The San Antonio River Walk, A Spanish Heritage

By Katherine Santana 
 
We board the pontoon boat at dusk; lights glittering 
around us—people chattering, glasses clinking
from the restaurants surrounding the riverbank.
Humid southern Texas air gently on our skin.
Couples gazing through glassy, intoxicated
eyes. The tour guide sets the mood
with preliminary banter, laughter livens the boat. 
All settle into their seats, the guide details 
safety precautions, then begins the tour 
with Robert H.H Hugman, architect visionary.
Then back in time to 1536, when 
Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca,
shipwrecked captive of the local Natives, 
is the first European to describe the River.
 
The Payaya once hosted the Spanish along
the riverbank. Tokens of history long buried.
Now native San Antonians host tourist
from all over the world. Celebrating the city’s
Spanish Heritage.
The guide highlights points-of-interest,
architecture modeled after old Spanish villas
and the Canary Islands,
 
but I hear no more. I am carried away.
To 1718, when the Payaya left the river and
their beliefs to join the Catholic missions.
A long dark haired man looks at me. 
He stands by the riverbank, dressed 
in deerskin, face smeared with blackened
tears. 
Music trails the corridors, the pontoon boat
swivels around the bend, and I am brought back
to the San Antonio River Walk.

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