Italians have a long history in Texas. The earliest Italians arrived during the years of Spanish exploration. 300 years before ports opened up along the Texas coast. Although they did not settle, these explorers arrived in Texas with Spaniard Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541.

Italian settlers first arrived in the late 1700s as merchants. Settling in Nacogdoches and modern-day East Texas, working as farmers, miners, brick makers and railroad workers. An Italian arrived in Del Rio and established Texas’s first winery in 1883.