My Neighborhood

My neighborhood is here in Floresville it is located about 30 miles out side of the San Antonio city limits and is a part of Wilson County and the drive to Palo Alto College is about a good 28 to 35 minutes. Foresville is next to county roads and is close by to Sutherland Springs and about 15 minuets away from Pleasenton and about 5 minuets away from Poth. One of the most notable features about Floresville is that on the second week of October from the 11th to the 13th the town celebrates the Peanut Fest a tradition of the town that has been around since the founding of Floresville. The street that i live on is 3rd Street which is located outside downtown and is a part of the outskirts of town there is not much over in my neighborhood because there are not many house on this street but my house is located across and next to the city cemetery's.

Most of the houses that are here in the neighborhood are fairly maintained and mostly the people that own those houses are of working/middle class, many of the people of those houses do farm work for others or they transport equipment or supplies to other businesses. Since mainly a number of people in my neighborhood are White and Hispanic its is unknown to me about the exact number is unknown.

There are some good features about my neighborhood it is closer to the Pecan Park and close by to Highway 181 were H-E-B and other stores are and my house is close by to a local clinic in case anyone in the family is sick. Some of the development thats is taking place is that there is a Whata Burger being built here so no one will have to drive to San Antonio to get food from there again and there is also a First National Bank that just recently opened as well. I believe that my neighborhood and the rest of the town will benefit from the these new development because the Whata Burger will give the high schoolers a new place to work after school and the bank that was recently opened gave people a new place for their savings.

When I want to have or just go and study i go to either my friends house which he live on C Street where the old post office use to be, or i go to my house which i live on 3rd Street. From the total time i spend to get to my friends house and back to my house is about 5 minutes give it depends if there is no traffic or construction on the way to these location. In town there is not much do for fun which is why sometimes on the weekends we go to San Antonio for fun because Floresville is just quite small town.

However my neighborhood is somewhat of a community even though most of the house that i live by are kinda separated from one another, but i do like living there sometimes because it can be peaceful. In all Floresville is good little town where everyone know everyone and the people are friendly and kind towards one another and is a good place to for the environment.

The Alamo

From watching both the John Wayne Film and the John Lee Hancock there are some very noticeable difference in both movies. Both movies had a sense that everything was dramatized and that both movies portrayed events and characters very differently in the other movie which made me believe that the newer 2004 movie was more accurate then the John Wayne film.

First the John Wayne I thought and everyone else that saw the movie knows that most of that movie is historically inaccurate due to the way the characters have been shown and the setting of the movie. The character of Jim Bowie was depicted as a drunk that he was injured during one of the cannon raids in the Alamo when historically he was ill during the siege of the Alamo. Davy Crockett shows up at the Alamo with many men to help fight at the Alamo when he showed up at the he only brought at the most a hand full of men to fight at the battle. Another point about the way davey crockett was portrayed that he die by blowing up the room with all the gun poweder when he died in the front of the chapel. Which showed, in my own opinion, that John Wayne might have thought that the soldiers there would have at least have some what of a fighting chance but the was inevitable. One of the weak points in the fim was the actuall battle itself it only lasted about 9 minutes at the most when the real battle only lasted about 90 minutes or even more. Then time and the setting of the movie was off the time of the seige took place very early in the morining around 5 and didnt end till the sun came up. In the setting of the John Wayne film was off in the movie San Antonio was in the middle of a desert and was shown to be in the middle of no where, this was wrong San Antonio at the time had trees and the no dester and the Alamo was next to the river. The John Wayne version of the movie was depicted soely for entertainment proposes because a good majority of the movie was historically inaccurate.

In the 2004 Alamo movie with Billy Bob Thorton was more believeable and more historically accuate due to the fact they had most of the event in the correct way it happend. The way Davy Crockett was portayed in this version of the movie was that he was a legend but not the way he was in John Wayne Film. One thing that didnt change was the fact that Jim Bowie and cournal William Travis were arguing almost any chance they had but in reality was that they only argued twice. One point of the film when they were getting bombarded by Santa Anna cannon fire Davey Crockett grabs his fiddle and playes with the drums and there was no cannon fire that night. I believe the directors just added that part in there to make is seem that eveyone had a repreve from the cannon fire and just to make seem more dramatic. One part of the film was the Juan Seguin was portrayed very accurately the way he was in real life over all the new 2004 movie was the most historcally accurate movie i have seen so far

Both Alamo movies are really good but if any cares about historical accuacey i would sugjest that you go and see the Billy Bob Thorton movie but you want to see a movie that is for enterainment see the John Wayne movie. But in my opion i would sugjest that you would watch both movies to see how Hollywood diptced the historical events of the Alamo back in the 1960's in 2004.



