REview of BEXAR: Stirpes

Book Review of First Place Winner , 2018 TxSGS Book Awards

Mission Espada After Secularization  The Northwest Vista College Texas Heritage Series: no. 4, Art Martinez de Vara. (Von Ormy, TX: Alamo Press, 2018). 518 pages, indexed. Available from AlamoPress.com and Amazon.com; $59.99 hardcover 

by William D. “Bill” Buckner, TxSGS Awards Chair

     Art Martinez de Vara has perfected a model of presenting an institution's history (Part I) and 

records (Part II). For this book, the institution researched is Mission San Francisco de la Espada (aka Mission Espada). This Mission is located in the southernmost part of San Antonio's chain of missions located within the San Antonio Missions National Park. The author's focus is limited to the years 1795 to 1824, the time during which the Mission was secularized, i.e., converted from 

religious to secular use. 

     An excellent storyteller, Art's writing style is very readable. The historical picture he presents is 

complete in its detail with maps, photos, and documentation. This wealth of background makes you want to get up and drive to San Antonio to visit Mission Espada. Part I (138 pages), the history, is divided into various time periods: Friar Francis Bouchu's resurrection of the mission 

into an operating parish, the acequia system (water system), the Espada School, and restorations. I liked the decision to include the footnotes on the page cited. Of note and interest is the Appendix, in which eleven selected documents that supplement the history are presented. Nice. 

     Part II, the sacramental records, includes in order 3,843 records of burials, marriages, baptisms, and census enumerations of Mission Espada. The author numbers the records chronologically; names are associated with a record number and not a page number in the index. 

     Included in Part II are 274 burials from 1876-1943 listed chronologically; these entries include the name and age of the deceased. These burial records may include family relations, the 

undertaker, and whether or not sacraments were received. 

     Marriages numbered 275 to 413 (138 records) dated from 1876 to 1915 include the name of the bride and groom along with parents' names and witnesses of the event. 

     Baptisms numbered 414 to 3015 provide the bulk of the records included in Part II, with dates of these records ranging from 1873 to 1956 and 2017. 

     Fourteen civil census enumerations of Mission Espada are presented (pages 393-426) with a date range of 1793 to 1826. The census enumerations include names of Spaniards and Native Americans. 

     In addition, the author provides a chapter on Espada sacramentalrecords that were 

recorded at Mission San Jose. These included baptisms, marriages, and a few burials. 

    The author provided two indexes. A general every-name­and-place index keyed to page numbers covers the narrative history and the appendices. The every-name sacramental record index of 10,000 names references the record numbers. Priests are not included in the indices unless they are recorded in a different role such as godfather or witness. 

     Mission Espada After Secularization is an important work for both historians and genealogists. It contains unpublished records of Mission Espada from the late 19'" century that were discovered underneath the Bexar County Spanish Archives as it was being relocated. 

     Art Martinez de Vara stated that he "hopes this book will contribute to the preservation, awareness and study of this unique place."Thank you, Art, for your efforts in bringing to light 

these records.