Background
She was born in Mexico, in what is now known as Tamaulipas.
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Rosa Balli
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Career
Her parents, Juan José de Hinojosa and María Antonia Inés Ballí de Benavides, were Spanish aristocrats who had priority rights to extensive land grants and public offices because they were Primitive Settlers. In 1767 her family moved to Reynosa, where her father had been appointed as alcade. Rosa married José María Ballí, who was a captain of the militia.
Rosa endowed churches, including the first chapel in Matamoros.
When she died she owned more than one million acres of land in what is now the Rio Grande Valley. Her son Padre Ballí was an original grantee of Padre Island, which was named after him.
Rosa had made a joint application with Padre for eleven leagues of the island, but when reapplication was required in 1800, she withdrew her name in favor of him.