The Alamo. DVD. Dir. John Wayne. MGM Home Entertainment, 1960, 162 min.



The Alamo. DVD. Dir. John Lee Hancock. Touchstone Home Entertainment, 2004, 137 min.

The Alamo a San Antonio Legend

On September 22 my class went to the Alamo to walk its grounds and learn about its history from the curator, Dr. Winders, he said that all history is connected and that the story of the Alamo has been told very differently. In movie that tell the story of the Alamo the John Wayne movie tells us that the Massacer at Goldia happened before the battle of the Alamo when in fact the it happened after the Alamo. When most people go to see the Alamo when they reach the front the chapel is the first thing many people see and think it is the front of the Alamo but actually the front was a wall with a gate that extended all the way to the river and where most of the buildings are today.

After the battle the Alamo was nearly in ruins and it wasnt till the early 1900's after the civil was that the United States Government allowed the restoration of the Alamo and it wasnt designated a national park until the 1960's. The Alamo was mainly used for millitary storage during the civil war and in the chapel a adicte was built manily from storage space but was latter torn down after the Civil War. Today the chapel is now a memoriale for all those who fought at the Alamo and holds the flags of each independant state that each person hailed from. Althought the has hold history for it is the heart of San Antonio and will still be there to intrest future generations in its rich history.

The soruce of life at the Missions

Mission Francisco De La Espada depended upon a dam back in the days of exploration for Spain, which they needed water to allow them to sustain life over at the mission. From the time of its constructions Espada dam has been the life of the mission Espada and the Indian crops since 1740, which has been the oldest functioning aqueduct in American history. The experience that I gained from going to the Espada was that I learned that how there could be such a beautiful site could exist here in San Antonio because of how fast the river was flowing. The dam itself was very interesting and amazement that it has with stood the elements of nature and time and that is still functioning and bringing water to the mission. Around the dam the environment was so calm and cool and I saw fish swimming through the aqueduct and the walk from the aqueduct to the dam was good exercise for anyone that would enjoy the place. The impact that I thought that the dam had on the missions was that it brought life to the missions it allowed the Spaniards and the Indians. To me both the dam and the aqueduct were interesting parts of the missions because I got to see how the both structures communicate with the environment around them. The importance of the dam today is that is a historical marker and a memory of the past for what the missions stand for in the eyes of its descendents. Which is why that the missions should be preserved so that future generations would learn and get to experience the history of the San Antonio Missions and all it has to offer. This is what the San Antonio Missions mean to me when I go and see them.

Mission Espada

I Learned over at Mission Espada is that the mission was once a community for the Native Americans during the time of exploration for Spain and that the mission was used for many purposes. One of the uses for the mission was the chapel and that even today there are decadences of the mission that still hold Sunday masses over there and that it is one of the only buildings that are still standing during the years since it completion. The Park Ranger Dora Martinez told us some facts that were very informative about the Native Americans lived their lives back in the early days of the mission. In order to get water over to the mission the Native’s built an aqueduct that leads from the San Antonio River over to the mission and even to this day is the oldest running aqueduct in America. One of the ways that the Indians lived their lives over at the mission was the farming had to be done out side of the mission which put those that went outside of the mission at great risk from a raid by enemy tribes. For a way for the Indians to sleep at night was that thy grabbed some deer moss that would fall down from the mosque trees as for a mattress of a kind so they would sleep in their tents. The way the Indians had clothes because the Spaniards thought them how to use the loom which was a way for the Indians to make clothes so that they would be more civilized and more presentable in life. That is what I learned from my trip to Mission Espada and that it is a mission that would need to be preserved for as long as possible for the rich history that the mission holds.