Going on fifteen years, I have been researching my family tree. Although I speak Spanish, I do not read or write it, so records in Spanish are a hindrance; however, I am finding more information little by little.
The General is on my father’s side of the family, 9th grandfather. They were some of the original settlers of Northern Mexico and South Texas. He can be found on Wikipedia—the founder of San Antonio, Texas. The mission was relocated to present-day San Antonio.
Alonso de León “El Mozo” (c. 1639–1691) was an explorer and governor in New Spain who led several expeditions into the area that is now northeastern Mexico and southern Texas.
Alonso de León González was born in 1639, in the settlement of Cadereyta, Nuevo León in New Spain. He was the third son of General Alonso De León, a celebrated chronicler, historian and conquistador of the frontier of Nuevo León, and Josefa González.[1] To distinguish him from his father, who was also a prominent leader in the colony, sometimes the phrase, El Mozo, would later be appended to his name (or its English equivalent, “the younger”).
De León served as mayor of Cadereyta from 1667 to 1675. He was governor of Nuevo León from 1682 to 1684. In 1687, he was appointed governor of Nueva Extremadura, New Spain.
He was involved in establishing San Francisco de los Tejas in 1690, the first Spanish mission in East Texas. In doing so, he blazed the trail for much of the Old San Antonio Road. During his expeditions, he named several Texas rivers, including the San Marcos River, the Guadalupe, the Medina, the Nueces, and the Trinity.
De León died in Coahuila on March 20, 1691.
