Rafael Manchola

Last updated May 04, 2019

Rafael Antonio Manchola (died about 1833) was a politician and military officer in Mexican Texas. He twice served as commandant of Presidio La Bahía. He served two terms in the legislature of the state of Coahuila y Tejas. At his behest, the community which had grown outside the fort was renamed Goliad and elevated in status to a villa. During his legislative service, Manchola also negotiated official boundaries for the colony of his father-in-law, Martín De León, and had a commissioner appointed to grant official titles to the settlers in that colony. After returning home, Manchola became the alcade of Goliad and initiated a resolution–then considered illegal– supporting the Constitution of 1824 and Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. He briefly attended the Convention of 1832 and volunteered to accompany William H. Wharton in journeying to Mexico City to request separate statehood for Texas. The mission was postponed, and Manchola died of cholera in late 1832 or early 1833.

Mexican Texas is the historiographical name used to refer to the era of Texan history between 1821 and 1836, when it was part of Mexico. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821 after winning its war. Initially, Mexican Texas operated similarly to Spanish Texas. Ratification of the 1824 Constitution of Mexico created a federal structure, and the province of Tejas was joined with the province of Coahuila to form the state of Coahuila y Tejas.

The Presidio Nuestra Señora de Loreto de la Bahía, known more commonly as Presidio La Bahia, or simply La Bahia is a fort constructed by the Spanish Army that became the nucleus of the modern-day city of Goliad, Texas, United States. The current location dates to 1747.

Coahuila y Tejas was one of the constituent states of the newly established United Mexican States under its 1824 Constitution.

Personal life

Rafael Manchola descended from an aristocratic Spanish family. He married María de Jesús de León, fourth daughter of empresario Martín De León. Manchola and his wife had one daughter.^[1]

Martín De León (1765–1833) was a rancher and wealthy Mexican empresario in Texas who was descended from Spanish aristocracy. He was the patriarch of one of the prominent founding families of early Texas. De León and his wife Patricia de la Garza established De León's Colony, the only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas. They founded the town of Villa de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Victoria Nombre de Jesús on the [[Guadalupe River (Texas)|Guadalupe River. The name referred both to the river and to Mexico's president Guadalupe Victoria.

Military and business careers

Manchola was a Mexican military officer stationed at Presidio La Bahía in Mexican Texas. He served as the commandant of the presidio from 1826–7 and then in 1831.^[2] Manchola owned a large ranch, and his cattle brand was one of the first registered in the Goliad and Victoria area.^[1]

Manchola was very supportive of his father-in-law's colony and became involved in several disputes that de Leon had with fellow empresario Green DeWitt. The Mexican government had made an error when granting DeWitt lands on which to establish a colony and included part of the land that had already been assigned to de Leon and his settlers.^[3] The land disputes may have contributed to a warning that Manchola gave to the Mexican military commander for Texas:

Green DeWitt was an empresario in Mexican Texas. He founded the DeWitt Colony.

"'No faith can be placed in the Anglo-American colonists because they are continually demonstrating that they absolutely refuse to be subordinate, unless they find it convenient to what they want anyway, all of which I believe will be very detrimental to us for them to be our neighbors if we do not in time, clip the wings of their audacity by stationing a strong detachment in each new settlement which will enforce the laws and jurisdiction of a Mexican magistrate which should be placed in each of them, since under their own colonists as judges, they do nothing more than practice their own laws which they have practiced since they were born, forgetting the ones they have sworn to obey, these being the laws of our Supreme Government.'"^[4]

Politics

In 1829 and 1830, Manchola served as one of two delegates to represent the area around La Bahía in the legislature of the state of Coahuila y Tejas. One of his first acts was to propose a renaming of the town from which he was elected. The town which had grown around the presidio was also known as La Bahía (the bay), despite the fact that neither presidio nor town were currently located on or near a bay. Manchola proposed that the town be renamed after Father Hidalgo, who had played a great role in the Mexican War of Independence. Rather than name the town Hidalgo, though, Manchola created an anagram, "Goliad". The request was approved on February 4, 1829. At the same time, the town was elevated to a villa, making it a small capital town with jurisdiction over nearby areas.^[5] During his term he also protested to the governor, Agustin Viesca, insisting that the Mexican government enforce the September 1823 order to secularize all missions that had been operating for more than 10 years. Manchola prepared detailed documentation of the histories of the missions in his area and incidents in which settlers accused the mission Indians of wrongdoing. Manchola wanted the missions to be disbanded, with the lands sold to settlers. Viesca soon ordered the political chief at San Antonio de Bexar to enforce the secularization order, which was finally implemented in 1830.^[1]

