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During the seventy-seventh Texas Legislature House
Representative Kip Averitt, actually serving as a Senator for Texas District
22, authored a Bill that was passed by the House and the Senate on which
Francisca Alvarez is congratulated and her memory is honored. Here is
a copy of the bill.
By Averitt
H.R. No. 802
77R13349 MMS-D
R E S O L U T I O N
1-1 WHEREAS, Francisca Alvarez, known as the
Angel of Goliad,
1-2 intervened to save the lives of many Texas prisoners
of war during
1-3 the Texas Revolution, helped some to escape, and
gave assistance to
1-4 numerous others; and
1-5 WHEREAS, Senora Alvarez was among the
families that
1-6 accompanied General Jose de Urrea and his troops
when they marched
1-7 northward from Matamoros in February 1836 to help
put down the
1-8 rebellion in Texas; she was at Copano when Mexican
troops there
1-9 captured William P. Miller's Nashville Battalion, a
group of some
1-10 75 men; when she discovered how tightly the prisoners had been
1-11 bound, she arranged for their bonds to be loosened and for the
men
1-12 to be given refreshment; afterward, she went with the part of
1-13 General Urrea's force that marched the Nashville Battalion to
1-14 Goliad, where they joined men of James W. Fannin's command who
had
1-15 been captured at about the same time; and
1-16 WHEREAS, Hoping to discourage American aid to the Texan
1-17 uprising, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had secured from
the
1-18 Mexican Congress a decree mandating the execution of all
foreign
1-19 hostiles who were captured; and
1-20 WHEREAS, At Goliad, Senora Alvarez was instrumental in
having
1-21 the lives of 20 men spared from the general execution known as
the
1-22 Goliad Massacre; she also helped several men escape from the
fort
1-23 the night before the killing took place, and saved a
15-year-old
1-24 boy on the morning of the fateful day; not long after, she is
said
2-1 to have secured the reversal of an order to execute
all the
2-2 remaining Goliad prisoners, a group consisting of
the Nashville
2-3 Battalion and the 20 others who had previously been
spared; and
2-4 WHEREAS, Moving on to Victoria, Senora
Alvarez sent messages
2-5 and provisions back to the surviving Goliad
captives; with one or
2-6 more of the other officers' wives, she stepped
before a firing
2-7 squad in Victoria to stop the execution of several
Americans, and
2-8 she persuaded the commanding officer to spare some
20 additional
2-9 prisoners in his keeping; she also helped at least
one prisoner
2-10 escape; and
2-11 WHEREAS, After the Texan victory at San Jacinto, she
returned
2-12 with Urrea's troops to Matamoros, where she aided Texas
prisoners
2-13 held in that city; in time, those writing about the revolution
2-14 hailed her as the "Angel of Goliad"; and
2-15 WHEREAS, Descendants of Francisca Alvarez have long
resided
2-16 in South Texas; their numbers have included King Ranch foremen,
a
2-17 county commissioner for Kleberg County, and Dr. Lauro Cavazos,
2-18 former president of Texas Tech University and United States
2-19 secretary of education from 1988 to 1990; and
2-20 WHEREAS, The matriarch of this notable family earned the
2-21 profound gratitude of Texas soldiers at the dawn of the
Republic
2-22 through her remarkable acts of generosity and humanity, and her
2-23 story deserves to be known by all Texans; now, therefore, be it
2-24 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 77th
Texas
2-25 Legislature hereby honor the memory of Francisca Alvarez, the
Angel
2-26 of Goliad, for the great assistance she rendered Texas
prisoners of
2-27 war during the turbulent days of the Revolution and the months
that
3-1 followed.
Averitt
_______________________________
Speaker of the House
I certify that H.R. No. 802 was adopted by the House on May
11, 2001, by a non-record vote.
_______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House |
Senator
Kip Averitt
|
