San Antonio, home to the Alamo and the River Walk, has more character than any other big city in Texas. Indeed, it is often lumped together with New Orleans, Boston, and San Francisco as one of America's distinctive cities. And, if you're looking for a destination for the whole family, you can't go wrong with San Antonio. It has a downtown area that is attractive and comfortable, a couple of large theme parks -- SeaWorld and Fiesta Texas -- and resorts that cater specifically to families.
For most of its history, San Antonio was the largest city in Texas, the "cosmopolitan" center, where multiple cultures came together and coexisted. It all began in 1718 when the native Coahuiltecan Indians were seeking protection from Apache raids and invited the Spaniards to establish a mission here. A few years later, by order of the King of Spain, 15 families came from the Canary Islands to settle here. (The oldest families in San Antonio can trace their family tree back to these colonists.) The settlement grew and prospered. The church eventually built five missions along the San Antonio River. But during the fight for Mexican Independence and then Texan Independence (1821 and 1836, respectively), San Antonio was the site of several hard-fought battles, including the famous siege of the Alamo. This greatly reduced the population for more than a decade until it began to attract thousands of German settlers fleeing the revolutions in Europe. So many came that by 1860 German speakers in the city outnumbered both Spanish or English speakers. Through the following decades these different immigrant groups would accommodate each other and forge a unique local culture.
The city continued to grow. In the early 1900s it showcased the first skyscraper in Texas. But San Antonio wasn't growing fast enough to keep up with Houston or Dallas. By the 1920s it had become Texas's third-largest city and had arrived at a crossroads. Was it to follow Houston and Dallas in their bull-rush towards growth and modernism? Or was it to go its own way, preserving what it thought most valuable? This crossroads took the form of a political dispute over the meandering San Antonio River. A city commission recommended draining the riverbed and channeling the water through underground culverts to free up space for more downtown buildings. This outraged many locals. A group of women's clubs formed to save the river and create an urban green space along its banks. (And this was decades before anyone in Texas had ever heard of urban planning.) The women's campaign was multipronged and even included a puppet-show dramatization. They were victorious, and the rest, as they say, is history. The Paseo del Rio or River Walk eventually became the city's crowning feature and a point of local pride. It has contributed greatly to the dynamism of the downtown area and the city at large.
There is a richness in San Antonio that goes beyond the images often seen on the covers of guides and brochures. Visitors today will encounter a city with a strong sense of its own identity, a city whose downtown shows its age and its respect for the past.
