The Bloody Arm of Goliad
by Robert Gariano
In 1749 thirteen enterprising families from the Mexican interior relocated to a small patch of river bottom land on the banks of the Rio Bravo in Tampaulitos Province. The land there was fertile and rich because the land frequently flooded when the spring rains came. The settlers recognized that the rolling hills were ideal for raising cattle and the silage that supported the animals through the mild winters. The land had been first explored by Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda in 1519. Two hundred and twenty years later the area was still largely considered frontier. The new rancheros were the target of Indian raids and attacks by wild eyed bandits. Still, it was a land of plenty for the cattle ranchers.
In 1793, to colonize the province of Nuevo Santander, which included Tampaulitos, two Franciscan missionaries named Francisco Pueyes and Manuel Júlio Silva established a parish in the main plaza of that city that would later be called Matamoros. They proposed a new name for the community, Villa del Refugio, in honor of the parish and patron saint, Our Lady of the Refuge of the Estuaries.
Little Francita was born on a crisp fall day in 1816 in a small adobe house next to the main church in Villa del Refugio. Francita’s last name has been lost in the fog of those early times but she was soon to have a new one. Francita’s father worked as a ranch foreman and her mother was a cook and caretaker for the Franciscan brothers in the parish. Both were generous and religious people. Francita’s mother was an especially devout Roman Catholic as she cared for the poor peasants who often came to the church for food or to obtain donated clothing. Francita would frequently help her mother care for these poor people. They came to call her by affectionate names like Panchita or Francisca. The little girl was pious, charitable, and beautiful with her long black hair and coal black eyes.
One day, when she was nineteen years old, Francita was in the plaza serving food to some of the poor families. There was a commotion when a troop of Mexican federal cavalry arrived under the command of Captain Telesforo Alvez. The captain saw the beautiful young woman. The girl was similarly taken by the dashing officer on his chestnut colored little horse. Within days, Captain Alvarez proposed to Francita’s father and, within the month, the couple sailed from Villa del Refugio to Copano Bay, Texas where her new husband would take command of a small cavalry troop fighting the insurgent Texican settlers in that area. Little did Francita Alavez know that this short journey from her hometown would take her into the history books. Her charity and bravery would permanently embed her in the hearts of Texan citizens to this very day.
At Copano Bay, Francita found that she had become part of a brutal enterprise. Mexican army wives travelled with the column of troops serving as cooks, laundry maids, and nurses in support of their husbands’ service.
Mexico’s new president, Santa Anna, had instructed an army of over 5500 soldiers to travel to east Texas to subdue a rebellion being fomented by Sam Houston, Steve Austin, and other settlers. Captain Alvez and his troop were part of a contingent sent to attack the rebels at their garrison in Goliad, a small fortified town 40 miles northwest of Copano Bay. The rebels had declared their intention to stand up to the Mexican troops and to fight under a new flag that depicted a bloody arm.
This militant and defiant banner, designed by Goliad garrison commander Captain Phillip Dimmitt, dramatically reflected the political shift. Texans and Captain Dimmitt decided to change away from support of the independent statehood of Texas in the Mexican Federalist Republic and return to the Constitution of 1824 to support complete separation from Mexico as an independent Republic.
Captain Dimmitt was at first an avid Mexican Federalist and opposed to separation. He returned to Goliad from Bexar about December 14 and designed what has been called the first flag of independence, depicting a bloody arm holding a bloody sword on a white field, which was raised on December 20, 1835, at La Bahía to commemorate the Goliad Declaration of Independence.
Dimmitt’s bloody arm flag was raised over the Presidio upon the signing of the Goliad Declaration of Independence. It was meant to reflect the Texans complete separation from Mexico as an independent republic. It was defiant in that it also stated that the Texans were willing to sacrifice and severe their right arms rather than live under tyranny and a dictator. The Mexican troops attacked the small garrison at Goliad as they moved north towards the other civilian settlements in east Texas. It did not take them long to subdue the insurrection at Goliad. After a short battle, in March of 1836, Texas troops under the command of Col. James W. Fannin, Jr. surrendered to Mexican forces.
It was the custom in those days that men taken as prisoners of war would eventually be paroled and returned to their country. This is what Fannin had expected would happen to his men. The Mexican commander, Gen. Jose de Urrea, had told him that they would be treated honorably and not be harmed. But as was his habit, General Santa Anna overruled Urrea and ordered all the prisoners to be executed. At sunrise on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836, 342 men including Col. Fannin were put to death by firing squad.
After this horrible chain of events, stories began to surface about the exploits of a young Mexican girl named Francita Alavez. Some of the survivors of the massacre told of the kindness they were shown by the wife of a Mexican officer known as Captain Alavez. Francita was credited with persuading one Mexican officer not to carry out his orders to execute Texas soldiers who had been part of Maj. William P. Miller's command. These men had been held as prisoners at Copano Bay and then taken to Goliad to be murdered with the rest of Fanin’s command.
Other stories were told that Francita slipped into the fort at Goliad the evening before the massacre and brought out several of the men and hid them. If she had been caught saving these men, the woman who would soon be known as the "Angel of Goliad" would certainly have been executed.
Following the defeat of Gen. Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, Captain Alavez took Francita and returned to Matamoros, Mexico. While in that city, she aided Texas soldiers who were held prisoner there.
Francita was eventually abandoned by her husband in Mexico City after the war. Destitute, he returned by herself to Matamoros. There are other stories about how, even in her poverty, she helped war prisoners and refugees along the way. Francita finally found work on the King Ranch. She lived into her nineties and is buried there in an unmarked grave.
A statue to the Angel of Goliad was erected in the main plaza at the site of the Goliad Presidio just off present day Route 183 south of the today’s Goliad town. It can be seen to this day as a tribute to this kind and beautiful young woman who, at risk of her own life, aided the Texans in their brutal fight for indepe