Agapito's Mission in the Pineywoods

About this book

The history of Texas and the American Southwest does not begin with the English-speaking settlers who arrived in the 19th century. By then, three centuries of European culture had already impregnated the aboriginal groups with their institutions and left their mark on the land with developed settlements. Christian missionaries were the driving force. This is the story of Agapito Margil, a Spanish boy who became a missionary of great historical significance. Its footprint is found from the forests of Texas and Louisiana, a region known as the Pineywoods, to the jungles of Panama. The missions he founded today are cities, towns, universities, hospitals, schools and churches. In Texas, his mission accomplished is the Hispanic legacy that flows with the bloodlines of the Aboriginal ethnic groups, mixed with those of the many races of Spain and its empire. As head of the Missionary Colleges in Zacatecas and Queretaro, Mexico, he forged the plans for the Texas Missions chain that began in the deserts of northern Mexico. Establishing many of the missions himself and overseeing the work of the school-trained missionaries, he made his mark in the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, Goliad, Nacogdoches, and Natchitoches in Louisiana which was then part of New Spain.The famous Mission San Jose and San Miguel in San Antonio, now home and museum of San Antonio Missions National Park, was founded by Friar Margil more than 300 years ago. Young apprentices in Margil's missions founded California's 21 famous missions. St. Junipero Serra, leader of the California missions, was formed in the institutions established by Friar Margil. Learn about the legends that are still told about his extraordinary life, how a tiger transported his provisions through the jungles of Costa Rica, how he walked beyond the length of the Earth's circumference during his lifetime, how he financed the construction of one of his missions assisted by a jewel-covered lizard, how from his staff he planted a tree in a garden in Querétaro that produces miraculous thorns in the form of crosses. Find out about his hen Josefina and how she won the Chicken War for Texas against the French invaders. Sam Houston in one of his writings described the miracle known as "the Eyes of Father Margil", a spring that in the middle of a drought saved the population that is now Nacogdoches in the forests of Texas.The book is illustrated by the author. It has a map of his travels in North America. During his life, Fray Margil interacted with the aborigines of the territories he explored to establish the missions. Their accounts describe the cultural characteristics of these groups. Among them, the Caddo-Hasinai, the Karankawas, the Payayas and the Suliajames. Converts to the mission eventually became Hispanics, trained and educated. Many were the first cowboys to initiate the Texas relationship with the famous Longhorns in the Franciscan missions. Learn about Angelina, a Caddo leader honored by Texas as the only woman whose name was given to a county, a bayou and major river, and a college.