The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict, and the culmination of a political and social process which ended the rule of Spain in 1821 in the territory of New Spain. The war had its antecedent in Napoleon's French invasion of Spain in 1808; it extended from the Cry of Dolores by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla on September 16, 1810, to the entrance of the Army of the Three Guarantees led by Agustín de Iturbide to Mexico City on September 27, 1821. September 16 is celebrated as Mexican Independence Day.

Anagram word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once: e.g. binary → brainy; rail safety → fairy tales; William Shakespeare → I am a weakish speller

An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word anagram can be rearranged into nag a ram, or the word binary into brainy.

The Mexican secularization act of 1833 was passed twelve years after Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821. Mexico feared Spain would continue to have influence and power in California because most of the Spanish missions in California remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church in Spain. As the new Mexican republic matured, calls for the secularization ("disestablishment") of the missions increased. Once fully implemented, the secularization act, called An Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California, took away much of the California Mission land and sold or gave it away in large grants called ranchos.

Manchola also successfully helped the settlers in his father's colony to resolve title issues. Under his prodding, the legislature finally set official boundaries for de Leon's colony and appointed a commissioner to issue titles to the families which had already settled in that area. This resulted in the creation of a new municipality for the area around Guadalupe Victoria, the major city in de Leon's colony.^[5]

Victoria, Texas City and county seat in Texas, United States

Victoria is the largest city and county seat of Victoria County, Texas. The population was 62,592 as of the 2010 census. The three counties of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 111,163 as of the 2000 census. Its elevation is 95 ft.

After his legislative term ended, Manchola was elected alcade (mayor) of Goliad.^[5] Manchola was a firm believer that Texas deserved separate statehood within Mexico. In August 1832, at the request of his friend, influential empresario Stephen F. Austin, Manchola used his influence with the local council to persuade them to make an official declaration of support for Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and the Mexican Constitution of 1824. At the time, such a declaration was illegal. Soon, however, the governor of Coahuila y Tejas and other communities within the state made similar declarations.^[6]

In October 1832, delegates met at the Convention of 1832 to write a constitution for a proposed state of Texas. Manchola reached the convention shortly after the delegates approved the document and had elected William H. Wharton to bring it to Mexico City. Manchola volunteered to accompany Wharton at his own expense—he and other delegates thought the expedition might have more success if a Tejano was also involved. Their departure was delayed after Austin and the political leaders in San Antonio de Bexar expressed reservations about the timing of the request. Within a few weeks, a cholera epidemic reached Texas. Manchola likely died during the epidemic.^[6]

Footnotes

1 2 3 Roell, Craig H., Rafael Antonio Manchola, Handbook of Texas, retrieved 2008-09-19
↑ Huson (1974), p. 62.
↑ Roell (1994), p. 29.
↑ de la Teja (1997), p. 89.
1 2 3 Huson (1974), p. 63.
1 2 Huson (1974), p. 64.

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References

de la Teja, Jesus F. (1997), "The Colonization and Independence of Texas: A Tejano Perspective", in Rodriguez O., Jaime E.; Vincent, Kathryn, Myths, Misdeeds, and Misunderstandings: The Roots of Conflict in U.S.–Mexican Relations, Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc., ISBN 0-8420-2662-2
Huson, Hobart (1974), Captain Phillip Dimmitt's Commandancy of Goliad, 1835–1836: An Episode of the Mexican Federalist War in Texas, Usually Referred to as the Texian Revolution, Austin, Texas: Von Boeckmann-Jones Co.
Roell, Craig H. (1994), Remember Goliad! A History of La Bahia, Fred Rider Cotten Popular History Series (9), Austin, TX: Texas State Historical Association, ISBN 0-87611-141-X

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[handbook-1] 1 2 3 Roell, Craig H., Rafael Antonio Manchola, Handbook of Texas, retrieved 2008-09-19

[huson62-2] Huson (1974), p. 62.

[3] Roell (1994), p. 29.

[delateja89-4] Teja (1997), p. 89.

[huson63-5] 1 2 3 Huson (1974), p. 63.

[huson64-6] 1 2 Huson (1974), p. 64.