Goliad II

In my last post I talked about the Misión Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga at Goliad. You can see the whole mission and even hike the nature trail in one morning, and then drive five minutes back to downtown for lunch next to town hall:

This leaves plenty of time in the afternoon to see Presido La Bahía, which is just a little down the road from the mission. In fact, you can see the mission from the presido parking lot:

The proximity surprises me a little. Although a presidio's purpose was to protect a mission, the padres often saw the soldiers themselves as the biggest threat. They feared that the soldiers would seduce or otherwise corrupt their neophytes, and probably with good reason. This would at least explain why the mission and the presidio had separate chapels: Spanish theater is full of romantic intrigues in churches. The presidio's chapel is both lovely and imposing.

It certainly looks more fortress-like than the mission chapel, but this may simply be because the foundation that maintains it has chosen not to restore the outer coating of adobe and whitewash. The rest of the compound, however, is unmistakably designed for defense.

The front entrance contains a museum that is mostly dedicated to La Bahía's place in Anglo-Texan history: the massacre of Colonel Fannin's troops. Although, as I mentioned in the previous post, I wish that there were more of a political and economic will to preserve sites for their Spanish heritage, I was impressed with this museum's relatively nuanced look at the Texas Revolution. There was some attention paid to the bigger picture of what was going on in Mexican politics at the time.

The foundation that maintains this site is a Catholic organization, so it is no surprise that they keep the presidio chapel in working condition.

The chapel wings, however, are used as additional museum space. Here is the bell that used to hang in the bell tower:

Across the street from the presidio is a replica of the home where Ignacio Zaragoza was born.

If that name doesn't ring a bell for you, you are not alone. Many North Americans mistakenly believe that Cinco de Mayo is Mexican independence day. It is in fact a celebration of Mexico's victory against the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Ignacio Zaragoza was the general who led the Mexican forces to victory at that battle. Since he was born in what is now the United States, Cinco de Mayo has become a celebration of Mexican American culture. Near the replica of his first home is a monument to him:

The inscription, in typically romantic spirit, reads "Mexicans: the children of this generation were born free. We shall remain so or die demanding it."

Goliad is a small town but well worth the visit. It is also only about 1 1/2 hours from Corpus Christi, which, although lacking in missions, is rich in maritime history from almost the earliest days of Spanish exploration in the New World. More about that in the next post.