I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night

I remember a few years back, I was really getting into metal. This was around my freshman year in High School, and I was searching for that one thing that gave me my identity. I was never any good at sports, and I didn’t find much comfort in clubs or extracurricular classes. I was deeply involved with AFJROTC, but that didn’t really fulfill me. I started listening to heavy metal bands like Mudvayne, Slayer, Lamb of God and Pantera and started wearing black band tee shirts. Not a whole lot of people were into that kind of thing in Floresville, and the people that were into it were always so tight with each other. So I kind of just fell into place with them and felt like I finally belonged to a group, to a circle of friends who all understood me. Not too long after that, I began playing guitar, which still fulfills me like nothing else can to this day. Nothing can even come close to the feeling I get when I master that solo, nail that riff, or sweep a perfect arpeggio. So I guess my interest in the metal scene came naturally after that. It’s like a hobby: discover new music, meet new people, and gain a new appreciation for the art.

San Antonio has gained much popularity with the Tejano music scene, but not many know that San Antonio also has a very solid heavy metal scene. This doesn’t really strike a chord with the more adult, contemporary crowd or those who enjoy the Tejano scene, so it’s really a very important part of the San Antonio youth. This scene isn’t just limited to the San Antonio residents, however. People from surrounding areas, such as Live Oak, Pleasanton, and even Floresville can enjoy the venues both for entertainment and for booking their own band. This is the basis for my last blog for my Humanities class here at Palo Alto, to explain the finer points of this music scene and dispel many misconceptions.

Now, I don’t think it would be fair to the bands who work hard to create a certain sound to typecast the genre in such a wide generalization. We could probably break the local metal scene down into at least a few sub-genres. A few of the most popular sub-genres are metalcore, hardcore, and heavy metal, but it also includes death metal, grindcore, emo, screamo, and punk. The importance of the sub-genres is the way the songs are created, the emotions and lyrics that go into them, the style of playing and singing, and the artists they are influenced by. People don’t seem to recognize the fact that the world of metal is so complex and complicated that it is impossible to just generalize the entire genre. The roots of metal lay in the early metal bands of the 60’s and 70’s and have since branched off into an elaborate family tree of musical styles, and that is what makes metal so interesting to me. It is so diverse and there is always something there that somebody will like, they just have to give it a chance, and I think that local venues and accessible events will help people find something that will suit their musical taste.

As far as local music venues for local bands, the White Rabbit is the way to go. The White Rabbit is located at 2410 North Saint Mary’s in Downtown San Antonio, a convenient place for mostly everybody. It’s a pretty small venue, but has been able to accommodate some fairly big bands in the past. Some of the bigger names that have come through the White Rabbit are Static-X, Ill Nino, Gwar, and All That Remains. But The White Rabbit is so much more than that to a lot of teenagers and young adults in San Antonio. It is a bastion for local bands such as Delores Haze, Man of Sorrows, Silence the Messenger, and D-Railed.

The main focus of local venues such as the White Rabbit is on the local, up and coming bands who can’t afford to make it to bigger venues. The White Rabbit offers two stages, a main stage and a jam stage, the latter being a very small and intimate room with a far lower capacity than the main stage. There are local shows almost every weekend, sometimes even during the week. I was able to contact my step brother Gene, who does vocals for local metal band D-Railed. I sat down with Gene and asked him what his favorite part of performing live was. “The Energy that the crowd delivers is just phenomenal. It’s an exhilarating feeling to be up there, whether it’s in front of a sold out show or just a group of friends or fellow musicians.” I also asked him what he thought about other local bands and he said “Other bands in the area are just so cool. My band is pretty good with a few other local acts, so there are always other bands to play shows with. It’s also cool to see other bands that are possibly younger than us. I’m going into my 30’s this month, and some of these kids are like 10+ years younger than me and they’re just tearing it up out there!”

The White Rabbit isn’t the only one, however. There are a few other local music venues for smaller bands, such as The Sanctuary located on Main Street in San Antonio and Sam’s Burger Joint on East Grayson Street. The Sanctuary is a lot like the White Rabbit, but Sam’s Burger Joint has a very eclectic mix when it comes to live music, so local metal bands are not as common. There are larger music venues in San Antonio and surrounding areas as well, such as Sunset Station behind the Alamodome, The Freeman Coliseum and The AT&T Center, and The Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Selma across from Retama Park. These are also important hubs for concert goers seeking a larger show with bigger bands.

