San Antonio is still a unique city, even if Mark Twain and Will Rogers never said so

by Elaine Ayala

The opening page of the testimony recorded at the historic 1968 hearings of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The hearings heard from Mexican Americans about the racism, discrimination and prejudice they were experiencing. The hearing was held at Our Lady of the Lake University.

It’s no accident that the Buena Vista Project begins each podcast with an overarching goal to amplify Mexican American issues, history, politics, cultura y más.

We make clear why in the next breath. We come to you from San Antonio, the Mexican American capital of the United States.

My co-host Michael Quintanilla and I were born here, so we’re a little biased.

But it’s not bravado or boosterism. It’s a belief in San Antonio’s unique geographic position, its rich history and its Mexican American population growth and political power, despite persistent poverty.

San Antonio has been described in grand ways for a long time.

Writer and humorist Mark Twain was credited with saying that San Antonio in the 1880s was one of “America’s four unique cities,” alongside Boston, New Orleans and San Francisco.

Then in 1926, humorist Will Rogers called it one of the nation’s three “unique cities.”

That neither ever made those comments didn’t stop people from believing them, perhaps especially after visiting San Antonio. 

It also didn’t stop city officials from popularizing both statements to promote itself and tourism.

The scholar you can believe, however, is cultural geographer and Arizona State University professor emeritus Daniel D. Arreola.

He coined the term "Mexican American cultural capital" to describe San Antonio in the late 1800s and early 1900s, citing its rich historical roots, vibrant living culture and significant Mexican American population.

He cited railroad links between San Antonio and Monterrey that continued to refresh San Antonio in so many ways -- all of them Mexican.

In our first episode, San Antonio historian Sarah Zenaida Gould, executive director of the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute, spoke of the importance of Arreola’s work, a paper titled “The Mexican American Cultural Capital.”

“San Antonio, Texas, is the historic hearth of Mexican American culture in the United States,” its abstract says. “Cultural heritage, linkage to Mexico, and role as a stronghold of Mexican ways sustain the continued recognition of the city as the cultural capital for this ethnic group in the United States.”

Arreola made the case that even though other cities (such as Los Angeles) counted more Mexican Americans, they made up a far smaller percentage of L.A.’s population compared to San Antonio.

As a group, they couldn’t make the impact that Mexican Americans continue to make on San Antonio.

And when it comes to civil rights advocacy, San Antonio led the way.

Consider the leading civil rights figures that came out of or landed on the city’s West, South and East Sides: Emma Tenayuca, Jovita Idar, Alonso Perales, Henry B. Gonzalez, María Antonietta Berriozábal, Mario Obledo, Antonia Hernández, Henry Cisneros, Rosie Castro and Willie “Su Voto es Su Voz” Velasquez.

The list goes on and on.

Consider the leading civil rights organizations that started in San Antonio, including the Order of Sons of America, which led to the creation of the League of United Latin American Citizens, still the nation’s largest Latino civil rights membership organization. Consider the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

Think about the movements founded here such as Communities Organized for Public Service and the Mexican American Youth Organization. The latter led to La Raza Unida, which briefly served as the state’s third political party and ran candidates on the state and local level as well as other places in the U.S. Southwest.

So, welcome to the Buena Vista Project, and listen to our first episode from the Mexican American capital of the United States.

Yes, we deleted Arreola’s use of “cultural.” It was deliberate.

We never mentioned Arreola’s book, “Tejano South Texas: A Mexican American Cultural Province.”

We’ll get to it someday, and to this: San Antonio is making plans to build the Mexican American Civil Rights Museum, and it will be the first museum of its kind in the nation.