Podcast: Galveston and Macharaviaya: Tied by a Revolutionary (Sister City Series)

Galveston Island has four sister cities across the globe: Niigata, Japan; Stavanger, Norway; Veracruz, Mexico; and Macharaviaya, Spain. So far, in this Galveston Island sister city series, we've covered all of the sister cities except for one. Macharaviaya.

If you haven't yet, go check out the previous episodes in this Galveston Island Sister City series.

Unlike the other three sister cities, Macharaviaya does not have a bustling port, but it shares a significant historical connection with Galveston Island. Macharaviaya is a small village located in the province of Malaga in southern Spain. It's known for its picturesque whitewashed villages and rolling hills and is just a few miles inland from the Mediterranean coast.

Like the whole of Europe, Old World history runs deep through this village. From warring Muslims and Christians in the early Crusades to the Spanish Inquisition, Mata Ravijaya has been around through it all. This tiny mountain village of around 400 people was the home of the wealthy and powerful Galvez family. In the 1700s, the Galvez family revitalized the village by investing in churches and infrastructure in the town. One notable figure from the Galvez family is Bernardo Vicente Galvez y Madrid, also known as Bernardo de Galvez, born in Macharaviaya in 1746 to one of the most distinguished families in the royal service.

Bernardo de Galvez followed the family tradition and joined the Spanish military. A soldier since the age of 16, de Galvez participated in several wars across Europe, the Americas, and North Africa. He participated in the Spanish Army's invasion of Portugal and faced off against the Portuguese and their British allies during the Seven Years' War. Little did he know that his journey would lead him to a critical juncture in the birth of a new nation across the Atlantic. He made his way to Mexico, known at the time as New Spain. He was then transferred to the formerly French province of Louisiana and officially became governor of Spanish Louisiana on January 1st, 1777.

This vast territory of over 800,000 square miles, from the Gulf of Mexico in modern-day Louisiana to just north of the modern-day Canadian border, would later become the object of the Louisiana Purchase, making it part of the United States in 1803. But before this territory could be purchased by the United States, there needed to be a United States.

The geopolitical landscape of the time was complex. Great Britain had emerged victorious over Spain in the Seven Years War. And sought ways to consolidate its power while dealing with those pesky American colonies. Spain harbored its own ambitions, a tightly held secret to weaken the British Empire and gain global trading and colonial expansion advantages.

Spain's loss of Florida during the Seven Years' War left a significant portion of the American coastline under British control, which did not align with Spanish interests. Enter Bernardo de Galvez. Stationed in New Orleans, the main outpost and port in Spanish Louisiana, Bernardo de Galvez became the crucial link in Spain's covert support of the American revolutionary cause. Of course, Spain was not particularly interested in fighting a war for the American colony's interests.

The Kingdom of Spain had its own goals of expansion in the Americas, and Britain's goals of expansion in the same region were impeding Spain's mission. Spain was happy to support the colonies fighting the British and assist in expending their enemy's resources. De Galvez's meticulous planning allowed American and Allied ships to slip into New Orleans undetected, evading the British Navy's watchful eye that encircled most eastern ports. These ships bore much-needed supplies, including muskets, gunpowder, and more essentials for the American colony's rebelling troops' survival.

De Galvez orchestrated the transportation of these supplies up the mighty Mississippi and Ohio rivers, ensuring they reached the hands of those fighting for American independence while avoiding British blockades and detection. When American forces launched raids against the British along the Mississippi River in 1778, Governor Bernardo de Galvez displayed extraordinary generosity to the Americans.

He allowed the Americans to sell their captured goods in New Orleans, bolstering American cash flow and the supply of weapons for Spanish forces and forging an unspoken alliance between Galvez and the colonies. But the true game changer arrived in 1779, when Spain signed a treaty of alliance with France, uniting against their common foe, Great Britain.

France's role in the American Revolution cannot be understated. The sentiment, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, was the consensus between Spain, France, and the American colonies. With just 600 soldiers made up of Spaniards, Americans, free black men, and immigrants from around the world, and two warships, De Galvez embarked on a daring campaign with one of the most sparse and diverse military forces of the era. Within a month of Britain's declaration of war on Spain, De Galvez led his troops in capturing four British forts, including Baton Rouge, Neches, Mobile, and Pensacola. This effort was dubbed the Gulf Coast campaign to take back the Gulf Coast from the British. Following the fall of Pensacola, all of British West Florida fell under Spanish control.

With the help of Spain and Bernardo de Galvez, the weakened British Army and Navy found themselves unable to sustain their hold on vital territory to effectively support other theaters of the war. The tide of the American Revolution had turned. In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, the Treaty of Paris in 1783 ceded Florida back to Spain.

By 1785, Galvez was appointed as Viceroy of New Spain. That same year, he instructed his navigator, Jose Devia, to chart the entire Gulf Coast. When Eva arrived at the largest bay on the Gulf Coast, he named that bay in honor of Galvez, Baia de Galvez town. And the island just south of the bay quickly took on the name Galveston.

Bernardo de Galvez, a young man from Macharaviaya, Spain, assisted the American colonies in gaining their independence from the British Empire. In honor of this important historical figure, the citizens of Macharaviaya celebrate the 4th of July every year by dressing in period costumes and reenacting scenes from the Siege of Pensacola.

Although Bernardo de Galvez never set foot on Galveston Island, Macharaviaya and Galveston Island are connected by the legacy that Galvez left on the United States.