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Post by Riley Gardner on May 15, 2013 23:26:29 GMT -5
Hello all!
I figured it was high time to come on and finally ask a question that's been bugging me for years - what is the story behind Dolorosa street?
I know this goes more with San Antonio History rather than Alamo history, but we don't a section on history of the city and, being related to Santa Anna, I figured it'd be appropriate.
So we know Santa Anna served under Arredondo during his early days in the Spanish Military. I'm not clear on the details, but I'm also aware he participated in the Battle of Medina and an occupation of Bexar. He certainly learned all of his military brutality from Arredondo.
So while read Gates of the Alamo, Harrigan mentions that, while under occupation, the women of Bexar were imprisoned by the army and forced to grind corn for the men. Dolorosa (meaning "way of sorrow/suffering" in Latin) was named after this horrible time.
Does anyone have any more information on this event? Did Santa Anna or someone else perhaps mention it in his memoirs? Thanks -- this has been bugging me for years and my research constantly turns up dry.
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Post by Rich Curilla on May 17, 2013 17:34:45 GMT -5
Well, I can help you here, or rather a favorite early author-historian can (he put it into words far more succinctly than I could.)
"On August 18 [1813], General Juaquin de Arredonde, with a large army for that day, perhaps four thousand men, drew Americans and Mexicans and Indians into ambush just south of the Medina River and cut them to pieces in a gory rout. In San Antonio, he imprisoned three hundred men in a granary on the north side of Main Plaza; eighteen suffocated. Others he sent to the firing squad. The women he imprisoned in a building known as the Quinta (east of the present Courthouse) and forced them to grind corn for the soldiers. For years San Antonio was a well-nigh deserted town."
[From Charles Ramsdell's San Antonio: A Historical and pictorial Guide, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1959. -- Ramsdell was incidentally a descendant of Susanna Dickinson.]
La Quinta was a stone home that was located on the east side of the first block south of the Plaza de las Islas (Main Plaza) on what would be the extension of Soledad. It's yard backed down on the river bend later known as Bowen's Bend. The street became known as Calle de la Quinta after the 1813 executions. I seem to remember that Calle de Dolorosa was indeed named that in relation to this matanza of Arredondo's, but I can't find the material that is specific about it. One possible clue (just my own observation) is that the street led west across San Pedro Creek and would have been one of the two streets in town that led indirectly to the Campo Santo (Cemetery) across the creek and northwest of the city, the other being Calle de Presidio edging the plazas on the north.
It is definitely believed that young, teenage Santa Anna received his war tutorial from Arredondo -- and learned his lesson well.
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Post by Riley Gardner on May 17, 2013 20:15:20 GMT -5
That's fascinating, if still a little unclear. Did Arredondo's actions lead to the desertion of the town, or does the author imply that he simply suppressed the town, which lead to some sort of growth stagnation (obviously). Perhaps he even means he killed so much of the population?
That's some horrible stuff. But the question remains - why? He defeated most of the Republican Army in the Battle of the Medina. What was the purpose of going to Bexar to put misery on the citizens, if all was done? Perhaps he just wanted to get the message across of the price of rebellion.
Were Bexaranos - I wonder - aiding the Green Flag Rebellion?
Thank you for this information. I'll have to look into buying that book.
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Post by Rich Curilla on Nov 17, 2013 23:13:47 GMT -5
 This is my replication of La Quinta in my virtual Bexar model. The look of the structure is from an original drawing of the era. The street was named after it and called Quinta Street into the 20th. Century.  In this high angle view, you can see Bowen's Bend behind the house. The bend enclosed what was known in the late 19th. cantury as Bowen's Island and was actually just an area within a horseshoe bend of the river opening to the east and La Villita (right-background). It is now the site of the Tower-Life Building.  Here you see an aerial view of Plaza de las Islas from the N.W. The Quinta is the solitary house beyond the plaza to the south from the southeast corner (upper middle of picture). In truth, there would have been other structures scattered along Quinta Street, but I have not added them due to limited file space. Dolorosa Street is the east-west street (left to right) lining the far side of the plaza. It is possible that the name derived simply because it did indirectly lead to the Quinta, where the Bexarena women were incarcerated. La Quinta was located almost exactly where the River Walk Plaza Hotel is today. And no, the name doesn't mean "high speed internet." |
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Post by Rich Curilla on Nov 30, 2013 0:49:46 GMT -5
