Hispanic Heroes of the American Revolution Take the Stage with TWAM
By Ben Gunter
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Looking at Florida’s crucial but little-known role in the American Revolution turns a spotlight on Hispanic heroes who made independence possible for the USA – heroes Theater with a Mission (TWAM) is featuring in a new play called Feuding Families in Florida 1776.
Take, for example, Bernardo Vicente de Gálvez y Madrid. Gálvez combined creative policy mapping with persuasive speechmaking and brilliant battle planning to convert West Florida, which had started the Revolutionary War as a staunchly loyalist British colony, into a territory that enthusiastically supported independence.
According to Kathleen DuVal, who won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 2025, Gálvez’s achievements changed the course of history. British officials in West Florida never succeeded in working out a way to recruit a militia – civilians who served in military units for short periods of time, primarily deployed to protect their own hometowns.
But Gálvez made recruiting a strong militia the first priority in his policy, starting with his inauguration as Spanish governor of Louisiana in 1777. “When he discovered that the upper class of New Orleans did not serve in the militia ‘because they do not want to serve in formations next to their own shoemakers and hairdressers,’” writes DuVal in her prize-winning history Independence Lost, “he established an elite cavalry order called ‘Carabineros de la Luisiana,’ complete with fancy uniforms down to the gilt buttons, gold thread buttonholes, and matching sabers to lure them. He increased the size of the New Orleans free black militia. In West Florida, slaveholders resisted arming free blacks, but Gálvez made a particular effort to enlist locals of all kinds in the militias.”
From 1779 to 1781, Gálvez proved that persuasive speechmaking was the Revolution’s most powerful tool for transforming West Florida from British colony to independent territory. Gálvez had to show French and Acadian residents why they should join his army, leave their homes, and cross the Mississippi to fight for the USA. He had to talk Native nations into remaining neutral. And he had to convince Spanish officials in Cuba and Madrid to send support for his part in the Revolution – ships, soldiers, presents for Natives, and munitions for winning the war in Baton Rouge, Mobile, and Pensacola. On every front, his silver tongue won the war.
Kathleen DuVal summarizes how Gálvez galvanized French and Acadian support in New Orleans. First the “brave young governor” announced that the King had appointed him brigadier general and asked him to swear “to defend the province.” Then he stated that, while he himself would “shed the last drop of my blood in sacrifice for my Sovereign,” he could not in good conscience swear to defend Louisiana … unless the people of the province promised to help him fulfill that oath. The speech succeeded brilliantly. “They almost carried me in their arms to the Cabildo,” Gálvez reported to his uncle on the Council of the Indies, “forcing open the doors without waiting for the keys. [With] the greatest acclamations of joy, [they] promised me they would sacrifice their lives in service to the King and do the same with their property.”
Gálvez proceeded to become a hero on the battlefield, too. During a war where British West Florida stretched all the way to the Mississippi River, Gálvez brilliantly outgeneraled the British in Baton Rouge, Mobile, and Pensacola, proving himself a master of surprise attacks, strategic sieges, and honorable conduct – he guaranteed the safety of civilians in the city of Pensacola, even when the British failed to honor their promise of withdrawing every one of their troops out of the city and into Fort George. As Kathleen DuVal sums up the Spanish siege of Pensacola, “Enlightened leaders, cutting-edge military tactics, careful Indian diplomacy, and an inclusive military force had been wildly successful.” Patriots noticed. As Wikipedia reports, “On May 9, 1783, the Congressional Congress issued a resolution to display a portrait painting of Gálvez … ‘in the room in which Congress meets.’” Today, a portrait of this Hispanic hero still hangs in the United States Capitol.
This year, you can salute Gálvez in person. Just in time for America 250, Theater with a Mission (TWAM) is writing Gálvez into a play all about Florida during the American Revolution – a play called Feuding Families in Florida 1776 – and TWAM is featuring Gálvez during a free, 3-day, family-friendly festival called “Time Travel into Florida 1776” at Goodwood Museum & Gardens in Tallahassee on May 29-31, 2026. Details at TheaterwithaMission.com. Meet a Hispanic hero from the American Revolution this year!