Even in the small town that I live in there are at least a handful of metal fans to associate with. But when we’re outnumbered at least 100 to 1 by other types of people, we have nowhere to go but San Antonio for that authentic metal camaraderie. One of those other metal fans is my cousin Chris Trevino. He’s lived in Floresville his whole life and has been listening to metal music for most many years, so he knows a lot about the local scene and venues. I asked Chris which venue was his favorite, and he told me “The White Rabbit, without a doubt. The people there are really down to earth and the performances are just so close and intimate compared to bigger stadium venues”. I also asked him about the local scene in general. “Well, first off, the local shows are a lot cheaper and there are usually more than five bands on the bill, so you get a lot more bang for your buck at local shows. The kids in these bands are also always very appreciative when people support their artistic endeavors, so it’s pretty fulfilling on both ends.”

For a final opinion, I asked a parent some questions about the local metal scene and how it affects their kids. The first person that popped into my mind was my father’s fiancée, Cecilia Arguello. She is Gene’s mother and a typical, caring parent. Her oldest son plays in a metal band and her other two younger sons both enjoy going to shows with him, so I asked her how she felt about that. “I really don’t mind,” she said, “I know my kids are good kids, as are a lot of kids who go to these shows. The thing is, if they’re occupied with music and concerts they’re not out on the streets with the drugs and the gangs that plague a lot of youth elsewhere.”

The metal scene in San Antonio is definitely a source to be reckoned with. There are comparable scenes in surrounding areas, but San Antonio takes the cake for metal music. It’s a statewide phenomenon. We even have a unique period of time on Monday evenings on 99.5 KISS called Texas Tracks where they play nothing but rock, hard rock, and metal from San Antonio and surrounding areas. It’s a big deal here, and I am proud to say I feel close to it, and I would strongly urge any music fan in San Antonio to at least give it a chance.
Outside of Sunset Station

People waiting to get into the White Rabbit

Our Little Historic Theater

If you were a San Antonio native or from up North, Floresville would look like a little nowhere town in South Texas...at least, that's what people would think up until recently. Before, however, Floresville was a small farming community with spread out plots of land for ranches, homesteads, and small businesses. There wasn't really a whole lot goin on, still isn't that much goin on, but it's picked up a bit. So it was and always has been a pretty small community that has a pretty steady population and expanding business, so why would anybody film a movie there?



In the middle of the down town district of Floresville directly across from the courthouse is the small but popular Arcadia Theater. Now, I've had the privilege to actually work at this historic theater, which is cool because I learned a lot about it's past. I learned of the theater's role in the early years of segregation in the 1920's and about it's historic re-opening in the late 90's, but there is one role that not many theaters can lay claim to: A big-screen appearance.

It's a pretty farfetched idea, but some time ago there was a major motion picture filmed in the main screen room of our little theater! The movie was called "The Big Brawl" and it starred one of Hollywood's premiere action stars, Jackie Chan. The movie was partly filmed in Floresville, mainly in the theater, in 1980 and was directed by Robert Clouse, who also filmed "Enter The Dragon." A neat fact about the theater and the movie is that there's a scene where a knife is forced into the wooden stage area right in front of the screen, and that knife mark is still there to this day!

Besides having this small piece of pop culture history in our little theater, it's not the first. In 1974, Steven Spielberg (yes! Spielberg was in my town!) directed the movie "The Sugarland Express" in Floresville. The movie starred one of the biggest stars of the time, Goldie Hawn. It was pretty exciting to see that Floresville was picked as a location for a movie, but a commercial? That happened a few years back. Whataburger had a commercial a while back that was filmed in front of the same theater that "The Big Brawl" was filmed! This was kind of weird, though, because we didn't even get a Whataburger until last month!

A Glimpse Into the Life of an Artist

On Monday, November 9th, my Humanites 1301 class was treated to a special visit by one of San Antonio's premiere artists, Joan Fabian. During her visit, Joan share with us some of her works and her interpretations of those works. She even gave us some insight as to how she prepares for a work and where she draws her inspriration. For her, inspiration and ideas come from meditation and reflecting and points out that it may be different for other people, that is just her method.

