Why Urbano and María Trinidad Can't Get Married: Social Relations in Late Colonial San Antonio

Pragmática-sanción a consulta del Consejo, en que S.M. establece to conveniente, para que los hijos defamilia con arreglo à las leyes del Reyno pidan el consejo, y consentimiento paterno, antes de celebrar esponsales . . . (Madrid: Imprenta de Pedro Marín, 1776). Courtesy ofthe Biblioteca Nacional deEspaña, Madrid. Why Urbano and Mana Trinidad Can 't Get Married: Social Relations in Late Colonial San Antonio Jesús F. de la Teja* Our case study begins on the evening ofJune 3, 1781, when troopers José Miguel and Francisco Sales Games and Pedro Hernández (acting on behalf of his brother Carlos) presented themselves before Texas governor Domingo Cabello. The Sales Games brothers were the paternal uncles and the Hernandezes were the stepbrothers of Ana Maria de la Trinidad Games, the first banns for whom had been pronounced at Sunday Mass in the parish church earlier that day. The soldiers informed the governor that the proclamation of banns for Urbano Hinojosa and their niece and stepsister was an affront to their honor, as Urbano was an Indian of unknown parentage from Mission San Antonio de Valero. They complained to the governor that the day before they had attempted to talk Maria Trinidad's widowed mother, Gertrudis Pérez, out of agreeing to the marriage as it was dishonorable , and that she had agreed to bring the matter to a close. Now, discovering that she had disregarded their will, they sought relief from Cabello. They asserted that Pérez was a woman of poorjudgment and a spendthrift who had been manipulated by FrayJosé María Salas, the missionary at Mission Valero, who made a deal with her so she would consent to her underage daughter's marriage. Citing the Pragmática Sanción of 1776 (see frontis) regulating the marriage of minors, they requested that the governor prevent the wedding. Governor Cabello, in view that the men were soldiers in the presidio company of Béxar, granted them relief, advised parish priest Father Pedro Fuentes of his decision , and deposited Maria Trinidad in the home of DonJosé de la Santa, *Jesús F. de la Teja is professor and chair of the Department of History at Texas State University and State Historian. He has been book review editor of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly since 1997 and served as managing editor of Catholic Southwest: Afoumal ofHistory and Culture between 1990 and 2005. He wishes to thank his wife Maggie for her careful reading and comments on the manuscript in various forms, and the staff of the TSHA for their graciousness under fire during his year as president, 2007-2008. Vol. CXII, no. 2 Southwestern Historical Quarterly October 2008 122Southwestern Historical QuarterlyOctober a "man of known good repute," where she might be properly taught Christian doctrine.1 On August 27, Urbano, having waited for a proper resolution of the matter, presented his side of the case, not to the governor but to Father Fuentes. Urbano still wished to contract matrimony with Maria Trinidad, whom he described as a mulata. According to him, Father Fuentes had received all the necessary information in the course of the required prénuptial investigation and found nothing to prevent the marriage. Urbano claimed that die girl's uncles and stepbrothers had no standing to invoke the Pragmática Sanción of 1776 as they were not the girl's parents or legal guardians. He then went on to respond to the charges made by the girl's male relatives. The charge that Maria Trinidad was too young was false, as her birth certificate showed that she was 1 3 years and 5 months old. Furthermore, she knew all the principal prayers as required. As to the charge that she was forced or deceived into the marriage , that too was false since after two months away from her home she still wanted to marry him. Having addressed the overt questions, Urbano turned his attention to the racial subtext. To quote him directly: To all this said brothers and uncles of Maria Trinidad add the feigned dishonor [desdoro] that would follow, because being soldiers it would not look right for their niece and sister to marry an Indian. It is very...