Historian-librarian Luciano Guajardo constantly reminded people that the town’s archives contained details of how the neighbors of Tomas Sanchez made a living and how they got along with each other.

Personal writings

Guajardo felt the most telling details of early Spanish Villa de San Agustin de Laredo were found in personal writings (wills, testaments and letters).

These writings were preserved by families for generations after the village’s beginnings in 1755.

“Many of these wills and testaments were among the archived papers preserved in the offices of the mayor (alcalde), also referred to as judge or captain of the village,” Guajardo explained in his talks before local groups and students who would visit the library.

Guajardo was among a select group of history buffs ? to examine handwritten wills and testaments in Spanish among the thousands of documents preserved by Sebron S. Wilcox and San Agustin Church.

Guajardo said some of these papers were translated by Father Florencio Andres during his oblate assignment to Catholic parishes in Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Laredo.

A will’s importance


A person’s will would contain information about the individual, including date of birth, dates of other church sacraments (baptism, confirmation and communion), weddings, names of parents,

education, occupation, the spouse, children, inventory of property and goods owned (land, house, furniture, livestock and other animals, farm-ranch equipment, weapons, etc.).

A person’s testament would not be complete without a long and short list of taxes owed, debts to him or her as well as debts owed to others.

The testament also detailed instruction on disposition of the debts and who among the heirs would be recipients of benefits.

Seb Wilcox, the court reporter for the 49th District Court, who found and preserved the archives in 1934, observed that the early residents, who were literate, viewed wills and testaments as obligatory to their heirs.

Where there’s a way

“Like a notary public or secretary (escribano), they reduced family matters to writing,” Wilcox said in his frequent talks.

“If the maker of a will could not write it, he or she would seek out the escribano.

There would always be two or more witnesses who would sign to attest to the statements.”

Wilcox said the more affluent persons usually would call on the town’s alcalde or judge to be a witness, which explains why Tomas Sanchez’s closest relatives had their wills and testaments witnessed by the alcalde or a member of the town cabildo (council).

Guajardo, a library graduate of The University of Texas, was a natural for his job at the Laredo Pubic Library.

He knew Wilcox well and spent days and nights studying the voluminous Laredo archives and the record at San Agustin Church.

He became well-versed on the subject, and today some who pursue genealogy testify to Guajardo’s contributions to preserving local history.


At a recent reunion of Martin High School’s Class of 1960, graduates reminisced about Guajardo’s services at the Laredo Public Library when the library was housed in an open area in the second floor of downtown City Hall.

“He was the contact and the only one who would show you what the library had in the reference Ssection,” Lily (Flores) Perez told this writer.

“He remembered events, names and dates, and he would show you books and documents that others used for research or quoted in books.”

In the hundreds of documents, including wills translated and published in books by Robert D. Wood (“Death and Texas, Life In Laredo”), a frequent witness who signed secretary was Tomas Flores.

Among the Sanchez testaments of historic significance are the ones made by Tomas Sanchez’s nieces, nephews and grandchildren, who probably are buried on the grounds of modern day San Agustin Cathedral.

(Odie Arambula can be reached at oarambula@stx.rr.com)