The Mission San Antonio De Valero
"The Alamo" as it would later be known, built in 1744.
This is just one of five well known missions in San Antonio, Espada, San Juan and mission Cincepcion which were built in the 1600's were moved in 1731 to San Antonio, San Jose mission, they filled the missions with local indian converts for labor, due to the mixing cultures the Spanish married into the payaya's and Texian's which
created what would become Tejano's. In 1719 the Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo requested that the Spanish government send people from the Canary Islands, Havana and other places to populate Texas, Later in the 1800's people from England, Ireland and other places came to melt into this huge pot of cultures. In 1821 the Mexican army gained control of the Alamo after the Mexican War Of Independence, from then until 1835 it was manned by General Martin Perfecto De Cos, after the Texas Revolution Colonal James C. Neill stationed his 100 Texians believing the war was over, he also had another 200 sent to fortify it.
On Feb. 23 1836 he found out he was wrong, General Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo that killed everyone but the women and children. Men like James Bowie, David Crockett, William B. Travis (who's statue looks like Liam Neeson) Just to name a few well known men died that day.
That defeat however gave texians the courage to fight for freedom and defeat the Mexican army once and for all some months later, giving Texas the try and take it attitude of today.
Depicted in the above picture is the original Bowie knife that James Bowie used in his famous fight, I got in a lot of trouble for taking this photo. Below is a memorial for lost men of the battle.
The San Jose Mission The mission was founded on February 23, 1720, though the first buildings were just made of brush, straw, and mud, were quickly replaced by large stone structures, including guest rooms, offices, a dining room, and a pantry. A heavy outer wall was built around the main part of the mission, and rooms for 350 Indians were built into the walls. In 1768 the Church was built and in 1782 it was completed.
The mission is still used for prayer and reflection though no one lives there anymore.
Below is the San Antonio Riverwalk, great place for shopping and a boat ride, also the spot on the bridge where part of the movie "Selena" was filmed, hence they call it the Selena bridge.
This has been one of the harder blogs for me to write, right in the middle of this trip we lost a very special family member, coming back to this entry seemed impossible, I didn't know if I could finish it, but they loved travel as much as I do and they wouldn't want me to give up, on anything, so I am ending with the last things I did before leaving and trying to keep happiness in front of me. Until next time.
