San Antonio Travel and Leisure Guide 2008 - (Page 22) Authentic Culture hat culture is apparent in plazas inspired by Spanish colonial concepts and in buildings that chart the course of our history, from plastered chapel to gingerbread Victorian to towering skyscraper. And it’s obvious in the celebrations that take place in those squares and spaces: the “Little Village” that is La Villita provides a home for events as diverse as Fiesta’s Nights in Old San Antonio and the fall International Accordion Festival. HemisFair Park, the scene of our 1968 World’s Fair, hosts the Institute of Texan Culture’s June Folklife Festival, as well as numerous Mexican Cultural Institute programs. And the streets themselves come alive in early spring with Luminaria, a new celebration of all the arts. At almost any time and place, the city can be seen strutting its stuff. T Faces of San Antonio With his shock of grey hair and businesslike demeanor, Bill Fitzgibbons, Executive Director of the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, doesn’t immediately bring to mind the conventional artist image. Yet like the city itself, there are surprises in every facet of the personality and work of this full-time artist and arts administrator. His airport ensemble, Day Star Archway, making use of airplane imagery, is the first large-scale art many visitors will see when arriving in town, and his animated Light Channels installation under I-H 37 at Houston and Commerce streets creates a colorful transition from city center to St. Paul Square. “When my family and I arrived in San Antonio 20 years ago, we immediately realized [it] was a special place. This melting pot produces a community that celebrates life regularly,” he says, adding that “up until being in San Antonio, color was practically absent in my work.” River – with a string of missions whose fields were irrigated by a system of channeled acequias. Today’s Mission Trail links four of the missions: San José, Concepción, San Juan and Espada with its nearby aqueduct. The fifth is the Alamo itself – much modified but firmly fixed in the minds of camera-toting history buffs as the scene of a battle that helped secure Texas’ independence from Mexico. Clockwise from top left: A view of the Tower of the Americas from the River Walk, Mission San José, Spanish Governor’s Palace and San Fernando Cathedral. IF YOU GO (as referenced in text) La Villita Historic Arts Village, 210-207-8613, lavillita.com Mexican Cultural Institute, 210-227-0123, portal.sre.gob.mx/culturamexsa UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures, 210-458-2330, texancultures.utsa.edu For complete listings, visitsanantonio.com But there’s more than missions to be seen of this formative period. The 19th century façade of San Fernando Cathedral is finally getting the framework it deserves in the form of a newly renovated Main Plaza, originally Plaza de las Islas in honor of the 16 families from the Canary Islands who arrived in 1731. But walk behind the building and there you’ll see the 1738 apse of the original structure. Just a block farther west is the Spanish Governor’s Palace dating from 1749. Though “palace” was always an exaggeration, the building both breathes with the spirit of the times and echoes of the fandangos once held there. In San Antonio, it pays to keep eyes, ears and nose open. IF YOU GO (as referenced in text) The Alamo, 210-225-1391, thealamo.org San Antonio Missions, 210-932-1001, nps.gov/saan San Fernando Cathedral, 210-227-1297, sfcathedral.org Spanish Governor’s Palace, 210-224-0601, sanantonio.gov/dtops/spangovpal.asp For complete listings, visitsanantonio.com HISTORIC ROOTS The genesis of it all is a modest settlement founded in 1718 alongside a spring in what is now San Pedro Park, the second-oldest park in the nation. Later moving south, the city took shape with simple structures, but also soon began building in stone – both around squares in the new city center and south along the San Antonio continued on pg. 24 22 VISITSANANTONIO COM O. http://lavillita.com http://portal.sre.gob.mx/culturamexsa http://texancultures.utsa.edu http://visitsanantonio.com http://thealamo.org http://nps.gov/saan http://sfcathedral.org http://sanantonio.gov/dtops/spangovpal.asp http://visitsanantonio.com http://visitsanantonio.com
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