving four of the five Spanish frontier missions in San Antonio, Texas, USA. These outposts were established by Catholic religious orders to spread Christianity among the local natives. These missions formed part of a colonization system that stretched across the Spanish Southwest in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries.