{"id":359294,"date":"2026-07-03T00:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T00:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/359294\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T00:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T00:00:08","slug":"america250-descendants-of-revolutionary-war-supporters-keep-south-texas-history-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/359294\/","title":{"rendered":"America250: Descendants of Revolutionary War supporters keep South Texas history alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 As the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary<\/a> of signing the Declaration of Independence, members of the Sons of the American Revolution in San Antonio are highlighting the often-overlooked role South Texas played in helping the United States win its independence.<\/p>\n

Inside Raul Hinojosa\u2019s North Side home, a Spanish silver coin is on display that dates to the 1770s \u2014 a tangible link to his family\u2019s history in what was then New Spain.<\/p>\n

Hinojosa traces his ancestry to Jose Manuel Hinojosa, whose family established ranches along the Rio Grande generations before Texas became part of the United States. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were lucky to get many of our ranches on the Rio Grande,\u201d Hinojosa said. \u201cThe big thing about cattle is you need water. By chance, one of my cousins still owns the ranch 300 years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those ranches played an important role in the Revolutionary War effort, Hinojosa said. <\/p>\n

Cattle raised in South Texas were driven to Louisiana to supply Spanish Governor Bernardo de G\u00e1lvez\u2019s forces before salted beef eventually reached Gen. George Washington\u2019s Continental Army. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe herded it…to New Orleans to feed G\u00e1lvez,\u201d Hinojosa said. \u201cAt some point, they started processing and salting it to get the meat to George Washington. Without that, especially around Valley Forge, they would have starved to death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ron Finch, president of the San Antonio chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, said many people don\u2019t realize families in what is now Texas contributed to the fight for independence. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all New Spain back at the time,\u201d Finch said. \u201cYou had individuals who participated in the cattle drives.\u201d <\/p>\n

Finch said ranchers supplied cattle while others in New Spain also helped finance the Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1930, the San Antonio chapter has approximately 200 members. Finch said descendants of those who supported American independence are eligible to join, even if their ancestors were not part of the original 13 colonies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many avenues,\u201d Finch said. \u201cYou didn\u2019t have to be part of the 13 colonies. It could have been from here within New Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group is already looking ahead to 2033, when the nation will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo even though we\u2019re doing the declaration of the 250 this year,\u201d Finch said, \u201cit really just got started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more recent America250 coverage on KSAT:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 As the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of signing the Declaration of Independence, members of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[92895,114586,842,82,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-359294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-america250","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-north-side","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}