Pedro de la Fuente Fernández: Spanish Priest and Saltillo's First Historian (1742–1812)

Pedro de la Fuente Fernández, better known as Pedro Fuentes, served as parish priest of San Fernando de Béxar from 1771 to 1790 and later served in the same capacity in the towns of San Esteban de Nueva Tlaxcala and Santiago del Saltillo. He is considered Saltillo’s first historian. The son of Toribio de la Fuente and Gertrudis Ramos, he was born in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, and baptized in the parish church on August 26, 1742. Pedro studied for the priesthood in St. Joseph’s Seminary in Guadalajara and was ordained in December 1770. His first posting appears to have been to San Fernando, the parish church of what is now San Antonio, Texas, where he arrived in summer 1771 and served until 1790. After Refugio de la Garza, his tenure was the second longest of any parish priest to serve in Texas during the Spanish and Mexican eras. As the most prominent man in town, grandson of Spaniard Francisco de la Fuente Fernández, a prominent property owner in the Saltillo area who served in the local government and as provincial head of the Santa Hermandad (rural constabulary), Father Fuentes was the only individual in San Antonio suitable to serve as godfather to four of the children born to Governor Barón de Ripperda and his wife Mariana Gómez de Parada Gallo y Villavicencio between 1771 and 1777.

Fuentes appears to have been particularly zealous to his duties throughout his tenure. During his first decade of service, he was the subject of a number of complaints. Complaints made against him during Commandant General Teodoro de Croix’s inspection visit in January 1778 included separating children from their parents, jailing a woman suspected of infidelity, and showing disrespect to the ayuntamiento. In some of these cases, Fuentes was accused of having relied on his compadrazgo (godparent) relationship with Governor Ripperdá, particularly in his efforts to build what ultimately became the first two-story house in San Antonio. During his inspection, Croix recognized Fuentes’s service as interim chaplain of the presidio company and compensated him for a task he continued to perform throughout his tenure, as it proved impossible for the company to fill the post on a permanent basis. In addition, in 1775 Fuentes made the first and possibly the only pastoral visit east to the new settlement of Bucareli, which was established by former residents of the abandoned Los Adaes and was in turn abandoned in 1779 upon the founding of Nacogdoches.

Father Fuentes’s influence in late eighteenth-century Texas extended beyond his pastoral work and tenure in San Antonio. During his first few years as pastor, he brought to San Antonio various family members, including sisters, at least one brother, and his father Toribio, who served as the first overseer of the town’s upper farm and as alcalde. His sister María Guadalupe married Santiago Seguín and was the mother of leading Mexican era public figure Erasmo Seguín. Another sister married Vicente Flores and was the mother of prominent Mexican era public figure Gaspar Flores. Fuentes was also tied to the Veramendi family and served as an executor to the estate of Fernando Veramendi, and as guardian and tutor to Fernando’s three sons, including Juan Martín, prominent Tejano leader during the Mexican War of Independence and governor of Coahuila y Texas in 1833. He also conducted the purity of blood investigation (a requirement for ordination to the priesthood in Spanish realms) of José Clemente de Arocha, who went on to serve as pastor from the early nineteenth century until the Casas Revolt at the start of the Mexican War of Independence. Fuentes’s brother Ramón, who followed Pedro and other family members to San Antonio and remained after Pedro returned to Saltillo, served as alcalde at least once, in 1794.

During Fuentes’s tenure, Texas was transferred to a new diocese centered in Monterrey that also included the province of Coahuila (see CATHOLIC DIOCESAN CHURCH OF SPANISH AND MEXICAN TEXAS). In summer 1789 Fuentes attended a diocesan conference of priests where he apparently obtained a transfer to the Tlaxcalteca parish of San Esteban, adjacent to Saltillo, where he served between 1790 and 1795. He then took over as parish priest of Saltillo and was responsible for the inauguration ceremonies in 1800 for the church that now serves as the Cathedral of Santiago del Saltillo. He died in April 1812, still in office.