The Jalapeno

The Jalapeno Radio K.E.D.A. 1540AM

The Jalapeno Radio station is a unique radio station. I am used to listening to KXTN which is more Tejano music then conjunto music. When I first tuned in the station was playing the Star Spangled Banner conjunto style, no words just music. To me it was very uplifting. The deejays were very friendly and upbeat. Some of the deejays are Guero Polkas who‘s actual name is Richard Davila, is son to the founder of the radio station. He first went off to California to deejay out there and even promoted bail bonds in case his listeners found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Nelda Saenz grew up listening to KEDA and listened to Lucky Louie in the morning. He inspired her to be a deejay. Danny Casanova was born and raised just a block from the radio and started out as a sound engineer for weddings and debuts. In 1978 he started the business DJ Express and has been running it for 30 years. Danny also sits on Board of Directors of the Network for Young Artist which is a no-profit organization that helps children and artist in the art of music and dance. Hector ‘Via Via’ has been in the buisness for 15 years and is mostly a business man. He drives the Via Transit busline but also he is the Judging director for the Fiesta Flambeau Parade Association Inc. as well as Vice President of the U.S. Military Veterans Parade Association. Mark Weber, "EL TAQUACHE" is actuallly from Lebanon, Ohio and claims to be Scottish and German heritage. Even though conjunto music was non-existent when he was growing up he loves Spanish and was elected President of the Spanish Club in his high school. His father was a migrant worker and went through out the U.S. picking apples and oranges. His friend, Rick Juarez, had encouraged him to learn how to play the accordion by the best. KEDA started in 1966 and put an emphasis on local bands and businesses. They did not want to turn their back on the local people who made them who they are. They also call themselves on their web page “The first spanglish radio station in the world.” I felt the mood of the whole radio station was very informal and relaxing. Since it promotes a lot of local bands and businesses I feel that more people feel comfortable calling in to the radio station like they were calling a friend to see how they are doing. While listening a lot of people called in just to say hi. I liked the way that they have request, dedications and don’t try to rush people off the air or cut them off like other stations do. I actually programmed this radio station on my car radio because I liked the way that the deejays respond to the people and I liked the music that was played. It’s a different change of pace and a good one I think.

We feel powerful on top of the Rock
At Peace
Calmness. Peaceful. Breath taking. These are just a few of the words I would use to describe this huge, pink, granite exfoliation dome, that raises 425 feet above ground, 1825 above sea level, and covers 640 acres called Enchanted Rock in Fredericksburg, Texas. The Enchanted Rock State Natural Area is 1643.5 acres. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1970 and in 1984 placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is one of the largest underground rock formations uncovered by erosion in the United States.
Before I go into the details of my experiences and the experiences of others, I feel that it would be a great injustice if I did not share with you the history of this magnificent and mysterious place. The Tonkawa Indians, according to the Texas Park and Wildlife website, believed ghost fires flickered at the top, and they heard weird creaking and groaning. Today geologists now say that these moans and groans were actually from the rock’s heating by day and contracting in the cool night. According to the tales, a conquistador captured by the Tonkawa described how he escaped by losing himself in the rock area, giving the legend of a “pale man swallowed by a rock and reborn as one of their own.” The Indians believed he wove enchantments on the area, but he explained that the rock wove the spells. “When I was swallowed by the rock, I joined the many spirits who enchanted this place.” It wasn’t until 1723 that the first well- documented explorations of the area were done by the Spanish when they intensified their efforts to colonize Texas. The Spanish made several trips to the north and northeast of San Antonio in the mid 1770’s, establishing a mission and presido on the San Saba River and carrying out limited mining on Honey Creek near the Llano River.
I had the pleasure of being introduced to this magnificent place almost fourteen years ago when I was in middle school. Unfortunately, when you are that young you really don’t fully appreciate or understand the magnificence of nature and all the wonder it holds. Like all things, my first experience was a very memorable one for things other that the beautiful scenery. Our sponsors had let us climb this magnificent piece of nature by ourselves with the only rule is to not go alone and to be back by a certain time. A group of friends and I decided to be daring and as soon as we had reached the top ,where only a single tree grows, we decided to go down a steeper way, not realizing how steep it really was. We had to slide down on our bottoms to safely get down. Its amazing how granite will tear blue jeans right up. I had tears on my pants that were a little embarrassing. Then came the scary part we had about fifteen minutes to get back to the bus and we had no idea where we were at. We were fortunate to run into a group of older gentlemen that told us which way was the fastest way to go. Unfortunately they howled to each other which made us think, ”Oh my gosh, these guys are crazy and we are going to die!” We made it in time to catch our bus with torn pants and cactus thorns in our hands but a fun time and tons of memories.
The first person that I wanted to interview was my husband, Mike, whom I introduced to Enchanted Rock about five years ago while we were still dating. It was brave of him to trust me to take him to a place in the middle of nowhere to climb this rock. “The most exciting thing for me was the caves, “he said. Mike is deathly afraid of spiders and was scared to death of the daddy long legs because they are the most venomous spiders in the world even though their fangs are like our hair. We went to one of the smaller caves with my brother and another one of our friends. It was a fun and scary experience. It was all about trusting the person that was in front of you. On our way out we saw white tail deer in the parking lot which is common in the area along with other wildlife such as rock squirrels, armadillos, rabbits and turkey vultures. It was such a great experience for all of us because it was the first time we had seen a sunset together and it was so beautiful.
Vianca is someone very special to me. I have known her since the first grade and was with me in the holey pants incident. We made it a couples trip in 2004 to get a more spiritual aspect. She is a very spiritual person and “ could clearly see that only God could create such a peaceful and spiritual place.” This was our second trip to the Rock so it was fun to compare this time to the first time we got lost and confused. “I remember in middle school meeting up with the ‘Wolf Men’ and being scared out of our minds, we just a couple of girls and were really scared. Now we can look back and laugh about it now as adults and reflect on how that moment probably brought us together much closer as friends.”
We have been to The Rock as a family also. I was still young and my mother, father, and two brothers were excited to go. "We don't usually go do 'family outings'" my mother said,"but it seemed like fun and Irma was excited about it." My mom didn't make it to the top but the rest of us did. When we got up there we noticed that it was going to rain so we started to head down. Since I had been there already I knew the right way to get down but my older brother, Tito, insisted we down another way, thinking it was the right way. "It all looked the same to me." Well that way wasn't the right way and there were a bunch of wobbly rocks. My dad had to help us out a lot getting down. "I was there just looking at them coming down and I was scared." In the end we were all ok and can joke about it now.
This beautiful place is open all year long with the exception for public hunts. When the park reaches capacity in parking it frequently closes down on weekends but reopens later in the evening. You can enjoy camping either at sites or if you want they have a 4 mile back packing trail. Also if you’re the more adventurous type you can call the park headquarters and set up a place to go rock climbing and you’re the more easy going type there are picnic areas, bird watching areas, and star gazing since there is not a lot of air pollution. The Enchanted Rock State Natural Area has something for everyone and it comes with one guarantee : You will truly have an experience of a lifetime!

