Angel Navarro (abt. 1749 - 1808)

Born about 1749 in Ajaccio, Corsica, Republic of Genoa, now Corse-du-Sud, Corse, France

Husband of Maria Josefa Gertrudis Ruiz — married 1 Nov 1782 in Saltillo, Mexico

Descendants

Died 31 Oct 1808 at about age 59 in La Villa de San Fernando de Bejar, Province of Texas, Nueva España

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Bexar County

Biography

Angel Navarro was a Texan.

Angel Navarro, Spanish soldier, politician, and merchant.

Lived in New Spain

Angel Navarro is Notable.

Ángel Navarro was a worldly man of 44 when he described his journey from the Mediteranean island of Corsica in a letter to the Spanish Governor of Texas, Manuel Muñoz, in 1792:

“I am from the island of Corisca, province of Ajaccio and I left there in the year 1762. I left my parents without their permission at the age of thirteen or fourteen and embarked for Genoa. After a while I embarked for Barcelona, and from there to Cadiz, always seeking to serve various persons to earn my keep…”

When Ángel Navarro (most likely known as Angelu in his homeland) was born in the late 1840s, the Mediteranean island of Corsica had been ruled by the Republic of Genoa for centuries. Corsica proclaimed its independence from the Genoese government in 1755 but it was short-lived as Genoa, and ultimately, France would govern the island.

Navarro traveled from his home in Ajaccio on the western edge of Corsica to Genoa, then to Barcelona, and finally to Cadiz on the North Atlantic side of the Iberian Peninsula. Cadiz was the primary port for ships sailing to and from the Americas when Navarro arrived in Spain. It was here that Navarro likely learned about the merchant trade and opportunities that existed in New Spain.

The twenty year-old Navarro made the journey to New Spain around 1768. The Port of Veracruz was likely where he landed. If that is the case, he would have disembarked at San Juan de Ulúa, the island fortress at which his son, José Antonio, would later be imprisoned. Ángel Navarro served in the Spanish army before emigrating to Texas.

A silver strike in 1766 attracted many fortune seekers to the desert north of Monterrey in the province of Nuevo Leon.

“…and it was thus that I came to these kingdoms. I arrived with the obligation of finding employment with Don Juan Antonio Agustin in the Mining district of Vallecillo. I served him for about eight years…”

Vallecillo was often times hostile, the area’s settlements were vulnerable to raids, highway robberies and corruption. The mines in the region were dependent upon the labor of indigenous people who were brutally exploited in order to hastily extract silver. Ángel likely served Juan Antonio Agustín as an apprentice of the merchantile trade from around 1770 until 1778. The two sold manufactured goods such as cloth and housewares at trade centers where they were otherwise unavailable.

Ángel Navarro first appears in the 1779 Bexar census where records indicate he was a 27 year old unmarried merchant possessing one horse. Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1690 until 1821. Ángel Navarro was a San Antonio merchant. Ángel likely bought and sold goods that would be difficult to acquire in Spanish Texas such as cloth and crockery. According to census records he was an active participant in the slave trade at this time.

By 1792 Ángel Navarro married María Joséfa Ruiz y Peña (born 1766), daughter of Juan Manuel Ruiz of Querétaro and Manuela de la Peña of Saltillo, Coahuila, who were a prominent family in San Antonio.

Ángel Navarro and María Ruiz Navarro were the parents of José Franciso Eduardo, José Angel, José Antonio Baldomero, María Gertrudis, María Simona, María Joséfa Candida (married Juan Martin Veramendi), José Francisco Salas, María Antonia, José Luciano, José Anselmo and José Eugenio. The Navarro family home was located on what is now the corner of W. Commerce and N. Flores Streets.

Memoirs of a contemporary named Rodriguez remarked: Ángel Navarro "a countryman of Napoleon Bonaparte, the latter going toward the rising sun to become the greatest man mentioned in secular history, and the former [Ángel Navarro] towards the setting sun of a small border town in the wilds of Texas."

From May 1807 to 1808, Bexareños (residents of San Antonio de Béxar) elected Angel Navarro as alcalde (mayor), and four times as assistant alcalde and numerous times as an alderman.^[1]

On October 31, 1808, Ángel Navarro died at the age of fifty-eight. He was the first to be buried west of San Pedro Creek, in Campo Santo Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas which is in the present-day area of Santa Rosa Hospital and Milam Park. Ángel Navarro had helped fund the cemetery’s construction the previous year.^[2][3][4]

Sources

1. ↑ City of San Antonio Mayors and Alcaldes
2. ↑ Jose Navarro biography on Texas A&M website
3. ↑ Ángel Navarro: A Corsican’s Journey to Béxar
4. ↑ [Angel Navarro Memorial #81198459 on findagrave.com