Brother's Days

Last week I spent four days/five nights in San Antonio, Texas. For those of you who have been following along at home, you’ll recall that I was in San Antonio this summer on my Western States Tour 2010 (“Remembering the Alamo” and “El Paseo del Rio”).

The occasion that brought me back to SA was the celebration of a family birthday – my brother’s 50^th. His actual birthday was on February 14, Valentine’s Day. (Yes, he always got the coolest cakes.) But there’s more to do and see in SA than where he lives, so all of us converged on the city for a few days, renting a house, cooking, seeing the sites and having a good time all while generally behaving ourselves.

Since Southwest Airline does not fly out of Palm Springs, and they had the best fare, I drove up to Ontario to catch an 8:15 a.m. flight. Ontario is at least an hour up the 10, and it’s best to arrive an hour before the flight (even though I paid a little extra to have my boarding pass in hand) and I had to allow time for transport from the off-site lot where I parked – so I got up at 4:00 a.m. sharp to hit the road.

The Phoenix airport played a strange part in this trip. I arrived, hung out around the gate, followed my nose to Cinnabon (B concourse – gates 11-20) then found a seat by the gate and played a lot of Solitaire on my iphone. When I finally figured out that the flight was boarding, and that I had to be on the other side of the stainless steel stanchions, I made a loop, looking down to make sure I wasn’t running over toes and headed toward my place in line. A man asked, “What number are you?” I replied, “43,” and as I looked up, saw that it was my other brother. He and his wife were not only on the same flight, but our passes were in sequential order. I took this as a sign I should buy a lottery ticket. (I didn’t. But if I had …)

San Antonio holds many attractions, including the River Walk that I wrote about in 2010, and we did it again. Most of us. My brother-in-law and sister headed over to a pub for a beer.  The pilot/guide was terrific and pointed out examples of neo-Gothic and art nouveau architecture, 200-year-old bald cypress, explained the lock and flood control system on the San Antonio River.

We ventured on to Hemisfair Park where the Tower of the Americas resides to ride up 750 feet to view the city. Click here check out the 360 degree view from the top

The next day, while other siblings, in-laws and nieces headed out to Sea World, my sister and I along with my father and his S.O. went off to explore the Mission of San Jose.

While the first mission was built in St. Augustine, Florida (on the Atlantic side of Florida) the official governmental policy of most of the east coast, in particular, the original 13 colonies, was anti-Catholicism. The Spanish headed west - actually, in the case of San Antonio, north, since Mexico was at that time considered New Spain to some. For the Spanish, establishing missions in various strategic locations (New Orleans, St. Augstine, etc.) was savvy geo-politics. For the Catholic Church, missions were an attraction to indigenous peoples, and priests used teaching how to raise crops and providing protection from other hostile Indian bands as a dangling carrot.  Of course, most of know that the Indians' languages and cultures were lost because they were required to learn both Latin and Spanish and practice an alien religion. When we look at the Latino culture in Mexico and the U.S., we're really seeing Indians who were assimilated into the Spanish culture. The National Park Service employee who conducted our tour explained that for most Latinos in the San Antonio area, unless they are of direct Spanish lineage, there is no way to trace ancestry past the mid-19th century. Even though church records start in 1718, many of them have disappeared or been destroyed.

The Mission San Antonio de Valero (what we now know as The Alamo) was established in 1718; Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo in 1720. Father Margil de Jesus was at the San Antonio de Valero, but was eager to establish additional missions and had the necessary church supplies handy, including a statue of Saint Joseph. (No priest should be without a few extra statues.) Leaders of three Indian bands were appointed governor, judge and sheriff in the new mission community. Father Nunez was in  charge of the mission project. By the time construction on the church was started in 1768 there were 350 Indians living in 84 two-room apartments, being converted from hunter-gatherers to tax-paying citizens of New Spain. They succeeded.

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