Transcripts For CSPAN3 San Antonio Spanish Missions 20240713

San antonio is here because of these missions. What is really wonderful is that a lot of people who called us here canme and come trace their ancestry to the colonial period, the people who build these mission buildings and who built these churches are the missions are about the start of the city of san antonio. The entrance. This is a part of San Antonio Missions National Historic park. This is a unit of the National Park service. There are more than 400 National Park sites around the country. 419 help to tell some part of the american story, the part of the american story that we tell here at the San Antonio Mission is the Spanish Colonial history of this area of this part of the world. Mission san jose is one of formations that make up the National Park. Fourark is comprised of missions. We have a model of this mission, mission san jose. Shows themodel that , the exterior walls were a series of rooms that served as the living quarters for the mission inhabitants. Also, inon compound the colonial period, would have included buildings and workshops. Today we see remnants of foundations for some of those buildings. The mission would have included the church and the fiery. Iery. Ye we are going to walk towards the church and talk a little bit more about what these missions were all about. Standing in the place with the missionaries would have made living quarters, offices, classrooms. Ands behind the church inay is missing the roofs the second floor. Really see the artistry that went into these buildings. The whole idea was to claim this land for spain. By doing that and establishing they hope to claim the land for spain. They started to get nervous. Had been what today is mexico for 200 years prior to establishing the missions here, they had not had much interest in establishing these missions until they started to feel that france, in what is today louisiana. They established missions in what today is east texas and establish the missions here to serve as a kind of rest stop for theelers going from provincial capital and what is today northern mexico. That was a long ways to go to the east Texas Missions and they establish missions here to serve as a rest stop for travelers. The National Park service maintains the grounds. The other Historic Structures and visitor center, but the Church Building itself, because parish, is an active maintained not by the National Park service but by the archdiocese. It is still an active church and because today we do abide by the separation of church and state in the National Park service, does not maintain the building. These walls would have been covered with amazing frescoes. Segment of that fresco that has been reproduced here on the wall. This is a reproduction, done in the 1940s and 1950s, and while the designriginal, and the colors are original. If you can imagine all of these walls would have been covered with frescoes. A fresco is this wall decoration with colors and pigments applied to the plaster when the plaster is still wet, still fresh. It was that they were working on a small segment at a time. They would apply the plaster and then the pigment and go to the next section. That had to have been something to see when all of these flat surfaces would have been covered this. At the aqueduct for the mission. Canal and irrigation so the system was this whole system of bringing water from the tunnels and the river to the farm fields at the different missions. The San Antonio River was a water of plentiful, good that was really important and necessary for the kind of farming they were doing here. They were irrigating and the farming was how they were going resources food and for the mission inhabitants. Structurecular for the espadaer creek. It is a low spot and as they were built following the contour of the land, the way they could get water from one side of the creek to the other was by ling this aqueduct. Building this aqueduct. The Indigenous People in this were surviving and doing well. There started to be some changes that affected their ability to make a living. When europeans arrived in north america, they brought with them horses. Other indigenous groups, the apache and the comanche and other group took those horses and became some of the best worst people that the world had ever seen. What that meant for them was that those groups, the apache and comanche, could expand their territory and could live in very large groups. Aggressive,so quite much more aggressive than other groups in the area. They eventually came into this area and so the apache caused some pretty serious problems. Bigger problem than that was the problem of diseases that had brought by europeans that were devastating, that wiped out huge portions of the population. All of the americas, groups ,ended to live in small groups maybe a couple dozen or so at a time. So for these groups that may be at their peak maybe had 20 to 30 , but then would get wiped out by a disease, others would get kidnapped by apache and other groups. So you might end up with just a handful of individuals. That situation come these strangers and the missionaries say, with us and you will have enough to eat and we will protect you against the apaches and come with us and you will survive and you will find salvation. Thate groups thought about and most of them said, no, thanks, we will figure it out for ourselves. Some, into the mission was a means of survival. Coming into the missions was about surviving and may be finding a way for their children and offspring to survive and persist. It was a difficult decision to come into the missions, but it was one that quite often was made from desperation. The we are talking about story of the missions, it is about the whole region of the country where the spanish. Nfluence today continues we see that not only in language and food and culture, but in the very persons who make up the population here. That spanish influence is something that continues to persist and that is really central to our identity, certainly here in san antonio. Storyse missions are our and not just something from long ago. Our cities tour staff recently visited san antonio to learn about their history. For more, visit cspan. Org cities tour. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. Next on the presidency, president ial rhetoric scholar Robert Rowland compares the speaking style and effectiveness of Ronald Reagan and barack obama. In details what they had in common. The Dole Institute of politics hosted this event. Welcome to the Dole Institute of politics. I am a member of the student Advisory Board. The official Student Group of the institute. The student Advisory Board is a Bipartisan Group whose members can access many opportunities through their involvement with the institute including volunteering for programs and networking with special guests. If you are a student i would like to join, please contact us by emailing us or speaking with a student worker after the program. After the program, we will have some time for the audience to ask questions