The Alamo was nice as a box ticked in the proverbial "been there, done that". Where I was really looking forward to going in San Antonio was Mission San Jose. I'm glad I went there. Unlike the Alamo, it's an almost tourist-free zone. You can literally hear the sound of silence and the cicadas there. Besides, it is one of the rare Historic UNESCO sites in the US and amazingly preserved.
You wouldn't guess the Mission is actually in the urban perimeter of San Jose. You were tricked by the GPS and got lost before finding our way to the place and once you get there you feel you are in a pre-urban space far back in time. Mission San Jose is a time warp kind of thing which transports you to a parallel dimension. I could well imagine the real life characters of a Jeremy Irons and a Robert de Niro playing the missionaries in "The Mission" (1986) for this is a Mission like hundreds (or maybe thousands) of other Missions spread out in the then called New World. The effort, faith and courage needed to take on such endeavours are mind-boggling. How could people survive in these inhospitable environments (the scorching heat the first thing that comes to mind)? How could these isolated Missions carry out their missionary efforts when the odds were so against them? Again, mind-boggling. We think so highly of ourselves and of our modern accomplishments that we forget, from the comforts of our hyper-tech-driven world what real life was like. Mission San Jose helps you put things in perspective. You do feel humble(d) there...
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário