Southwestern Historical Quarterly

In Francisco Amangual, Trustee of the Presidio, colonial historian Roland Rodríguez examines the administrative responsibilities of presidio paymasters (habilitados) in New Spain’s northern borderlands. The book also explores the evolution of compañías volantes, or flying squadrons, in the eighteenth-century Comandancia General. Rodríguez uses long-time soldier Francisco Amangual as a loose narrative link, revealing through his experiences the stark reality of conditions in the Spanish borderlands: Life was hard, and vice was common.

Chapters One and Two provide essential context by introducing Amangual and outlining the conditions on the Spanish frontier that led to the rise of compañías volantes and the paymaster system. Chapter Three explores the effects of the 1729 and 1772 Reglamentos and delves into an intriguing slander case against Amangual. Chapter Four examines Spain’s policy of “peace by purchase,” the 1786 Galvez Instrucción, and the complexities of the Captain Cortés contraband case. Chapter Five focuses on Spain’s system of punishment and surveillance, specifically concerning unruly presidio soldiers such as Manuel de Urrutia and non-Spanish outsiders. In Chapters Six and Seven, Rodríguez explores the expanding Anglo-American presence in the region, Amangual’s promotion to captain of the compañía volante of San Carlos de Parras, and the 1808 expedition to Santa Fe.

While presidio soldiers often evoke images of “wild horse rides in the night [End Page 467] and bloody confrontations with obstinate Native populations,” Rodríguez demonstrates that most days in a soldier’s life were far more mundane (p. 277). The author argues, however, that mundane logistical and operational activities, especially those of mid-ranked administrators such as paymasters, played a large role in cementing a stable Spanish presence in Texas. Readers will also discover how vecinos leveraged the jurisdictional fluidity of the Spanish empire to their advantage in legal matters. One of the book’s most interesting arguments, however, is tucked away on page 229. Here, Rodríguez describes La Bahía and Béxar as “international hubs,” emphasizing the extensive activity between multiple poli-ties, both Native and non-Native. This argument aligns with the themes of diversity later explored in Sam Haynes’s nineteenth-century focused Unsettled Land (2022).

Francisco Amangual, Trustee of the Presidio is a significant text for several reasons. It highlights the independent nature of soldiers on the Texas frontier, introduces new archival sources, and offers insight into the interactions among soldiers of different ranks. It also simplifies complex legal cases, making them more accessible to researchers. Most studies of borderland presidios, such as Max Moor-head’s The Presidio (1975), take a top-down approach, emphasizing institutional frameworks, weaponry, and high-ranking officers. Francisco Amangual attempts to broaden this perspective by incorporating the experiences of mid-level officers. That said, the text still reads with a top-down, institutional approach, and in the author’s own words is not necessarily “revisionist” (p. 17).

Despite its many valuable contributions to presidio history, Rodríguez’s book is not without flaws. The most significant issue is its structure and writing style, which limit its accessibility to graduate students and professional historians. While the book effectively highlights the everyday tasks and consequences of administrative procedures in presidios, it does so in a way that often feels disjointed and difficult to follow—greater signposting is needed. Rodríguez also characterizes presidio life as “essentially undesirable, neither lucrative nor prestigious, until higher rank was achieved” (p. 275). While this is true to a large extent, it is important to note that becoming a presidio soldier was still one of the more desirable career paths in the job-scarce northern borderlands. Despite these critiques, Francisco Amangual, Trustee of the Presidio is a worthwhile book to purchase, especially if you study the Spanish periphery.