WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Antonia's Leap off Mt. Bonnell

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT Antonia’s leap off Mt. Bonnell? Note: Don’t miss Michael Barnes’ Think Texas columns every Tuesday in the Austin Statesman. He recommends a book by Noah Smithwick, The Revolution of a State. Barnes claims that Smithwick is the best story teller about the period 1830-1860; the “Old 300”was Stephen f. Austin’s first colony. __________________________________________________________________ Now, I have two tales to tell. (1) A frequently told legend and (2) A personal story about the descendant of a former president of Mexico. __________________________________________________________________ 1. The Legend: Mt. Bonnell is a favorite tourist site and a fine place to picnic while viewing Lake Austin. It was well known by the central Texas tribes of Indians as well as early settlers. Antonia was a Spanish maiden living in an early San Antonio mission. A Comanche chief kidnaped the beautiful Antonia. Her fiancé searched, found and rescued her and they were returning to the mission. Comanche warriors tracked them to Mt. Bonnell. With 50 arrows the warriors pierced and killed her brave paramour. Antonia in her sorrow leapt from the cliff above the river 780 feet to her death. 2. I met a descendent of former Mexican President Gomez Farias, who was first elected vice president but he alternated with President Santa Anna because the president frequently preferred to be GENERAL Santa Anna of the Mexican Army. Later Gomez was elected president. __________________________________________________________________ President Farias was a very popular president. His descendant became known as Carmen Dehesa y Gomez Farias when she represented the family in the 100 year celebration of her relative’s presidency. __________________________________________________________________ I met Carmen when she and I both were traveling alone in Rome. We took many of the same bus tours and although I understood very little Spanish and her English was lacking, we became friends. Later visiting her in Mexico City, she seemed very paranoid by not allowing me to take a cab from the airport to the Geneva Hotel where she lived. She insisted on sending a driver for me. While I was in Mexico City, we were joined for lunch by my son Stuart who was there studying Spanish at that time. Walking by a newsstand, we heard Carmen gasp when seeing a headline. Stuart asked what had distressed her. The news story was about a reporter who was Carmen’s friend. The newspaper was reporting her friend’s assassination, __________________________________________________________________ Carmen’s grandparents had represented Mexico at the English court of St. James. She took me to a bank vault to view her grandmother’s amazing jewels. Among them was a tiara that originally belonged to Carlotta, the wife of Maximilian and Empress of Mexico. Carmen, as the last living descendent of her family, was concerned that her grandmother’s jewels would be stolen or confiscated by the Mexican government when she died. She asked if I would wear one of the bracelets back to the United States. No I didn’t dare! __________________________________________________________________ When she arrived at our home for a visit in Austin she was wearing a suit designed by Schiaparelli with pockets sewed inside the jacket to conceal…I know not what. We made an appointment for her to authenticate President Gomez Farias’s papers that long ago had been stolen and are now in the possession of the University of Texas in the Latin American Studies Archives. She had a brought a list of items and notes which proved authenticity. __________________________________________________________________ Carmen was buried in the capital city of Jalapa, in the state of Veracruz where her father was once Governor. I understand Carmen’s paranoia more today than I did in the 1980s when I was visiting her in Mexico City. At that time dangers in Mexico were not so widely known. Carole Sikes 2020