José de Escandón y Helguera, conde de Sierra (May 19, 1700, Soto de la Marina, Cantabria, Spain – September 10, 1770, Querétaro, New Spain) was a Spanish Indian-fighter in New Spain and the founder and first governor of the colony of Nuevo Santander, which extended from the Pánuco River in the modern-day Mexican state of Tamaulipas to the Guadalupe River in the modern-day U.S. state of Texas.

He volunteered to serve as a cadet in the cavalry of the city of Mérida, Aadi where he fought against the English at Laguna de Términos.

In 1742 he was transferred from Querétaro to Veracruz, which was threatened by the English, but upon his arrival he received orders to return to Tehuacán.

Upon the acceptance of Escandón's plan, it was advertised in Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Charcas, Huasteca, Nuevo León and Coahuila, and very quickly attracted the intended number of colonists.

Between December 25, 1748, the date of the foundation of Llera, and 1755, he founded over twenty towns or villages and a number of missions in the colony, including Santander, Soto la Marina, Güemes, Camargo, Reynosa, Mier, and Revilla south of the Rio Grande, and Laredo and Nuestra Señora de los Dolores hacienda north of the Rio Grande.

He faced a court case where he was charged with illegally using Indian labor in his textile mills and using the port of Santander to bring in English contraband.

He accumulated vast wealth during his stay in Querétaro, San Miguel and Nuevo Santander from the work of badly paid Indians and slaves, as well as large land grants from the viceroys.

The livestock and other products of his lands, as well as the goods he bought from the colonists, were shipped from the port of Soto la Marina along the coast to Veracruz in a frigate he owned.

He brought in masons, carpenters and blacksmiths from Tacubaya and established kilns as well as sugar and flour mills.