Tejano History
Oca Y Aleman, Manuel Antonio De
OCA Y ALEMÁN, MANUEL ANTONIO DE (?–?). Manuel Antonio de Oca y Alemán, who commanded San Luis de las Amarillas Presidio (San Sabá) in its final stages, the son of Josef Antonio de Oca and Manuela de Alemán y Oribe, was born in the first half of the eighteenth century at Logroño, Spain. Both his parents and his grandparents were “old Christians” of racial purity, as the term was applied in the Spain of that day. Educated at the University of Hirache, Oca graduated as a bachelor of laws, but circumstances led him into a military career. After serving four years as a cadet in the Queen's Infantry Regiment, he was made lieutenant colonel of the Logroño militia. He went to New Spain in 1758 with a two-year crown appointment as alcalde mayor of Sayula province. His duties, which he is said to have discharged with notable efficiency and integrity, included collection of royal tributes. From Sayula, Oca was summoned by the viceroy, Marqués de Cruillas, to service in the Seven Years' War as a subaltern. In recognition of his military service, he was made commandant of the province and presidio of Nayarit, where he served four years before being sent to Texas. Ordered to relieve Felipe de Rábago y Terán as San Sabá commandant, Oca reached San Fernando de Austria in northern Coahuila, where he encountered Rábago and assumed command on April 1, 1769.
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Full article on the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas Online
Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.
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