AGAPITO'S MISSION: TEXAS PIONEER: History and Legends of Fray Margil de Jesus OFM

The history of Texas and the Southwest of the United States does not begin with the English-speaking settlers that arrived in the XIX century. By then, three centuries of European culture had already infused the aboriginal groups with its institutions and left its imprint on the land with developed settlements. Missionaries were the driving force. This is the story of Agapito Margil, one Spanish boy who became a leading missionary. His imprint can be found from the forests of Louisiana to the jungles of Panama. The missions he founded are today cities, towns, universities, hospitals, schools and churches. In Texas, his accomplished mission is the Hispanic legacy that flows with the bloodlines of aboriginal ethnic groups, mixed with those of the many races of Spain and its empire. The famous Mission San Jose & San Miguel in San Antonio, now the Headquarters and Museum of The San Antonio Missions National Park was founded by Friar Margil more than 300 years ago. As the head of the Colleges of Missionaries in Zacatecas and Queretaro, in Mexico, he forged the plans for the chain of Texas Missions that started in the deserts of northern Mexico. Establishing many of the missions himself and supervising the work of the missionaries trained in the colleges, he left his imprint in the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, Goliad, Nacogdoches, Natchitoches in Louisiana. Young trainees at Margil's missions went on to establish the 21 famous missions of California. Saint Junipero Serra, leader of the California missions, was trained at the institutions established by Fray Margil. Learn about the legends that are still told about his extraordinary life, how a tiger carried his supplies in the jungles of Costa Rica, how he walked more than the length of the circumference of the Earth during his lifetime, how he financed the construction of one of his missions assisted by a lizard covered with jewels, how from his walking staff he planted in a garden in Queretaro a tree grew that produces miraculous thorns in the shape of crosses. Learn about his hen Josefina and how she won for Texas the Chicken War against French invaders. The book is illustrated by the author. It has a map of his travels throughout North America and a pedagogical guide. During his life, Fray Margil interacted with the aborigines of the territories he explored to establish the missions. His stories describe the cultural characteristics of those groups. Among them, the Caddo-Hasinai, the Karankawas, the Payayas and Suliajames. The mission converts eventually became Hispanos, trained and educated, the worked as the first cowboys that began the Texas relationship with the famous Longhorns.