Spanish Tejanos

Spanish Tejanos. Tejanos are descended from the Spanish explorers and colonizers who settled Texas. They eventually took the name Tejano from the Spanish word Tejas, used by native American Indians who originally inhabited Texas. As early as 1519 Spaniards visited the Texas coast and a group led by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was the first to describe the native peoples of Texas and the geography of Texas between 1528 and 1534. The Texas Panhandle region was explored by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, while the DeSoto-Moscoso expedition explored northeastern Texas the following year. Soon, Spaniards explored the coastal regions and established Texas as a province., An attempt by France to establish a colony on the Texas coast in the 1680s, prompted Spain to send General Alonzo de León in search of the French settlement. On his expeditions into Texas in 1686-1690, De León founded the first Spanish mission in East Texas. These early expeditions named most of the major rivers in Texas and released many longhorn cattle which later became the foundation of the cattle industry in Texas. By 1718, a permanent community at San Antonio de Bexar had been established by soldier-settlers and Franciscan missionaries, later expanded by families from New Spain and the Canary Islands., By the mid-1700s, Spanish settlements included the capital at Los Adaes (now Robeline, Louisiana), San Antonio and La Bahía (now Goliad). In the lower Rio Grande country, other settlers from the interior of Mexico and Spain, under the leadership of José de Escandón, founded a network of towns. Tejano ranchers provided thousands of longhorn cattle to Spanish soldiers and settlers and even drove cattle northeastward to aid the American Revolution. Tejano pioneers left a proud ranching legacy in Texas.