Main Plaza still follows San Fernando's 1731 town plan

On March 9, 1731, a small Crown-sponsored party from the Canary Islands finally reached the Presidio of San Antonio de Bexar. The trip had taken more than a year by sea to Veracruz and then overland through New Spain. Spain offered passage, land, and status because it wanted a lasting civilian town on this frontier.

Captain Juan Antonio de Almazan laid out the Villa of San Fernando de Bexar that summer. His plan set space for a plaza, church, government building, home lots, and farm fields. The plaza became today's Main Plaza. The town council, or cabildo, selected Juan Leal Goraz as alcalde, a colonial office often translated as mayor.

The newcomers did not arrive in an empty place. Indigenous mission residents, soldiers and their families, friars, and other settlers already lived nearby. They cooperated and argued over water, land, cattle, guards, and labor. Life around the plaza gradually helped form the distinct Tejano city San Antonio would become.