Jacinto Delgado: Spanish Colonial Politician and Rancher (1733–1780)
By: Anthony Delgado
Published: December 17, 2024
Updated: December 18, 2024
Jacinto Delgado, Spanish colonial politician, rancher, and militiaman, was born on October 7, 1733, in San Fernando de Béxar (present-day San Antonio). He was the second of six children born to Juan Delgado and Catarina Leal, two of the original Canary Islanders, that made up the twelfth family, among the fifty-six that arrived in San Antonio in March 1731. On January 9, 1760, Jacinto Delgado married Rita Álvarez Travieso, daughter of Vicente Álvarez Travieso and Mariana Curbelo. They had only one child, Clemente Delgado. Rita died one month before Clemente’s first birthday. Fifteen years later, Jacinto married Ramona de la Garza on September 24, 1776. They had two girls, Maria Gertrudis de la Encarnacion and Maria Antonia de la Luz. Only Gertrudis lived into adulthood.
Delgado, like many in his family, was a civic leader. He was the fourth member of the immediate Delgado family to serve on the town council. He followed in the political footsteps of his father, uncles, and maternal grandfather Juan Leal Goraz, who was San Antonio’s first alcalde in 1731. Delgado’s service on the town council spanned more than fifteen years, including election by his peers as first alcalde in 1768. One of the many duties of the alcalde was adjudicating disputes among the citizenries. During his tenure, he adjudicated a case where Vicente Amador was accused of assaulting Joseph Antonio Villegas. Delgado eventually closed the case after the accused paid a fine.
Delgado, along with many other Bexareños, was also a rancher. In 1778, when the Texas governor established policies that adversely affected the ranchers, Delgado teamed up with more than twenty other local ranchers and filed his affidavit and claim to his ranch. He, along with other extended members of the Delgado family, initially worked cattle on Mission Valero’s (the Alamo) Rancho de la Mora, once located in present-day Karnes County, before acquiring their own ranchlands. In 1779 Delgado was among the top ten cattle owners in Béxar. He has been credited as contributing some of his cattle to provide beef in support of the American Revolution, and the Daughters of the American Revolution recognized him for “patriotic service.” The lawsuit with the governor continued for decades beyond Jacinto’s life.
Delgado was also a member of the town’s militia that was comprised of citizen-soldiers who either provided their own weapons and horses or were provided these requisite supplies by the crown. During the mid-eighteenth century, the militia in Bexar was led by Simón de Arocha and included citizens such as Jacinto Delgado. In 1762 Texas governor Ángel de Martos y Navarette conducted an inspection of Bexar where he examined the town council’s financial records and archival records. The governor also inspected 105 presidio soldiers and militia members, including Delgado, accounting for their armament, ammunition, and horses. Delgado was recorded as having a musket, sword, and three horses of his own. Seventy percent of those inspected had their own musket, but only forty-two of them had at least one horse.
In 1774 Governor Ripperdá, who also was the province’s military leader, created defensive plans for the town and assigned militia members specific strategic positions in defense of the community. Jacinto Delgado’s squadron was assigned to defend the jail’s door while other squadrons defended other entrances, such as the bridge from San Pedro Creek, to the villa.
Jacinto Delgado died on August 17, 1780, in San Fernando de Béxar, according to San Fernando Church burial records. Almost twenty years passed before his meager estate was settled and distributed to his two heirs—Clemente Delgado and Maria Gertrudes Delgado de Quintero.
Bibliography:
Bexar Archives, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Jesús F. de la Teja, San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain’s Northern Frontier (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995). Jack Jackson, Los Mesteños: Spanish Ranching in Texas, 1721–1821 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986). “Mayors and Alcaldes,” Municipal Archives & Records, City of San Antonio (https://www.sanantonio.gov/Municipal-Archives-Records/About-Archives-Records/Mayors-and-Alcaldes#13097661-alcaldes-1836-to-1731), accessed December 10, 2024. Robert H. Thonhoff, The Texas Connection with the American Revolution (Austin: Eakin, 2000).
Categories:
Time Periods:
Places:
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Anthony Delgado, “Delgado, Jacinto,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/delgado-jacinto.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
FDELJ
All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 related to Copyright and “Fair Use” for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. The TSHA makes every effort to conform to the principles of fair use and to comply with copyright law.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
- December 17, 2024
- December 18, 2024
This entry belongs to the following special projects:
