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.