Joan's artwork has a very unique look and her methods of creating it are pretty interesting. The art really stands out, and she always makes it a point to contrast her colors and patterns to exaggerate whe she feels is the main message or feeling of her work. She uses her shapes in such a way that anybody who is viewing the piece can connect with it in one way or another and that is really important to her. She intends to convey a certain message, but she also leaves the viewer to interpret it on their own, which is the very essence of art.

While speaking to us, Joan also told us of the trip that she had taken to Pakistan. This was seven years ago and she was visiting for a total of 6 months, which I'm sure was a hard thing to do. She was even married at this time, and her husband came to visit her for a month, but I'm sure that was a still a very difficult thing to do. Not many of us can say we visited another far away country, and for so long too. She shared with us her experiences with the natives, the students at the school she taught at, and every person she came in contact with. She even tried to assimilate herself in their society by wearing their clothes and behaving like them, but they always were aware that she was an American. Her experience was truly unique and inspiring. Needless to say, this influenced her greatly as an artist.

I am grateful for the time that Joan Fabian took to speak to us because it was very interesting and insightful. As a musician, I feel like I am an artist to, so her speech was really important to me. I can associate with many of the things that she was telling us, such as where the ideas come from, how the piece makes you feel, and how the piece makes others feel. These are things I take into consideration myself, so to hear it from her was a nice feeling.

Wildlife at Mitchell Lake

For a field assignment in my Humanities 1301 class, we were required to take a trip to Mitchell Lake located here in San Antonio, Texas. Mitchell Lake is located off of 410 and Moursund. I took the trip to the lake on November 8 or so, although this blog was due on November 1st. I just wasn't able to make it out there any sooner, so here it is now. Mitchell Lake is a historic area here in San Antonio. It is now a natural habitat of sorts, although it was previously used as a dump for raw sewage when the city had no underground sewer system.

The city discontinued use of the lake as a waste dump in 1987 and has since become protected and cleaned. The lake is owned by SAWS, or San Antonio Water Systems. Instead of being a sewage site, the Lake is now a habitat for many sorts of birds. There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of species of birds that occupy these wetlands during different times of the year. The variety is currently very slim, as most birds have migrated during this time of the year, but there are still some avian life to be observed.

Since the lake is located right off of Interstate 410, it is very accessible to tourists, natives, and anybody who loves nature or birdwatching. It is good to see that people really take an interest in this 1200 acre wetland because it means that the effort that the city and SAWS has put in to cleaning up the site has paid off.

My Neighborhood

Actually, I don’t even live in San Antonio. I commute on highway 181 from Floresville every other day to school. The highway runs right through my town, and I live about a mile and a half from it. I live right in the downtown part of Floresville, so there are a lot of houses around me compared to the people who live in the subdivisions on larger plots of land. The road to get to my house is right off of 181, just follow it down through downtown. If I can be more specific, my house is pretty much on the west side of the town.

Generally, the area that I live in is mostly middle class. Right down my street (on South 3^rd), the houses are, for the most part, well maintained. On the opposite side of C Street, the houses are more lower class. These houses tend to be less maintained. Also, the neighborhood is made up of mostly middle aged to elderly people with a few kids running around here and there, and only like four teenagers that I can tell. My neighbor to the right of my house is an elderly Floresville native. As far as I can tell, the population on my street is divided up into middle class Anglo families and lower class Hispanic families. To be broader, the entire downtown area seems to be mostly middle class. There aren’t really any upper class people downtown, as they are more inclined to move out to the subdivisions off of the highway. I would say that in general, the Hispanics dominate in terms of population in Floresville. There are many Hispanic families that like to stick together and live near each other.

As far as major businesses go, Floresville has seen a great deal of expansion in the past few years. An HEB was built there about three or four years ago with a strip mall, so many businesses have picked up a space of their own. Some of the businesses to open up shop there are Domino’s (which I worked at, sadly), Bealls, and Subway. They’re even finishing up construction on our very own Whataburger, which is pretty exciting. Since the opening of HEB, they also built a Bill Millers right next to our main traffic light. Some of our older businesses, however, have been there since I was a kid, such as McDonalds, Church’s, Wal Mart, and JC’s Super Burger.

