MiraFlores, hidden in plain sight
THIS is why I love walking! More times than I can count, I've stumbled across artistic, architectural, or historic gems like this; MiraFlores.
I've walked and run around Brackenridge Park enough times that you'd think I'd have seen this by now. Nope! Never. It was only when I decided to extend my run a bit by trying a new path that I found this. It's not exactly hidden and the gates to the place are rich, ornate, and smack dab along the side of a busy street.
I literally stopped in my tracks as I passed the main gate and finally noticed this gem. Where had it been hiding these past months? There were no signs in front so I didn't yet know what I was looking at.
Most importantly, as there seemed to be no unlocked portal to the street, how do I get in?
It didn't take me too long to figure out that its only open entrance was from inside Brackenridge Park.
The amount of coolness near that entrance is another story altogether. Once inside, I didn't see the placard explaining things until I had already explored most of the place.
I wandered around ignorant of the true beginnings of this place and its artifacts and my mind reeled at the potential origins of these incredible artifacts.
Statues and towers and benches and tiles and fountains. A treasure trove!
After finally finding the sign explaining things a bit more, I was determined to go home and do more research into the place and make an in-depth blog post about it. Not surprisingly, a bit of surfing led me to an incredibly well-written article in The Rivard Report about Mira Flores.
On a small piece of land near the headwaters of the San Antonio River sits a sizeable stone marker, upon which are inscribed the words: “1716 Aqui se celebró la primera misa” – the first mass was celebrated here. This proclamation sits quietly in Miraflores, a former property of Dr. Aureliano Urrutia, an accomplished physician who came to San Antonio from Mexico in 1914.
I encourage you all to click over HERE to read the complete article. As it's written by descendants of the good Doctor, they have a love for the place that shines through in the writing.
Go for a walk. Then, walk some more and never stop exploring. See things, travel, read! The world is a massive place filled with thousands of colors and flavors, countless languages and dialects, and enough artifacts like these to remind us that we're all specks of dust!
