Alamo acquires collection of mission-era artifacts that it will begin exhibiting next year

Renowned Western artist Donald Yena has a hard time picking his favorite item among the more than 400 Spanish mission-era tools, weapons and other artifacts he and his wife have collected over the years. But Yena, 89, said he is especially proud of a circa-1790 Spanish belduque knife, made from wrought iron, with a cutting edge of steel, which was exceptionally hard to find in early Texas. It was still being used on a ranch in Uvalde County when he purchased it. “To this day, I have people that are blacksmiths, and they can’t figure out how they did that — when you have two dissimilar metals side by side, and they become as one the whole length of the blade,” Yena said. His wife, Louise Yena, 87, favored a Spanish powder horn with a gold-inlay crucifix and a Spanish miquelet pistol with ornate decorations that included a double eagle, symbolic of Spain’s Habsburg monarchy.

The Alamo Trust, the nonprofit that oversees the Alamo’s daily operations, recently purchased the Donald and Louise Yena Spanish Colonial Collection. Trust officials said the collection provides perspectives on Indigenous and Tejano cultures and “will illustrate how Texas changed and evolved” from the early 1700s to 1821, when Mexico won independence from Spain. Some items will be displayed when the Alamo’s new collections building opens early next year. The price of the collection, acquired through eight years of negotiations led by the Alamo Trust and the Texas General Land Office, was not disclosed. Donald Yena said he and his wife consider it an honor “beyond belief” to have the collection in the care of the mission and battle site, where it will be seen by “visitors from around the world.” “My wife and I consider it hallowed ground,” he said. Donald Yena grew up in Castroville and began collecting artifacts with his wife in the 1950s, using them for accuracy and detail in his artwork. Louise Yena is a San Antonio native, former elementary school teacher and author of “The Handbook of Antique Coffee and Tea Collectibles.” Besides selling their collection, the Yenas have donated Donald Yena’s latest works to the Alamo — six large paintings depicting life in early Spanish Texas and the 1836 battle.