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Most Americans think that the first Thanksgiving meal was between Indigenous people and pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1621. But decades earlier, there was another feast near the banks of the Rio Grande in present-day west Texas. Angela Kocherga with member station KTEP reports on why many historians in the region call that event the true first Thanksgiving.
ANGELA KOCHERGA, BYLINE: The centuries old San Elizario Chapel is gleaming white under a bright blue sky. It's one of three churches on the El Paso historic Mission Trail, enduring symbols of the Spanish colonial past. San Elizario's chapel is still an active parish.
CORINA CHAVIRA: There's a lot of history in this town.
KOCHERGA: On a recent Sunday, Corina Chavira (ph), her husband and 7-year-old daughter were among the crowd leaving Mass. Though proud of their historic hometown, many don't know this was the site of what some historians say was the first Thanksgiving gathering in 1598.
DAVID ROMO: Way before the landing at Plymouth Rock.
KOCHERGA: Historian and author David Romo says Spanish explorer Juan de Onate and his expedition celebrated their arrival after a grueling trek north that ended near the banks of the Rio Grande.
ROMO: And so after they crossed, they went back to their camp in San Elizario and invited a lot of these Native people. And the Native people, as always, were very hospitable. And they brought corn and fish, and they had this meal.
KOCHERGA: According to Spanish historical records, Onate and his party gave thanks for their survival and safe passage and put on a play about Christian missionaries.
ROMO: This is where some people say the first Thanksgiving - or as I like to call it, the first Thankstaking - happened.
KOCHERGA: Onate claimed the land for the Spanish crown and colonized the American southwest. Yale historian Ned Blackhawk is the author of "The Rediscovery Of America: Native Peoples And The Unmaking Of U.S. History."
NED BLACKHAWK: It's deeply ironic and historically inaccurate to frame the first European colonization efforts in either the Rio Grande and/or in Plymouth Colony as welcoming and celebratory moments.
KOCHERGA: Blackhawk says the idea of the traditional American gathering at Plymouth Rock has been mythologized.
BLACKHAWK: The understanding of Thanksgiving as we know it nationally only developed in the late 19th century, when the United States was beginning to establish a strong sense of its national identity distinctive from Europe.
KOCHERGA: There is another place that claims it was the site of the first Thanksgiving, St. Augustine, Florida, with the arrival of Spanish explorers in 1565. Whatever the origin story, the modern holiday is an opportunity for families to gather together, says Corina Chavira.
CHAVIRA: Oh, it's like, what, 20 of us?
KOCHERGA: Among the blessings they're grateful for?
CHAVIRA: Being healthy, just being present with our family.
KOCHERGA: A Thanksgiving tradition many Americans celebrate.
For NPR News, I'm Angela Kocherga in San Elizario, Texas. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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