The Unrecognized Heroes

If somebody were to tell you that there were Mexicans helping the fallen heroes at the Battle of the Alamo you would think that they were crazy right. Well this past weekend I took a trip to the Alamo, and I know that I did when I was told that by Dr. Winders, my class’s tour guide at the Alamo. He informed all of us and said that the ones who helped the men at the Alamo were called Tejanos because they were one of the first people to settle in the land of Texas. On the tour Dr. Winders also gave us a little more insight on all of the things that history had kept out of the books before now. For instance the man by the name of Jose Antonio Navarro was a Tejano that befriended Stephen F. Austin because they both had the same dream of building a republic in the Texas land, and keeping it away from the dictator Santa Anna. Dr. Winders told us that Navarro was even one of the men that signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. After Santa Anna was defeated and things went back to normal at the Alamo many of the new settlers came along with some more Tejanos, but had angry towards them thinking that they were part of the group that had killed the Anglo defenders of the Alamo. “The only Tejano that these new Texans looked up to as a hero was Jose Navarro”, said Dr. Winder. As the years went on the writers of history eventually disregarded any information about the Tejanos that also died alongside the Anglo fighters. For me this information is interesting because who knows what if one of my ancestors were the very first Tejanos that came to Texas.

What a dam!!

Well this past weekend I had the privilege to go take a trip over to Espada Park on my own, and see for myself just how beautiful that area looked. From the moment that I entered the park I noticed, just like I did at the Espada Mission, how green and thick the grass looked. As I kept on driving thru the park and continued on the road I saw many other people there doing all types of activities. Some of the families that were there were riding their bikes together, and other families were having bar-b-que’s on the grass underneath the shade of some of enormous trees that were inside of the park. When I stepped out of my car one of the first things that I heard was the sound of rushing water, and I’ve always like that particular sound because it always seems to help me relax. When I was getting closer to the water I started to notice that the grass would get higher and thicker due to all of the water that runs through the dam. The dam that is used the most today is made of concrete and had the help of modern technology, but the dam that was constructed originally sometime between 1731 and 1745 is made of nothing but stone. The converted Native Americans were the ones who built the 270 feet long and 8 feet high dam with their bare hands and still to this today part of that dam can be seen on the right side of the road towards the back of the park and still is in use. The Espada dam was used to help the surrounding areas get their irrigation water. When I got closer to the original dam I notice that there was a stone near the bank that provided me with the following information. It stated that this structure diverts 4,500 gallons of water a minute into the four mile long irrigation ditch know as “Acequia De Espada”. Gravity helps the water flow and spread through out the entire 400 acres of land at the Espada Mission to this very day. I wanted to go further into the park but there was a metal gate that wouldn’t allow my car over the low bridge. Plus there was water flowing over it and I didn’t want to chance something happening to my car! So after I had gathered some information to help me write this paper I decided to take a walk around the park for a little while. I embraced the open fields and enjoyed being able to feel the nice cool breeze while I was walking. See now a days there are very few places like this around here or at lease that I know of, but if it wasn’t for this class that I’m taking I don’t think I would have ever seen the beauty that the city of San Antonio actually has!

My visit to the Espada Mission

This past Friday I went on a tour of the Espada mission along with a couple of people from my humanities class. Even though I have live here in San Antonio my whole life I never took it upon myself to take a look at anyone of the missions. When I was pulling up to the parking lot my eyes were drawn to the beauty of the greenery which surrounded the mission. When the rest of the class began to arrive we all started to head on inside so that we could meet up with the tour guide, Dora V. Martinez, so that she could show us around the historical site. She told us that where we stand now is not the original site of this mission it’s actually the third location! Apparently the people of the missions were in Mississippi at first in 1690, and then moved to Austin in 1720, and finally here in 1731. When we walked outside I saw nothing but the thick green grass that covered almost every square inch of the mission. She took us to what seemed to be the outline of a house, and then stated that it was the outline of the original church. Since the outline of the church was still in good condition I was able to visualize how it might have looked like if it still stood there today. She then took us in to the church which was really amazing to see, because it allowed me to see how much faith in religion these people have. As the tour went on I realize that the mission looked more and more like a fort, and then Ms. Martinez said that it was build like that to help protect the people inside of the town from the attacking Indians. The Indians would try to take the food that was here in the missions. She then showed us the irrigation system that was made back when this mission was first established, and let us see that still to this day that water runs through there.