Founder never meant for settlement to be named ‘Victoria’

Victoria never should have been named Victoria.

“It’s a history he-said, she-said,” archivist Brittany Rodriquez, of the Victoria Regional History Center, said, while trying to find the source of the city’s name.

With the city’s bicentennial coming up in 2024, some residents might wonder how Victoria got its name.

When asked to help answer this question, a research assistant at the center said, “You’ve stumbled onto a real mystery here.”

It should be simple. Empresario Martin De Leon established the settlement known as “Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Jesus Victoria” in 1824, three years after Mexico gained its independence from Spain. He was granted his application for an empresario contract April 13, 1824.

There’s the rub: De Leon gave the name Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Jesus (Our Lady Of Guadalupe of Jesus) when he applied for the land grant to colonize the area. There was no “Victoria” in his request, De Leon descendant Blanche De Leon said.

So, where did that extra word, “Victoria,” come from?

Source material at the regional history center indicates it was slipped in at the Mexican government office in San Antonio that processed applications for land grants.

The claim can also be found in the book “De Leon, A Tejano Family History,” written by Ana Carolina Castillo Crimm, published in 2003 by the University of Texas Press.

Someone at that office decided to add the word “Victoria” as a nod to Guadalupe Victoria, the general who became the first elected president of Mexico that same year, according to “300 Years in Victoria County.”

Blanche De Leon went one step further, saying Guadalupe Victoria himself insisted that his name — “Victoria” — be added.

“He made them alter the name,” she said. “He was glorifying himself.”

“Guadalupe Victoria” was not even the general’s given name. He was born Jose Miguel Ramon Adaucto Fernandez y Felix. He changed his name to show his devotion to the Lady of Guadalupe and to Mexican victory.

Somehow, as time passed, the story became that Martin De Leon shared a “warm friendship” with President Guadalupe Victoria, and it was De Leon who added “Victoria” to the name of his colony, sources at the center suggest.

This is highly unlikely, Crimm wrote, as Victoria never visited Texas, and there is no evidence De Leon ever visited Mexico City. There is no evidence, she said, of a friendship between the two men.

On the internet, different sites indicate that De Leon named his colony for Guadalupe Victoria, or for the Lady of Guadalupe, or for a combination of the two. And yet, research into the subject lends credence to only one conclusion: Victoria was never meant to be named Victoria, rather it should have been named “Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Jesus” as De Leon wanted.

Tamara covers the public safety beat for the Advocate. She can be reached at 361-580-6597 or tdiaz@vicad.com.