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                            Hispano America USA, Inc.
                                          An overview of Contributions of Hispanics &  
                              Spanish Speaking America - World and United States History
                                             Copyright © 1996-98 all rights reserved

                         America's first Thanksgiving
                                    400TH ANNIVERSARY

                                   by: Ivonne Figueroa

"La Toma" is one of the most significant historical events in this hemisphere and the first of its kind in America. Thanks to the chronicles of Gaspar Perez de Villagrá, the official chronicler, military outfitter and missionizer of the Don Juan de Oñate y Salazar expedition (1598-1609), we have a written history of this most important event. 1998 marks the 400th anniversary of the Don Juan de Oñate epic expedition through El Paso del Norte. Perez de Villagrá's accounts offer us but a glimpse of the ordeal.

Everyone expected Nuevo México, as the new territory was called, to be a rich land comparable to México. Oñate wanted to serve God, the King, and get rich. He also wanted to be Governor. Settlers in the new world were hit by "hidalgo-mania". All the heads of household were offered the title of "hidalgo", a low nobleman rank, if they recided 5 years in Nuevo México. Noblemen could use the title "Don", were exempt from taxes, and were free from arrests for debts. The prospect of riches came in a close second.

Over 400 men, 130 of their families, and several Franciscan priests made up the expedition. A four mile long procession of 83 wooden wheeled wagons and carts plus 7000 to 8000 horses, 7000 head of livestock cattle, spare oxen, pack mules, donkeys, sheep, and goats completed the expedition. Supplies that included mining and blacksmithing tools, medicine, Indian trade goods, seeds, plows and other necessities were stored in the carts. The expedition was to colonize Nuevo México, give first attention to the affairs of the Church, initiate the conversion of the Indians. Other purposes were for territorial expansion, mineral prospecting, finding coasts and navigable ports.

Their journey which began in Santa Barbara, Mexico, just south of Chihuahua, set out to carve a new and shorter trail through the desert. The trip proved to be more than then expected. After four months of travel and several weeks of food and water rationing they ran out of food and water and had to eat desert berries and drink water from occasional drinking holes or from cactus plants. Their shoes wore out from the burning sands. The horses, barely able to survive carrying large loads of supplies, without water or nourishment, bumped into rocks and shrubs due to exhaustion. On the fifth day without food and water they saw in the distance what looked like a river. They arrived on the shores of the then vast and beautiful Río del Norte (Río Grande) on April 20th 1598.

The gaunt horses jumped into the river, two of them drinking until they burst and died. Two other horses plunged too far into the current and unable to swim because of their condition drowned. The men with parched throats dove into the river, quenched their thirst, then threw themselves upon the sand to rest. For ten days they rested feasting on fish, ducks and geese and swimming in the cool and deep waters of the Río del Norte.

A day of Thanksgiving and rest was ordered by Don Oñate before the expedition continued its journey. On April 30th a "Thanksgiving" celebration was held, the first in America. Oñate memorialized the occasion by declaring "La Toma" - claiming the land for God and el Rey Felipe of Spain and naming the area "El Paso del Río del Norte". La Toma is a great historical event comparable to the pilgrims in Plymouth twenty five years later. The conquistadores Praised their Savior and offered a High Mass on the shores of the Río del Norte. A ceremony followed, men and women dressed in their finest, an army drawn on military formation, trumpets blew, shots were fired - a celebration had begun.

The first play in America was created and presented that day. The conquistadores and their families ate, drank and gave thanks. The following day they began the last part of the journey. It took them four months to reach their final destination just north of present day Santa Fe what was then and is now Nuevo México. Oñate and the conquistadores had a very hard time full of trials and tribulations. There were Indian assaults and wars, hunger, cold, discontent among the settlers, desertion, rebellion, and more. Years later Oñate finally resigned as Governor of Nuevo México and moved to his home in Zacatecas.

The Celebration

Sheldon Hall, whose brainchild the celebration is, had no idea the event would make national headlines. The celebration was originally purposed to bring attention to the Mission Trail. Remembering having heard of a book that retold the story of an early conquistador thanksgiving Mr. Hall researched the event.

The first re-enactment of the first documented (Villagra "History of New Mexico", 1611) Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1989 at Chamizal National Memorial Park sponsored by the Junior League the first three years. Sheldon Hall, wanting to bring attention to the great city of El Paso, Texas, contacted the Associate Press which spread the news of this historic event all over the states. Hall explained that soon thereafter the Wall Street Journal sent a couple of reporters down to do a story which was printed on the first page. To Hall's surprise it made quite a hit . Now, using a children's book and a video on the re-enactment that is available, most schools districts all over the nation are teaching about the real first Thanksgiving along the banks of the Río Grande in El Paso. As a result El Paso is receiving major coverage and publicity and the lost history of this area is being told explained Sheldon Hall.

For $15.00 you can order "Pioneers on the Rio Grand - The very first Thanksgiving" a children's book by Bea Bragg and the video "The First Thankgiving - a Re-enactment" by the EL Paso Mission Trail Association . Also available is "Historic El Paso" by Ken Flynn for $39.95. To order send your request with payment to El Paso Mission Trail Association; PO Box 3789; El Paso, TX 79923.

The Father of New Mexico

Juan de Oñate was born in 1550 in Zacatecas, México to Don Cristóbal de Oñate, a wealthy Spanish nobleman and frontier governor whose family was from the Basque region in Spain, and Doña Catalina de Salazar y de la Cadena, born in Granada, Spain. Juan and his brother Cristóbal were twins.

In the late1580's Juan de Oñate married Isabel de Tolosa Cortés de Moctezuma, daughter of Juan de Tolosa and Leonor Cortés de Moctezuma. Doña Leonor was the daughter of marquis Fernando Cortés, the conqueror of México, and his mistress Isabel Moctezuma, daughter of the Aztec emperor. Juan and Isabel had two children, a son named Cristóbal de Naharriondo Pérez Oñate y Cortés Moctezuma, and a daughter named María de Oñate y Cortés Moctezuma.
                                    
     

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