Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Day 16!
It was back onto the white van for six of the students, Karen and myself. Two students were meeting us at Mission Espada, and two students were at doctors' appointments. (One has a cough she hasn't been able to shake since the tear gassing, and the other is an asthmatic who's been having trouble since June 14, too.)
I hadn't been to Mission Espada since my brother and his wife were married there back in December of 1990. Too long! It's such a privilege to have such wonders right here in our own city that I shouldn't take them for granted.
I found out that 1,033 Native Americans were baptised at Mission Espada from 1716 to 1773. The Franciscan friars were at the missions during the Colonial period, and they returned in 1967. (One of the friars must like cats, because Espada has numerous fat, happy cats roaming around. In fact, a sign inside the chapel asks that you keep the door closed to keep the dust and the cats out.)
You can see the Moorish influence of the Spaniards in the arched doorway at Mission Espada. In fact, I was reminded of similar doorways I'd seen in Toledo, Spain. Mary, one of the students who grew up near Mission Espada, said the doorway's arch had been assembled incorrectly. That's the story she'd been told. However, it really looks Moorish to me. We'll have to find out!
I noticed that some people were in a building near the mission, and I walked in to see what was going on. Turns out, they were assembling boxes of food for poor families in the neighborhood. They are members of the parish's St. Vincent de Paul Society, and they buy 20 boxes of food from the San Antonio Food Bank once a month. (Remember, the Food Bank sells the boxes at 15 cents per pound.) Six men from the parish go get the boxes of food, and eight women assemble the boxes.
The boxes weren't as full as the ones we'd packed earlier this month. The woman in charge told me that they reassemble the 20 boxes to make 60. She said, "We're a poor parish. We can't afford to give them a whole box." That concerned me, because we were told a box was supposed to feed a family of four for a week. She explained that they help a lot of single people and couples...and that this box is supposed to help get them through the end of the month until their next set of food stamps come in. I felt better after I heard that. People in need were scheduled to show up at 5 p.m. to get their boxes. Once again, I'm impressed by the generosity and caring of the folks in San Antonio.
Next, we traveled to Mission Concepcion. Such a beauty! Educational materials stated that the mission was a village, fort, school, farm and ranch besides being a church. The Coahuiltecans were the native people who were converted by the Spanish missionaries. (The Kiowas, Comanches and Apaches opted out.) The Coahuiltecans practiced a religion that was close to nature, and they were nomadic hunters and gatherers. After colonization, they converted to Christianity and farming, which gave their community a stable food supply. I look forward to our meeting with the American Indians in Texas-Spanish Colonial Missions group on Thursday to learn more about their current conditions.
The students are to continue narrowing down their final project topic, answer the prompt that Karen handed out, catch up on their "Creative Nonfiction" reading, and BLOG! Tomorrow we meet at the white van at 8:30 a.m. to head to San Fernando Cathedral and the Spanish Governor's Palace.
I hadn't been to Mission Espada since my brother and his wife were married there back in December of 1990. Too long! It's such a privilege to have such wonders right here in our own city that I shouldn't take them for granted.
I found out that 1,033 Native Americans were baptised at Mission Espada from 1716 to 1773. The Franciscan friars were at the missions during the Colonial period, and they returned in 1967. (One of the friars must like cats, because Espada has numerous fat, happy cats roaming around. In fact, a sign inside the chapel asks that you keep the door closed to keep the dust and the cats out.)
You can see the Moorish influence of the Spaniards in the arched doorway at Mission Espada. In fact, I was reminded of similar doorways I'd seen in Toledo, Spain. Mary, one of the students who grew up near Mission Espada, said the doorway's arch had been assembled incorrectly. That's the story she'd been told. However, it really looks Moorish to me. We'll have to find out!
I noticed that some people were in a building near the mission, and I walked in to see what was going on. Turns out, they were assembling boxes of food for poor families in the neighborhood. They are members of the parish's St. Vincent de Paul Society, and they buy 20 boxes of food from the San Antonio Food Bank once a month. (Remember, the Food Bank sells the boxes at 15 cents per pound.) Six men from the parish go get the boxes of food, and eight women assemble the boxes.
The boxes weren't as full as the ones we'd packed earlier this month. The woman in charge told me that they reassemble the 20 boxes to make 60. She said, "We're a poor parish. We can't afford to give them a whole box." That concerned me, because we were told a box was supposed to feed a family of four for a week. She explained that they help a lot of single people and couples...and that this box is supposed to help get them through the end of the month until their next set of food stamps come in. I felt better after I heard that. People in need were scheduled to show up at 5 p.m. to get their boxes. Once again, I'm impressed by the generosity and caring of the folks in San Antonio.
Next, we traveled to Mission Concepcion. Such a beauty! Educational materials stated that the mission was a village, fort, school, farm and ranch besides being a church. The Coahuiltecans were the native people who were converted by the Spanish missionaries. (The Kiowas, Comanches and Apaches opted out.) The Coahuiltecans practiced a religion that was close to nature, and they were nomadic hunters and gatherers. After colonization, they converted to Christianity and farming, which gave their community a stable food supply. I look forward to our meeting with the American Indians in Texas-Spanish Colonial Missions group on Thursday to learn more about their current conditions.
The students are to continue narrowing down their final project topic, answer the prompt that Karen handed out, catch up on their "Creative Nonfiction" reading, and BLOG! Tomorrow we meet at the white van at 8:30 a.m. to head to San Fernando Cathedral and the Spanish Governor's Palace.