We have every school from Pre K (Head Start) to High School, but so far we don’t have a higher education facility. The city was thinking about using our old hospital as a local community college, but nothing has happened yet. Not too many years ago, the city had a newer hospital built called the Connelly Memorial Hospital located off of 181 next to the Ancira Ford dealership. Down the road from the main downtown district, we have a small park called Pecan Park where people usually go to walk or take their kids to the playground. There’s a city park down 97 where we have a baseball field, a pool, and a few pavilions for parties and such. All of these things, the businesses, the hospitals, the schools, and the parks, are very beneficial to our community because it lessens the need to travel 30+ miles to San Antonio every time we need something.

There’s a strong sense of community in Floresville which stems from the fact that there are a lot of family ties and old friendships that keep the community strong. There aren’t really any major problems; it’s mostly peaceful and quiet. Occasionally, we will have construction, which can get pretty noisy in the mornings. We have modest amenities in Floresville, nothing too fancy, but sometimes it’s nice to get out and go into San Antonio. We don’t really have any gangs, only the occasional hoodlum trying to cause trouble or just trying to be cool.

When I’m not at school or work, I just stay at home to study or go to Julian’s house since we have all the same classes. To get to his house, I just went from E street up to 3^rd street and follow that across 97 and his house is up the road across from the cemetery. There is a library next to the courthouse, but it’s really small and always full of kids, so it’s useless trying to study there. We used to have a coffee and ice cream shop that offered free wi-fi, but that business tanked. This was right off of 181 next to. I work at the Dollar General, which is right up 181 next to Wal Mart. It’s part of a strip mall kind of deal, just like the HEB Heritage Plaza. It only takes about ten minutes to get to work from my house, which is a nice set up.

For the most part, my close friends live either in or around Floresville. Julian, Eddie, and Marisa live in town nearby, but Aaron, Joel, and Yvette all live either on a county road or in a subdivision. It doesn’t take long for us to get to each other’s houses, maybe about 15 minutes at the most. When we’re all together, we love to go to San Antonio and chill. Most of the time, it’s a movie at the quarry, eating at Chili’s at City Base Landing, or Starbucks on Military. On rare occasions, however, we get to go out to a concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Selma or Sunset Station, which is located right behind the Alamo dome in downtown San Antonio. Selma is about 50 minutes to an hour away from us, so it’s not often we do this. Sunset Station is pretty close, taking only about 40 minutes from Floresville. \

All in all, Floresville is a quaint little town that offers just about anything that we really need. Major areas of interest are located further away, so that’s a disadvantage. When you think about the problems that we don’t experience because we’re such a small town, it really balances it out. We don’t have a huge drug and gang problem and there’s certainly minimal traffic around peak hours of the day compared to San Antonio, so I would say we’re doing pretty good.

Alamo Movie Relavance

In 1960, United Artists released a movie portraying the battle of the Alamo starring John Wayne. This was the first of two major Alamo movie releases, the second being the 2004 film starring Billy Bob Thornton. In both films, the movie star (John Wayne, Billy Bob) play Davy Crockett, with the only difference being that the newer version sort of humanizes the character, rather than him being some uber hero of some sort.

The older film seems to greatly follow myth and popular belief rather than dig into the facts. It shows Travis as a very articulate man, and this kind of makes the other characters seem really dumbed down and simple, which I think is kind of odd. Also, like I said earlier, the 1960 film shows Crockett as very heroic. There's no denying that he was probably a brave soldier, but the film just glorifies him so much that it's hard to take seriously. Also, it shows Jim Bowie receiving a wound to the leg from a cannonball and taken into the church for shelter and care. In reality, Bowie was actually ill and was bedridden, but the cannonball wound is way more interesting and heroic, so they went with that. Crockett's death is also glorified, showing him blowing up an ammunition room. But how could this be when real life survivor Susanna Dickinson saw him dead on the ground in the plaza? Also, it portrays Bowie and Travis as having very clashing personalities as they argue very often throughout the film.

The 2004 film really tried to steer away from the myths and fables that people were so used to being shown. The film was directed by John Lee Hancock, a native Texan who took great care to ensure that the legend that he holds close to his heart is portrayed as accurately as possible. He did this with much success, as the film had little historical inaccuracies and certainly a considerable amount less than it's 1960 predecessor. For instance, the facade of the church (which people coincidentally mistake for the front of the Alamo) is missing the top arch or hump that make it so recognizable today. They did this because that hump was not actually added until years after the famous battle when the church and the rest of the mission was restored by United States Army soldiers during their occupation of the mission. It isn't completely without flaws though, because it still showed Travis and Bowie arguing many times throughout the film, as in the other.