Completed more around la Quinta.  La Quinta is the last building on the left at the end of the street at the top of the picture. Bowens Bend is to its left, and Calle a la Villa Nueva (Street to the New Village), now Nueva Street, is crossing left to right at the top and originally crossed the river, but the bridge was gone by 1835-35. Don't know about in 1813. Dolorosa Street is the street bordering the plaza and going left to right.  Calle (de la) Dolorosa, according to the conjecture of the late historian and Bexar archivist Richard G. Santos, "is one of the city's earliest streets. It was probably named in honor of the Lady of Sorrow." [from San Antonio de Bexar, 1 de Enero 1836, by Richard G. Santos, 1963]  Looking south down Calle de la Quinta from Calle de la Dolorosa. Beyond the Quinta at the end of the street (and thus across Nueva Street) began the labores de abajo, the lower farmlands. |
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Post by Rich Curilla on Nov 30, 2013 1:30:04 GMT -5
That's fascinating, if still a little unclear. Did Arredondo's actions lead to the desertion of the town, or does the author imply that he simply suppressed the town, which lead to some sort of growth stagnation (obviously). Perhaps he even means he killed so much of the population? I am of the impression from my general (although not great) knowledge of the Arredondo events that people fled from the town and not a lot returned. This was more of a knee-jerk reaction than it was a long term abandonment. He did indeed execute many Bexarenos. In addition to the women being held in the Quinta, the captured men were locked in a granary on the north side of Plaza de las Islas with conditions so cramped that many died of suffocation. I don't think it would be unusual for the town to be empty for quite a while after a war like that. It always leaves destroyed homes, burnt fences, pilfered supplies and ravaged fields. Bexarenos throughout their existence were basically subsistence farmers and hand-to-mouth businessmen. Plus, atrocities like Arredondo performed left the people totally demoralized and with a destitute future. After the War for Independence in 1835-36, Bexar likewise became a virtual ghost town for well over a year, and Santa Anna had done nothing to the Bexarenos other than sequester one of their senoritas for his entertainment. That's some horrible stuff. But the question remains - why? He defeated most of the Republican Army in the Battle of the Medina. What was the purpose of going to Bexar to put misery on the citizens, if all was done? Perhaps he just wanted to get the message across of the price of rebellion. Punishment and example. Were Bexaranos - I wonder - aiding the Green Flag Rebellion? It is a complexity that I seem to have lost over the years (although I did read a bit on it some decades ago), but I believe it was indeed part of the Green Flag Rebellion. Have to check the book: Green Flag over Texas by Julia Kathryn Garrett, Ph.D.; Pemberton Press, No Date -- However Herbert E. Bolton did the Foreward in 1939.) In any event, the rebellion itself was a collaboration between local Spanish commanders and Anglo-American filibusters. Thank you for this information. I'll have to look into buying that book. You're very welcome for the little I could contribute. Charles Ramsdell's book is indeed excellent, but that's about all it has about the Arredondo battle. The book is really a guide book for San Antonio -- the best ever to date. Green Flag over Texas would be a good one perhaps (if you can find the original or the Pemberton Press facsimile). Also, an Eakin Press book from 1985 called Forgotten Battlefield of the First Texas Revolution, The Battle of Medina, August 18, 1813, by Ted Schwarz, edited and annotated by Robert H. Thonhoff and illustrated by Jack Jackson. |
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Post by edward on Nov 30, 2013 1:51:26 GMT -5
That's fascinating, if still a little unclear. Did Arredondo's actions lead to the desertion of the town, or does the author imply that he simply suppressed the town, which lead to some sort of growth stagnation (obviously). Perhaps he even means he killed so much of the population? That's some horrible stuff. But the question remains - why? He defeated most of the Republican Army in the Battle of the Medina. What was the purpose of going to Bexar to put misery on the citizens, if all was done? Perhaps he just wanted to get the message across of the price of rebellion. Were Bexaranos - I wonder - aiding the Green Flag Rebellion? Thank you for this information. I'll have to look into buying that book. The Bexarenos who helped in the first Republic of Texas had to try and escape with their families but most with families did not make it. 'Property was confiscated from all but those who could prove their continuous loyalty to the Spanish crown. Col. Elizondo’s forces captured a group of families on the Trinity River and summarily executed over 100 males on the spot. Among these was Captain Antonio Delgado, the executioner of Govs. Salcedo and Herrera and their officers at Salado, who was shot on the spot along with several relatives, and his body left for the wolves and buzzards. In his commentaries in the 1850’s, José Antonio Navarro tells of a Padre Camacho who set up a confessional according to rites of the Catholic Church. When Padre Camacho elicited confession sufficient to implicate the individual with the Republican Forces, he gave a signal to the executioners. He is said to have raised his clerical habit and pointed out the wound he had suffered at the Battle of Alazan. With the words "Move on my son and suffer the penalty in the name of God, because the ball that wounded me may have come from your rifle," he delivered the Texas patriots, who were shot in groups of 20 to 30, to the executioners.
For more information see The First Republic of Texas:
www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/Spain2.htm
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Post by Rich Curilla on Nov 30, 2013 2:59:52 GMT -5
Wow! I think you're on track. lol.
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