Plaza de las Islas, reopened

Sunday evening (last evening) I went downtown to experience the "grand re-opening" of Main Plaza, also known as Plaza de las Islas. The latter name (Spanish), the older name for the location, refers to the islands from whence came the Canary Islanders who arrived in San Antonio in March of A.D. 1731. They founded the first civil settlement and municipal government in Texas, began the time-consuming erection of Texas' first parish church (as opposed to mission church or presidial chapel), and laid out the square (plaza) as the heart of their new town.

Main Plaza/Plaza de las Islas has seen numerous major changes of appearance over the approximately 177 years since then. And the latest radical alteration of appearance was celebrated this past evening.

I went, resigned that the square would not have the two north-south streets, which had been eliminated by the planned renovation. By this fact alone it now varies further than ever from the standard design of city squares of the colonial Spanish Empire. I was ready for this, but I consoled myself that the vista-blocking undergrowth and the ugly central fountain would be gone. And surely anything would be an improvement.

Not!

Much to my surprise, pedestrian access from the south into the central portion of the renovated square was blocked by gardens and the ends of low walls. And such access from the north into the center did not include gentle ramps for the disabled, just steps and low retaining walls which can be used as impromptu benches. The center portion's surface consisted of three things. Some areas were covered with rough and uneven ashlar (quarried stone). In at least three places waterworks consisting of small geysers or fountains of water bathed rectangles of finished stone or concrete; the boundaries of these waterworks were mostly defined by where the wet ended and the dry began. Thirdly, large areas consisted of no more than bare dirt. It was easy to guess that at our first gully-washer this "new" Main Plaza will become a muddy hog wallow!

The layout of the raised and lowered areas and the placing of permanent kiosk-like structures make it impossible that Main Street and Soledad Street will ever again pass thru the square, as before. Thus north-south traffic thru the plaza is permanently blocked. I was vigorously against this from the beginning of announcement of public hearings on plans for Main Plaza renovation.

I had read of several elements to be included in the ceremony of Sunday evening, and sort of looked forward to it. But in this I was disappointed, too. For one, catering of picnic boxes for purchase had been set up inside the new square by Bill Miller Bar-b-cue, one cookie-cutter store of which sits at the northwest corner of the square. Now, why couldn't the body that fabricated this celebration have chosen Grady's with its superior bar-b-cue, or the fried chicken of Church's (another S.A. eating establishment), or something from Jim's Restaurants?

When the male-female pair of emcees for the main portion of the ceremony were introduced, they were both from KENS TV-5, and the male in the pair was weatherman Bill Taylor. The usually sharply-apparelled Taylor was sporting a suit and dress shirt, but no necktie! At least one public official on the platform was similarly garbed (i.e., no tie). Mayor Hardberger, his wife and the cathedral's Father David Garcia were in the front row of seats up there; this trio was the driving force behind Main Plaza renovation. Indeed, conventional wisdom among S.A. citizens is that she (Mrs. H) was THE driving force.

These folk and some other spoke about the history of Plaza de las Islas/ Main Plaza. Before all the talk there were some dramatic presentations by Canary Islander descendants and a military group in period costume. In all of this there was no mention of anybody or anything that happened in what is now downtown San Antonio between the times of the nomadic Coahuiltecan bands and the Islanders' arrival in 1731. I was distressed that there was in this a forceful effort to represent that this city as a permanent community began with those settlers from the Canaries! What about the original mission, San Antonio de Valero, founded on 1 May A.D. 1718? (Years later it became the famous fort and battleground, The Alamo.) What about el presidio, the protecting fort, also called San Antonio, founded four days later? And the villa set up for soldiers' families and a few farmers and craftsmen who also settled in 1718? What about the second mission, San José, founded in 1720?

Let's hope, dear reader, that there isn't such shunning of the first decade plus of this city's true history as a settled community when we get to A.D. 2018. That is when this so unique and historic city can celebrate its tricentennial. Let's also pray that this city gets a wiser set of leaders in its municipal government by then, who will seek to undo the deleterious effects of the current redoing of Main Plaza!