page_title: Antonio de Olivares
section_title: San Antonio
hierarchical_section_title: Antonio de Olivares / Biography / San Antonio
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, USA English: The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, USA This image was created with Hugin.
context_page_description: Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares or simply Fray Antonio de Olivares was a Spanish Franciscan who officiated at the first Catholic Mass celebrated in Texas, and he was known for contributing to the founding of San Antonio and to the prior exploration of the area.
  He founded, among other missions, the famous Alamo Mission in San Antonio, the Presidio San Antonio de Bexar, and the Acequia Madre de Valero.
context_section_description: In 1709, he participated in the expedition headed by  Pedro de Aguirre. Together with Fray Isidro de Espinosa, they explored the territory from the modern-day city of San Antonio to the Colorado River. The same year he traveled to Spain to convince the authorities of the importance of maintaining and establishing new missions on the banks of the San Antonio River, in present San Antonio. He remained in Spain six years.
  In 1716, Fray Antonio wrote to the Viceroy of New Spain, Baltasar de Zúñiga y Guzmán, telling him their hopes and plans for the future mission, and urged him to send families of settlers to found a town. In the same letter he stressed that it was necessary that some of these families be skilled in the useful arts and industries, "to teach the Indians all that should be required to be useful and capable citizens." The perseverance of Fray Antonio was answered, as the Viceroyalty gave formal approval for the mission in late 1716, assigning responsibility for its establishment to Martín de Alarcón, the governor of Coahuila y Tejas. 
  Fray Antonio de Olivares organized the founding of the new mission from the adjacent Mission San Francisco Solano, often meeting with the Indians of the area (Payaya Indians) in his travels, gradually earning their love and respect. He remained at the site of the mission for some time, organizing everything with the Indians, and they constructed a straw structure with branches and mud near the head of the San Antonio River. This mission was called San Antonio de Valero, a name derived from "San Antonio de Padua" and Viceroy of New Spain, Marquess of Valero. The mission was located near a community of Coahuiltecan and was originally inhabited by about four indigenous tribes people converted from Mission San Francisco Solano.
  Unfortunately, his work was suspended for some time from an accident he had while crossing a bridge. The foot of the animal he was riding slipped into a hole, causing him to fall violently to the ground and break his leg. When he could walk again, the mission had changed its location to the west bank of the river, where floods were less likely. On orders of his religious order, Fray Antonio de Olivares transferred the Mission San Francisco Solano to the new mission of San Antonio de Valero.
  He also built the Presidio San Antonio de Bexar, on the west side of the San Antonio River approximately 1 mile from the mission. It was designed to protect the system of missions and civilian settlements in central Texas and to ensure the ascendency of Spain in the region against the aggression of the French, British and Americans. The presidium consisted of an adobe building, thatched with grass, with soldiers quartered in brush huts. Settlers concentrated around the complex and mission began to form the town of Bejar or Bexar. As the bulwark of Spanish Texas, located in the center of several operating missions, Bejar escaped the anxieties of other settlements. Resisting occasional Indian attacks, it became the main unit of walled defense.
  The operational complex was completed with the construction of the first canal in Texas (Acequia Madre de Valero), 6 miles long, built to irrigate 400 hectares and supply of the inhabitants of the new facilities. It was vital to the missions to be able to divert and control water from the San Antonio River, in order to grow crops and to supply water to the people in the area.  This particular aqueduct was the beginning of a much wider water system. Acequia Madre de Valero ran from the area currently known as Brackenridge Park southward to what is now Hemisfair Plaza and South Alamo Street. Part of it that is not viewable by the public runs beneath the Menger Hotel. The aqueduct was restored in 1968 and that year was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
  Fray Antonio de Olivares was aided by Payaya Indians to build the bridge that connected the Misión de San Antonio de Valero and Presidio San Antonio de Bexar, and the Acequia Madre de Valero.
  On May 1, 1718, according to a certified statement Don Martin de Alarcon gave Fray Anton
caption: Misión de San Antonio de Valero, San Antonio (Texas).
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