To me, this made the newer movie much more believable and realistic than the older movie. It's understandable, though, because they did the best with what they could during that time period (1960). They didn't have a huge budget and they cared little for historic accuracy and instead went for the glorified version of the event rather than digging deeper for the truth. I suppose overall that was a good move for them because people probably didn't really want all this history and education in a movie. Nowadays, however, people want to be entertained and walk away with a new understanding or viewpoint on something they probably knew little to nothing about anyways. The newer film really enriches the entertainment with education. Coincidentally, the film oddly did not do well at all in the box offices. It never broke even with the ticket sales after shelling out $140 million for the shooting, production, and marketing of the movie.

Over all, I think the newer movie with Billy Bob holds more historic value than the older and is in turn more entertaining (at least in my opinion). The John Wayne movie is okay, but just for kicks. I don't really think it was that awesome or anything. Maybe just for the action and the "what if" factor, but it doesn't really spark my interest in terms of history. But for some odd reason, it won so many Academy Awards it would make your head spin. If anything, I would recommend that somebody should watch both movies and compare them and also see how accurate they are. In either case, it's just a safer bet to research the battle in the textbooks or online to get the real information.

Remember the Alamo!

Last Saturday, the 22nd of September, my Humanities class went to the Alamo in downtown San Antonio. There, we met up with the curator of the Alamo, Mr. Richard B. Winders. He greeted us at the front of the church area, which oddly enough most tourists and even Texas natives believe it to be the very front of the mission. The front of the mission actually extended to the river across the street where a wall once stood. Another common misconception about the Alamo is that people think that it was some secluded mission out in the middle of nowhere. The Alamo was literally across the river from San Antonio. Yeah, it was that close, but it just seems more mysterious if it was some secluded place.

The story of the Alamo has been terribly conceived in popular media. The films from Hollywood haven't faithfully recreated the Alamo story, but for some odd reason people take this as fact. Fortunately for us, Mr. Winders knew all of the facts of the Alamo and was more than happy to share with us its dark past and early history. For instance, Mr. Winders informed us that they arched top of the mission church that has become such a staple of the Alamo was added after the infamous battle when the U.S. Army occupied the mission and utilized it as a fort.

The mission was established in 1718 and the cornerstone was laid at its current site in 1744. The mission's prime directive was to convert indigenous natives to the Roman Catholic faith. This lasted for roughly 50 years before it was abandoned. The compound started to be occupied by various military groups throughout the following years until the Texas Revolution when it was captured by Texas forces in 1835. It is during this occupation that the bloody battle occurs.

Mr. Winders gave us a great deal of information on the events that sparked the battle, and this is as important as the battle itself. The Texas Revolution was a war that Texas fought against Mexico for independence. The native Tejanos weren't rebellious at first, though. They were open to the idea of a central government, but over time, they began to detest the changes and restrictions put on them. It wasn't supposed to turn into a war, it was always peaceful and harmless acts of protest, but they kept getting pushed around until they couldn't take it anymore.

In 1835, Texas rebels were able to capture and gain control of the San Antonio garrison, The Alamo. They kept control of it, completely expelling Mexican occupation in Texas. The Texian forces consisted of both Anglo and Tejano soldiers who were willing to fight for their land and independence from the Mexican government, specifically Santa Anna, who wished to control as much land as possible for his regime. After quelling numerous other rebellions throughout Mexico, Santa Anna remained confident that he could crush this one as well.

Santa Anna marched over 6,000 soldiers across Mexico to Texas for the battle. With a little over 200 to defend the Alamo, the odds were stacked against them. Mr. Winders was even able to give us some info on the two most famous Alamo heroes, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett. Although their presence in the Alamo wasn't quite as profound as many people believe, their infamy before the war was enough to earn them a spot in Texas history.

The battle began in February of 1836 and lasted 13 brutal days. The Texian forces suffered terrible losses but were able to defend their post to the last person. There were surviving soldiers on the Texian side from that battle. The only survivors were a few women, children, and slaves who were not relocated before the battle took place. This was a crushing defeat for the Texian forces, as over 200 brave men perished. However, this delay allowed rebel forces led by Sam Houston to prepare for the battle of San Jacinto, a victory that marked the end of the Texas Revolution and won the independence for Texas.

