Juan Leal
| Juan Leal Goraz | |
|---|---|
| 1st Mayor of San Antonio, Texas (1st term) | |
|
In office 1731–1732 |
|
| Succeeded by | Antonio de los Santos |
| 4th Mayor of San Antonio (2nd term) | |
|
In office 1735–1735 |
|
| Preceded by | Manuel de Niz |
| Succeeded by | Antonio de los Santos |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1676 Teguise, Lanzarote, (Canary Islands, Spain) |
| Died | March, 1742 or 1743 San Antonio, Texas |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Spouse(s) | Lucía (Catarina) Hernández · María Melano |
| Profession | councilor and Mayor |
Juan Leal Goraz (1676–1742 or 1743), also called Juan Leal Gonzal, was a Spanish settler and politician who served as the first alcalde (a municipal magistrate with both judicial and administrative functions) of La Villa de San Fernando, which later would become the city of San Antonio, Texas. He came in 1731 with a group of Spanish settlers from the Canary Islands to populate this municipality, founded by the Spanish government under the sponsorship of King Philip V. Leal had asserted himself as the Canarian emigrants' leader and spokesman since they left the islands. He served as alcade of San Antonio between 1731 and 1732, and again in 1735.
Juan Leal was born in 1676 in the city of Teguise, in Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain). He was the son of Antonio Goraz and Maria Peres and became a councilor of the municipality of Teguise. He lived in the village of San Bartolomé, on the same island.
In 1730, the Spanish Crown decided to sponsor ten or eleven families from the Canary Islands to emigrate to Villa de San Fernando because of a supposed threat to Spanish interests by the French in Louisiana. Leal was the first Canarian councilor to respond, and agreed to enlist seven families of the ten more needed for the enterprise.
In Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife, Bartolomé de Casabuena, Superintendent of the Court of the Indies in the Canary Islands, appointed the oldest male among the chosen settlers, which happened to be Leal, as their leader. He accepted the assignment. On March 27, 1730, Leal, along with his own and the other Canarian families, departed from Santa Cruz on the frigate Santísima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Rosario, headed for Veracruz, via Havana. The first impression that the Canarians, who were unaccustomed to sea travel, had of their transport was that the ship was very small for such a long voyage. When many in the group panicked from fear and confusion, Leal's calm demeanor reassured them, and helped them endure a passage on rough seas across the Atlantic. This was the first indication of his natural ability as a leader, although not all his decisions were at first accepted by every one of the Canarian settlers. The group eventually came to the mutual conclusion that they needed a leader to choose a course of action to address any problems.
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