From the Annals of the Colonists –  In 1731, colonists from the Canary Islands established Villa de San Fernando. Under the leadership of Juan Leal Goraz, the group marched overland from Veracruz to the presidio of San Antonio de Bexar.  The party had increased by marriages on the way to fifteen families with a total of fifty-six persons. They joined a military community that had been in existence since 1718. The group ultimately became part of the Villa of San Fernando de Bexar, the first regularly organized civil government in Texas. Several of the old families of San Antonio trace their descent from the Canary Island colonists. María Rosa Padrón was the first baby born of Canary Islander descent in San Antonio.