Deep Down in the Heart of San Antonio

On Saturday September 22, several of my classmates and I had the opportunity to go and visit the Alamo and learn about the history. This experience was pleasurable, helpful, and made me wonder, how all the connections of history can be united with one another. When immediate thoughts came to mind, all I could think about was the slogan “Remember the Alamo” and each and every one of the fights that were fought, along with ammunition being brought in. Dr. Winders, spoke greatly about the different forms and ways of interpreting history, and he stated that if you put it all together you can get one big picture in the end.

At my recent trip to the Alamo, quite a few things had caught my eye and one in particular was the grass in the courtyard. It was established that the grasses in the front of the Alamo had a meaning, which meant that it was the “heart of the Alamo”. The structure and the large brown doors as an entrance sparked my attention as soon as I had walked up, because I had never visited or seen the Alamo before. I had also seen a couple of exhibits on the walls, which were of Stephen F. Austin and Jose Antonio Navarro; these were two very important leaders who had wanted to bring more and more people back to Texas. Both Austin and Navarro’s main vision for Texas was that they had wanted Texas to become a free republic. The men who effectively shielded the Alamo and developed much independence were the Europeans, Americans, Tejanos, and the Texans.

Overall, it has been an experience having the chance to visit the Alamo, because I have taken in new pieces of history. Most importantly, I am thankful for having the opportunity to go to the Alamo and I shall be making this visit more often and make it an additional priority. Each and every individual should understand how important the past is and recognize the unusual heritages. This takes a tremendous amount of courage and it tends to relate back to experiences I once had in high school, such as going on field trips to historical places and speaking about these things in class. The main reason is because of the skills, power, and leading to both the good and bad solutions of the fights that had taken places years and years ago. -Word Count:403

A Powerful Image, both Near and Far

After visiting Mission Espada and experiencing its historical backgrounds and various meanings, I had decided to take a tour throughout the Espada Dam. The Espada Dam is located right around Mission Espada, which is on the southern side of San Antonio, or at times referred to as Bexar County. On Saturday September 15, 2007 my sister and I made our way to San Antonio to visit this area. The surrounding areas are very obvious, and I first noticed the green grasses along with several bushy trees. The grassland is very widespread and the trees are located on the outskirts of the grass. This area reminds me of where I am living today, because coming from a small town and living in the country I can now compare grasslands, trees, rocks, birds, and all the water from the rivers to the dams. This is an enormous area, which is very calm, immense, and would be a remarkable place for living. As the water flows down, it’s seems clear and flows very smoothly and softly. In other areas it’s not always the same because of the water in a couple of places doesn’t flow as quickly; therefore its browner and dirty looking.

Along the sides of the dam, I found beautiful rocks, in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. On the outskirts of the water, there is a brick wall, which of course allows the water to stay in place and then makes it into a dam. This cement wall is a couple of feet tall, and as the water continues to flow down the dam, the wall obviously becomes lower and lower along with the water. Next to the dam, is a road that many tourists use as a means of a walking trail in order to view Espada Dam as well as Mission Espada.

Espada Dam is the oldest functioning aqueduct in the United States, and I found it to be very enjoyable because the dam along with the mission itself is still being used today. A considerable amount of people are still viewing it, because it’s ancient and historical. Espada Dam plays a major impact on the missions because it was used as a means of their irrigation system. This dam has survived a remarkable amount of rains, floods, and other destruction throughout the past 200 years. I believe that the purpose of the dam today is that it can be used for the watering of farmer’s crops.

I have personally, never been concerned about visiting historic places like this because it has never alarmed me like it does today to know about history and the past. But after visiting an area like this, I now think about all the different lifestyles that had gone on, not only at Mission Espada but the hardships with the dam itself. My most important reason for visiting the dam was because I was extremely impressed by our visit to Mission Espada and I had learned a major amount of background information that had resulted with visiting the Indians and Native Americans that I had no clue about. As a result, I can now conclude after I have visited both areas, I am more aware, understanding and knowledgeable. Apparently, I will be making more of these visits, because I truly believe that we should appreciate everything that we have today, be more aware of what went on in the past and should be willing to learn more about it.

My Incredible Journey Through Mission Espada

My 2007 Humanities Class, along with our teacher Mariana Ornelas, visited Mission Espada on Friday September 7, 2007. This beautiful southernmost mission is located along the river in San Antonio, Texas and was first transferred in 1731. Mission Espada was founded in 1690 as San Francisco de los Tejas near a place called Weches, and was the first mission in Texas. This old stoned mission is very rural and it was built to where it is hard to be seen because of all of the pastures that surround it. A friary was built at the mission in 1745 and the church, which is now restored, was completed in 1756. The mission’s church had large stone towers which looked as if they had outlined the sky with their enormous bells that had stood out in mid air.

The main purpose of the mission was used for “conversion”, for local Native Indians to Christianity. The word espada means “sword”. At Mission Espada, the Indians had received both training as artisans, and weaving skills were needed to help clothe them. Many of the friars strove to make life in the mission communities because they had wanted to resemble many of the Spanish villages. As mission buildings became more elaborate, Indian occupants learned the skills of masonry and carpentry with the help of many craftsmen.

The Franciscan missionaries and their Indian followers built a dam, irrigation ditch, and aqueduct. The main ditch or what is also known to have been called the “acequia madre” carries the water to the mission and its neighboring farm lands. The dam was approximately 270 feet, and has been known to have "curved the wrong way," was built across the San Antonio River. This water is still used by today's residents who are either living on former mission lands or surrounding areas. In order to distribute the water to the missions along the San Antonio River, missionaries had overlooked the building by the natives of seven gravity-flow ditches, dams, and at least one aqueduct, which is approximately 3,500 acres of land. According to the Historic Bridge Foundation, it can be concluded that "precious lime salts in the water gradually cemented the dam's layers of brush, gravel, and rocks. Even so, the dam, ditch, and aqueduct survived a century of Indian attacks, ravaging floods, and controversy before it had been repaired in 1895".