The Founders Monument — Attraction in San Antonio

The figures in this monument, created by Armando Hinojosa, represent the four founding communities of San Antonio - American Indians, Franciscan friars, Presidio soldiers, and Canary Islanders. As early as 1691, Spanish explorers recorded insightful information on various American Indian tribes in the area, whom the Spanish collectively referred to as the Coahuiltecans. Later tribes included the Lipan Apaches, the Tonkawa, and the Comanches. Colonial settlement began in 1718, with the establishment of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar and the Mission San Antonio de Valero (now called The Alamo).

"56 Canary Islanders founded a village, "San Fernando de Béjar", after arriving March 9, 1731. They walked nearly 1,200 miles from Veracruz, with children, livestock and all their worldly possessions, for more than six months after a previous six month journey across the ocean in a small wooden vessel. Sent by Spanish King Felipe V, to found the first official civil government in the province of Texas, they were greeted by a Franciscan friar, soldiers from Presidio de Bejar, and indigenous people of the nearby missions. Today, the village is the City of...

The Founders Monument, created by Laredo artist Armando Hinojosa, represents the four founding communities of San Antonio: American Indians, Franciscan friars, Presidio soldiers, and...

Good tribute to the history around the city and the governance that the families...