The Scandal involving San Antonio de Valero’s First Master Builder

“May all men know that the soldier Matías Treviño has died of the wounds dealt him by Antonio de Tello. Tello, in the name of the King, may God protect him, you are ordered to give yourself up.”¹

By some such announcement was the sleeping villa of San Fernando de Béjar aroused from slumber on the hot morning of August 22, 1744, by the town crier, Juan “the Apache.” Tello, employed by the mission of San Antonio de Valero and lover of María Rosa Guerra, had mortally wounded María’s husband, Matías Treviño, the previous evening. The townspeople must have been shocked over this development. Quarreling and scandal among the citizens were part of the daily fabric of this frontier community, but murder was not and the principals were well known to the town.

Antonio de Tello, a 31-year-old Spaniard, was a master mason from Zacatecas who had come to San Antonio de Valero to build the first permanent stone buildings, including the church. On November 17, 1741, he had served as godfather to the 5-day-old Narciso, son of the Payaya Indian Manuel Quiñones and his wife, Isabel.² On July 12 of the following year he was godfather to an infant daughter of the Menanque Indian Anacleto (still known by his native name of Bobeon) and his un-baptized Caguas wife named Ojap.³ By the time of the murder a fair-sized Indian population had provided a sufficient labor force to allow for the completion of the friary and to begin construction of the new church.⁴ The cornerstone of the new building, designed with a tower and sacristy, was laid on May 8 of that fatal year.⁵

Matías Treviño, a 48-year-old soldier at the Presidio de San Antonio and a native of Nuevo León,⁶ had taken María Rosa Guerra as his wife in the mission church of San Antonio on July 19, 1728.⁷ His bride was herself the daughter of a military man, Miguel Guerra, and his wife, Josefa Longoria, who were among the first families brought to the presidio when it was established in 1718.⁸

This drama of adultery and murder culminated about nine o’clock on the evening of August 21 when Treviño, slumped over his horse, his right arm with its shattered wrist clamped over a bloody, gaping wound in his side from which his entrails were spilling, rode up to the house of Gerónimo Flores,⁹ crying, “Brother Gerónimo, confession, I have been killed! Bring me a confessor.” A small crowd rallied to the cry. Juan de Rosas, possibly a brother-in-law of the wounded man, arrived.¹⁰ Nicolás de Caravajal, Martín Saucedo, and Joseph de la Garza, all soldiers from the Royal Presidio de San Antonio, gathered. Because the villa lacked a professional surgeon or doctor, someone went to find Fray Juan de los Angeles, acknowledged as the most experienced person available in the dressing of wounds. Another went to report the assault to Don Alberto López Aguado y Villa Fuerte, who as alcalde ordinario or judge of the town council had to be informed. The crowd grew about the home of Gerónimo Flores as word of the attack quickly spread. Curiously, María Rosa Guerra was not among them.

Don López Aguado went into action. Upon being informed by Treviño that he had been wounded by Tello in a wooded area about three-quarters of a league¹¹ from the villa, he requested the help of the presidial captain, Don Toribio de Urrutia. The latter put four soldiers at the disposal of the alcalde, who dispatched them together with some settlers to the Indian towns to seek the culprit.¹² López Aguado called the notary of the villa, Don Francisco de Arocha, to come and certify the wounds of the dying man. Since Fray de los Angeles had not arrived, López Aguado sent for Pedro Veserra, who...