Title: TSHA | Urbanization
Headings: Urbanization
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Urbanization
In Search of the Blues: A Journey to the Soul of Black Texas

Content: To escape the unhealthful conditions on the coast and for military purposes the settlement moved in 1726 to the Guadalupe River and in 1749 to the San Antonio River. In 1829 the Mexican government changed the name of the loosely linked presidio, mission, and civil settlement to Goliad, a name made infamous in the Texas Revolution for the willful slaughter of Texan prisoners of war. In its move northward, the Spanish Empire also scattered presidios, missions, and pueblos through the Rio Grande valley. Laredo, for example, started in 1755 as a pueblo and then acquired a mission in 1762. In late 1659 Father García de San Francisco de Zúñiga, moreover, established the first of the missions at El Paso del Norte. By the end of the century this area of the northern Rio Grande was the site of six missions, four pueblos, and a presidio. The mission area at Ysleta, now a part of El Paso, is considered the oldest settlement in Texas. It dates from the Pueblo Indian uprising of 1680, when Spanish and Indian refugees retreated from New Mexico. The Spanish culture in the Valley has been sustained over time by a continuing flow of migrants back and forth across the river. Elsewhere in Texas, however, Spanish urban influence decreased following the Texas Revolution.