Around the Horn and back again

On my morning constitutional, on my last day in San Antonio, I walked through Travis Park.

The park is named for Lieut. Col. William Travis, who died in the siege of the Alamo, a few blocks away, in 1836. Depending on who you ask, he was defending the rights of the Americans in the area, or he was one of the band of thieves stealing this land from Mexico. He had a short and seemingly interesting life, at least according to the Wikipedia article about him. He must have been many things, including very charismatic, but perhaps not including reliable or trustworthy.

Land for the park was donated by the Samuel Maverick family, who have their own fascinating story. The centerpiece of the park is an obelisk with a statue on top, inscribed “Lest We Forget Our Confederate Dead.”

Over the years, the park fell into disrepair but it was rehabilitated under San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, who went on to become the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Clinton. A Mexican-American and a progressive, working to preserve the Confederate monument on land taken from Mexico.

This month, some sort of partnership between the governments of some part of Texas and some part of Mexico are sponsoring an art exhibit around the base of the monument, a whole set of fiberglass figures that look like an unholy combination of Teletubbies and peace signs, decorated by the Neo-Yellow-Submarine school of design. History isn’t simple, it just isn’t.

In the cab on the way to the airport, the driver in his accented English quoted the philosopher Rumi, about how there’s always a good side and a bad side to everything. He was talking about rainy weather: bad for tourists, but good for cabdrivers. Somehow my whole experience in the park this morning makes me think that perhaps good old Rumi was onto something… But I have no idea what.