Now that he told us the history of that famous battle, Mr. Winders led us around the compound, showing us several areas of significance. He showed us where the outer wall used to lie and even the proposed sites of both Crockett's and Bowie's death. There was even an exhibit that explained many events that took place during the Spanish occupation in the mission, which was very interesting. I think it is a shame that such a wonderful past has been overshadowed by the battle. All I can hope is that people might actually take the time to read some factual articles about the history of the Alamo and not just pick up the John Wayne film from Blockbuster.

The Pride of San Antonio

The Mission Espada dam is the oldest functioning dam in the United States. Fortunately enough for us living in San Antonio, the elements have not done much to mar this magnificent sight. It's really pretty amazing. You can picture it back in the functioning mission, helping farmers and natives to water their crops and sustain themselves. Obviously, this very dam was THE HEART of mission life in 1740 on. This structure was so important to the wellbeing of the mission workers and residents because it was their main source of water.

The dam and aqueduct were a bit of a walk away, but I didn't mind because of the scenery. The aqueduct is what really captivated me because of it's vast importance to the mission and the history of aqueducts. Who would have guessed that Roman Engineering such as this would play a big part in laying the foundation for many cultures. It really isn't that often to find any Roman-esque structures around us, but here is this aqueduct that has stood up to time and nature and was brought to us by Spaniards courtesy of the Romans.

If this structure was so important to the people at Espada, what do we get from it today. Easy answer: History. This dam, along with the rest of Espada, stands as a beacon of new world ingenuity and innovation. This basically helped to lay the framework of all that would come later. Descendants of the mission natives still occupy the area as well, so it still holds some sentimental values today and probably for years to come. If you ask me, the dam, the aqueduct, and most certainly the mission itself should be carefully preserved and protected so that future generations may enjoy it. It offers an important lesson on our history and way of life.

Mission San Francisco de la Espada

On Friday, September 7^th, we took a trip to Mission Espada on the South Side of San Antonio. The Mission San Francisco de la Espada is the furthest south of all the missions in South Texas. We all gathered in the visitor center at around 3:30 in the afternoon and began the tour with park ranger Dora Martinez.

The first part of our tour took place in the visitor center itself. She explained some of the artifacts that were there, such as the loom. She even gave us a small history on the doorway to the mission church, which we would see later in the tour. Mission Espada was a Viceroyalty that was established by the Spaniards in the 1690’s for New Spain in present day Alto, Texas. In 1731, after many other attempts at a successful mission, Espada was moved to its current location in Bexar County where its main objective was to convert the pagan natives to Christians, making them “gente de razon”, or “human beings.”

That is where we begin the tour of the mission grounds itself. We were able to see the weather worn ruins of many of the buildings that were integral to daily life in the missions. One of the first that we saw was the former church and sacristy that were improperly built, thus abandoned by the mission residents in favor of a new church. Our guide informed us that all of the buildings were constructed using rocks quarried from the nearby San Antonio River.

We then came upon the most important part of the mission: the church. Natives who were converted were required to pray daily at this church and especially on Sundays. Coincidentally, mass is still held at this very church on Sundays, just like any other church. The most intriguing feature of this church is the doorway, as I mentioned earlier. The arch is a broken arch, meaning that it is not a perfect arch, but rather more of a keyhole shape. The story behind this is that the stonemason who was building the arch abruptly left the mission with no warning. He didn’t leave any plans, only pieces that he had already cut. The people who took over building the arch must have mixed some of the pieces up, so the arch didn’t come out like the original builder had intended. This of course is just an unsubstantiated rumor that adds a little personality to the church.

We proceeded to walk around the back of the church to view one of the many acequias that surround the mission. The acequias were used to divert water from the nearby river for watering crops. This was a fascinating advancement to the natives, who had lived lives as hunter/gatherers. After this, we viewed some more of the remnants of buildings, some of which showed signs of more modern residents (such as pipes and decorations). Our guide explained that descendants lived in these buildings up into the 20^th century and still inhabits the area around the mission today.

At the end of the tour, we were standing across the plaza from the church. The plaza is the central grassy area in the mission that most daily activities took place, much like a town square. People would be cooking, teaching, or working in this area. This is also where the soldiers would most likely have trained. Overall, it had been a great experience. The last surprise, however, was a real treat. We were told that we had been walking on the “Camino Real”, one of the oldest known roads in South Texas, so I thought that was pretty cool.