IN HER LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT, ESPIRITU SANTO LAND GRANT DESCENDANT DONA ESTEFANA GOSEASCOCHEA CAVAZOS DE CORTINA BEQUEATHS HER LAND TO HER FAMILY

By Juan Montoya

When the Spanish Crown granted the land to Don Jose Salvador De la Garza, the original grantee of the Potrero del Espiritu Santo Land Grant in 1781, it was a vast tract of 59.5-leagues of land (284,415.8 acres).

Within that tract now lie the cities of Brownsville, San Benito, Harlingen, La Feria and most of the land from the Rio Grande to the Arroyo Colorado. The original boundaries of the grant included the site of Rancho Viejo and the Ft. Brown Military installation. It is also recognized as the first ranch established north of the Rio Grande (Rancho Viejo).

That in itself is noteworthy since the United States had come into being in 1776, 246 years ago, only seven years before the Crown issued De la Garza title to the land. Also noteworthy is that the grant predated the 1836 establishment of the Republic of Texas by 55 years, and the annexation of Texas into the United States in 1855 by 64 years.

But after only 18 years after South Texas became part of the United States following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 that ended the U.S.-Mexican War, that grant had dwindled down to 4,300 acres through legal chicanery and outright theft on the part of a clique of judges and Brownsville attorneys accused of expropriating land from Mexican Texans unfamiliar with the American judicial system.

The largest share of the land was held by De la Garza' granddaughter Estefana Goseascochea Cavazos de Cortina who held on to most of her allotted portion of the Espíritu Santo grant until her death in 1867. She established a ranching community that she named Rancho el Carmen (El Carmen Ranch), building a house and chapel. While here, Doña Estéfana lost a portion of her land to robber barons, despite a court ruling in her favor.

Upon her death, her will – having been written in July 15, 1860 – divided the remaining land in five sections was placed in the Cameron County Clerk's Office on December 1867. (We thank Dr. Marie Theresa Hernandez Ramirez, Professor of World Cultures and Literatures at the University of Houston for having furnished us a copy of the will.)

In it, she asked her surviving sons and daughters that they not quibble or fight over her land and possessions and "place my soul in the hands of the Supreme Being with my spirit in peace for having achieved the obligation of being a good mother, a good Christian and receive in peace the will of our divine creator."

"I wish my remains be placed in a vault in the cemetery that is in the property of my residence...and be given a religious funeral using the humble rites of the Catholic Church without pomp or superfluous costs."

"It is my will (voluntad) that my land be divided into five equal parts: One fifth to my son Sabas Cavazos, a fifth to my daughter Carmen Cortinas, a fifth to my son Jose Maria Cortinas, and the descendants of my son Juan N. Cortina, and the remaining fifth be divided among them... 

"My last wishes are that I ask from my beloved sons is that they accept with the most harmonious manner and agreement in the disposition of my will in the division (of the) little land I leave them as I place my soul to posterity..."