May 13th, 2011 Heather Kovar
I can’t thank press club member and friend Achilles R. Schiano enough for flying to Texas and taking pictures for my family wedding celebration. Earlier in the year he joined us to take photos as we said “I do” at the City Clerk’s Office in New York City.
After the Texas party, he stayed an extra week and visited some areas he said he always wanted to see. Below is his write up from his travels. Believe me, it was more than an honor to have Achilles with us during these important dates of our lives.
Remember the Alamo and other Texas Tidbits
By Achilles R. Schiano. All photos by author
I recently returned from two weeks in Texas, and it was my first “sleepover” in The Lone Star State.
I now consider myself an honorary Texan.
First and last impressions–Texans are doggone hospitable and just, plain friendly.
I first found this out in a small town about 45 miles north of Austin, in the Hill Country. I went to shoot a friend’s wedding celebration for the home folks and I was welcomed as someone bearing a $50m cash stimulus from Washington.
While used to the Rockies of Colorado, the Arches of Moab, Utah, and the sheer beauty of Sedona and the Chiricahuas in Arizona, this Texas section is green (albeit suffering from drought) tree-lined, quiet pastures, some distant plateaus and scattered oil rigs on private properties. Austin is a nice college town with a beautiful Capitol building and shades of…the East Village.
Paths leading to 1836
Then down I35 to San Antonio, one of the vintage mission cities in the Southwest and home to the Alamo. I don’t know if The Alamo is studied much these days and of course the big John Wayne movie now on DVD, is constantly played in the gift shop.
What isn’t there, frankly, is much of the original Alamo walls. Actually little remains and I had trouble discerning what went back to the heroic, fabled 1836 stand and what’s rebuilt. That in no way denigrates its history, and impressions it made on me and hundreds of visitors.
We tend to forget that the Alamo was one of the early missions, with church, convent, plazas, and walled off–but not designed as a military fortress as such. So Davy Crockett, William Travis and almost 200 other heroes held off Mexico’s Santa Ana’s assault for 13 days. They all died. The remains of some women and children that survived, rest in a small marble casket in the San Fernando Cathedral. The Alamo paved the way to Texas Independence and a brochure notes: “. . .a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.”
Another shrine is the above-mentioned beautiful Catholic Cathedral of San Fernando, dating back to 1731. I went there on Good Friday and to my surprise, found that an annual Passion Reenactment was in progress, culminating in the crucifixion scene on the steps of the church. The religious network televised the event and–surprise–caught me resting on a wall, yellow shirt, WTC white cap and camera gear. While I’m at it, a reporter from the San Antonio News overheard me mentioning to some cops that I was from New Jersey and interviewed me. So I was quoted the next day. What hams we journos can be!!!
Enormous old oak at Alamo, with 50-ft.long branches
Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, appointed only a few months earlier, took part in the re-enactment and afterwards, I photographed him. On Easter Sunday I ran into him before Mass, and as we shook hands, he said “I remember you.” Must have been my WTC cap. He’s 55, naturalized citizen of Mexican origin, lean frame, quiet looking and first impressions: a man of the people.
A barge cruises RiverWalk
You cannot go to San Antonio and avoid the RiverWalk which is the San Antonio river vending its way, one level below street grade for about five miles through downtown, and walkways on both banks. My first impression was a contrived, touristy shopping mall. Well it is kinda–but actually quite nice as you keep gravitating towards it, with scores of varied food eateries, boutiques, smartly designed hotels forming canyon walls to the river below, birds chirping, trees and flowers. You can walk or ride a barge.
Author/photog enjoys
Heading back to Austin, I diverted to Johnson City, home of the LBJ National Historical Park (a state park is several miles away). The LBJ park has a rustic feel, as befitting our 36th president. Walk the Settlement Trail as I did in 95 degree weather and get that feel. Placards placed in a hall describe the people and land. One notes that President Johnson enjoyed retelling stories of his frontier grandparents–”Indian raids, domestic toil, hardships of the trail.”
A visitor at LBJ National Historic Park
Joe Alsop was a well-known columnist years ago, and a placard quotes him about Johnson:
He was our last frontiersman-President…the frontier ways and attitudes still survived in his corner of the world when he was coming to manhood.They even marked his speech until the day of his death, so if he wished to praise someone, he would say:”He’s a good man to go to the well with.”
I think Texas must have a lot of good people to go to the well with. I would be remiss in not telling this story. One day it must have been 98 in San Antonio, an easy city to lose you way, and it felt that I walked three miles. I saw a government employee who had parked his marked car and I asked for direction to my motel. He said he would drive me and it was on his way. I got in (car marked, looked legit) and he gave me a bottle of water. I downed half before you could crank an engine.A few minutes later I was at the motel. I offered a dollar-bill for the water. “No sir, it’s a blessing.” I said well God Bless you and your family and I will return the blessing.I did when some unfortunate people asked me for some money.
Remember, don’t mess with us Honorary Texans.
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