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"Madam Candelaria" dies at age 113
On this day in 1899, Andrea Castañón Villanueva (Madam Candelaria), who claimed to be a survivor of the battle of the Alamo, died at age 113 in San Antonio. She said she had been born in Laredo in 1785, though other sources say she was born at Presidio del Río Grande. She came to San Antonio when she was about twenty-five and married Candelario Villanueva, who she said was her second husband; thereafter she became known as Madam or Señora Candelaria. She was the mother of four children and raised twenty-two orphans. She nursed the sick and aided the poor. She claimed to have been in the Alamo during the 1836 battle and to have nursed the ailing Jim Bowie. Since evidence of survivors is sparse, her claims may never be confirmed, but in 1891 the Texas legislature granted her a pension of twelve dollars a month for being an Alamo survivor and for her work with smallpox victims in San Antonio. Madam Candelaria is buried in San Fernando Cemetery.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- VILLANUEVA, ANDREA CASTANON
- ALAMO, BATTLE OF THE
- BOWIE, JAMES
- NURSING
- WOMEN AND HEALTH
- MEXICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Legislature confirms South Texas land grants (1852)
- French castaway reaches Natchitoches (1721)
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