Liquid Gold!

On this planet there are natural resources that we take for granted every day. Oil, crops, fish, metals and etc are all good examples, but there is one that is vital for our survival. Water is the life force that helps us and the planet exist. Each city, town, community, village, indigenous, or civilized has their own source of water. In our city of San Antonio we have the Edwards Aquifer or aquifer for short. The aquifer is an underground enormous cave reservoir that holds a huge amount of water for San Antonio and other surrounding counties. One Friday our class was graced with a guest speaker named Elizabeth Earnley. She is a member of “AGUA” an organization that oversees development for land over the aquifer called the recharge zone. The recharge zone is land where the soil is shallow and contamination to the aquifer is highly possible. Along with the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance (helps preserve and protect the aquifer) these organizations make sure the land developers don’t overstep their boundaries by polluting or building over the recharge zone. The city’s own water service “SAWS” conducts a series of steps before finalizing any development deals. Some of the issues accounted for are is this allowed in the recharge zone, is the site properly grandfathered, and a hearing before the city. In 1995 the city enforced a water quality ordinance that would help preserve the recharge zone. We even got in groups and did exercises to decide whether certain development plans should be built. All in all I learned a lot that day and know that our water resource should be top priority!

Tales from the south.....

My neighborhood lies in the south side of San Antonio. It’s located at the intersection of Zarzamora and Hutchins’ street. A mile north along Zarzamora is I-35 and a couple of miles south are loop 410. Botch highways are vital in traveling around in the city. The neighborhood itself is in city limits, but only by a couple of miles. My neighborhood is on the south side of town, but leans to the west. The neighborhood is comprised of working middle class families. A few are upper middle class and a few are lower middle class. The majority of people take care of their homes. No one really leaves their yards not maintained and most of the homes are really nice. Albert Uresti who tried to run for congress last November lives a couple of houses down from me. His brother is Carlos Uresti represents the 19the district. The block is made up of blue collar working families. The majority of families have been here for a while. Families leave their homes to one of their kids and etc. The racial makeup is about 75% Hispanic, 20% White, and 5% other. Although there is a bunch of families with middle aged parents, there are also a good number of elderly people here. The elderly here don’t normally live by themselves, but rather with their older kids and their families. My block is a street away from Hutchins elementary and five minutes away from Palo Alto (which is very convenient for me).

Just 2 miles north of me is SW Military Dr, one of the busiest major streets in San Antonio. Along military is Southwest General Hospital, South Park Mall (which houses Macy’s, Luby’s, and J.C. Penny’s), Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, and every fast food restaurant imaginable. There is no development around here because of 2 reasons. One there is no open land to build and the other is we pretty much have everything that commercial markets can offer. This neighborhood is close to 2 major highways, so it’s easy to get around town. There are a lot of stores nearby which accounts for a lot of traffic making the streets congested during the day. This also accounts for it being a little noisy at times. Being so close to a major street, highways, schools, and stores has its disadvantages. At night especially during the weekends you can hear a lot of police sirens and ambulances. I lucked out because my school is a five minute drive from where I live, but this isn’t the case for my work and friends. I work at Air Force Village 2 which is off of highway 90 and loop 1604. This far considering it takes about 30 minutes to get there. My friends live off of West Ave and loop 410; this is also quite a drive because it is 20 minutes away. Needless to say I don’t go out unless something is happening for sure instead of chilling in their living rooms doing nothing.

For me though this neighborhood has been good to me. I have only lived here since January 2005 and I only did that because of school. I have close ties here because my grandma lives across the street so I know everyone here before I moved in with my sister. Even with that said I still feel like this neighborhood is a transition point in my life. I am not done searching, learning, and experiencing myself or life. Maybe I never will so that’s why I feel like progressing and moving forward. I hope to go to a university when I am done here and I hope to move out of my sisters too. So I will keep looking and progressing until I find a career and a place called home.

Alamo we hardly knew ye

History is a fascinating subject, because it entails so much morals and lessons about humanity. Being born and raised here in San Antonio, Texas, one of the first things we are taught is the story of the Alamo. Names like Crockett, Travis, Bowie, and Houston are all like distant family members. Distant because we heard of them, but don’t really know them. In this city you will find schools, shrines, and streets named after these men. Hollywood of course will try to recreate any historical event in history and the Alamo was no exception. I recently viewed the 1960 film The Alamo starring John Wayne. In this film the men of the Alamo were represented as men of valor, drunks, but noble and brave none the less, the film however had a large number of inaccuracies.

From my readings, viewing of films and internet sites I was able to get a clear understanding of what happened. In the film the Anglo settlers were depicted pretty accurately in the sense they fought and died bravely. Travis shown to be a snob, but there is no proof that he acted like that. Bowie was in fact quite ill from dysentery or typhoid fever and wasn’t all that active as the movie portrays him to be. In the movie Bowie has a slave named Jethro, but history says his name was Sam. In the movie Travis was shot in the torso, but Sam the slave says he was shot in the head. In the film John Bonham tells the men that Fannin and his men were murdered with no help arriving. This doesn’t happen until about a month later after the Alamo has fallen. The Mexican forces were portrayed accurately and not out of character. The Tejanos in the film were non existent. The only Tejanos were the women in the bar and they were seen a whores. In history there was Tejano fighters in the Alamo and in the town of San Antonio. All in all we don’t know 100 percent of what happened or who died first, but we know that close to 200 men lost their life defending the Alamo.

The Alamo. Dir. John Wayne. Perf. John Wayne, Richard Wildmark, Laurence Harvey. DVD. MGM, 1960.

"The Alamo (1960 Film)." Wikipedia. 4 Oct. 2007 .

Tijernia, Andres. "Under the Mexican Flag." Tejano Journey os (1996): 33-47.

Remember the Alamo. DVD. Dir. Joseph Tovares. PBS Home Video, 2004, 54 min.