WHERE I LAY MY HEAD

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My husband does courtesy work at The Westlake Villas Apartments because they offered us free rent for his services. The Westlake Villas Apartments on the Northwest side of town. My apartments are located at 1455 Cable Ranch Road which is between 410 and Marbach Road and 151 and Potranco.
I believe the socio-economic status in this neighborhood is middle working class. They are building a new apartment complex (Polo Club, I believe) and a new subdivision (Leaf Harbor). For the most part the area is well maintained but there is a slight problem with graffiti. In my area there are a lot of families and a military personnel. Just above where we live we have had two military personnel live there, one family and right now a bunch of men. The apartments around us (Trails of Westlakes and The Gates of Caprinon) take housing and Section 8’s. The racial/ethnic population I believe varies. We have African-American, Hispanics, Caucasian, and Arabs (the ones upstairs).
On the 410 and Marbach side of our apartments we have a lot of fast food options (Burger King, Taco Cabana, Wataburger, Taco Bell, Mc Donald’s, Sonic, Popeye’s, KFC, Jack In The Box). There are also some restaurants (Peter Piper Pizza, Golden Wok, Red Lobster, and Panchos). We have an HEB, Wells Fargo, Walgreen’s, Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Bally’s, Family Dollar, Dollar General and Big Lots. There is a Fire Station also down the street from us,along with the Alamo Draft House. On the 151 Potranco side there are many more nicer restaurants such as Chili’s, Carinos, Buffalo Wild Wings, TGIFridays, Village Inn, and Cracker Barrel). There are tons of shops like Target, Payless, GNC, Petsmart, Lowe’s, Office Dept, Kids Outlet, Supercuts, Ann’s Linens, Clair’s and Radioshack along with many more. I believe developers are planning another shopping area to be built on the other side of Potranco but they have only cleared the land so I am not sure what the developers are going to do. In a way all this new development may help out the neighbor hood because of the business it will bring and perhaps the jobs also. But it will also create more problems because of the traffic it will bring. The traffic is already bad just for me to get home.
There are some strengths to the neighborhood. For instance I love the fact that HEB is only a 3-5 minute drive and if my husband and I
want to rent a movie we can just walk there. Also we like to call in food so the fact the good places actually deliver I feel is a great plus. The traffic on the other hand I really hate. If you get on Marbach at 530 or 6 pm it is packed! I don’t see that we have a gang problem and it is pretty quiet in our complex. My husband usually gets calls saying that someone is playing music too loud and even those are rare.
In relation to where I live Palo Alto is about a 20-minute drive. It’s really just 410 South all the way. I do however take care of my aunt who is legally blind and she lives off of 410 South and Moursond, which is about 5 minutes away from Palo Alto. I leave my daughter with her while I attend my two classes.
My husband and I really do not go out anymore. He works Monday through Friday from 10am to 7pm, so we like our weekend to relax at home and maybe have someone over for dinner because I love to cook. Plus it’s easier for us with our daughter ; she can run around and play without us worrying what she is getting in to or if she might break something. If we do go somewhere it is usually to one of his friend’s uncles house to watch the latest WWE pay-per view event. He lives in the Southside off of Pleasanton and West Vestal and it usually takes us about 20- minutes.
These apartments right now is just a place for us to lay our heads even though we have been here a little over a year. The management is great with us and they generally care about our daughter and us. They are always excited to see her and ask my husband when he goes into the office to get her so they can see her. They have watched her grow from the day she was born till now. We do however have land that my parents have given us (5 acres) in Elmendorf to build our house when we can. My husband wants to wait until he pays off his truck, which won’t be that much longer thanks to the income tax return we are getting. We will be right next door so we can send the little one to visit grandma and grandpa when we want to go out sometime.

The Alamo

The Alamo is one of San Antonio’s famous sites. When my family and me went to visit the Alamo, my husband and I haven’t been there since we were in elementary school. To us it was a new and different experiences since there have been new additions to the Alamo. We were able to hear Monty speak about the history of the Alamo, which they do every half hour. He spoke about in 1803 it became a fort and in 1821 Mexico gained its independence from Spain. On December 9.1835 Texans won the Alamo and allowed the prisoners to leave and where told to never come back. William Travis joined Bowie on February 8th then later came Crocket. Santa Anna came with a red flag, which means no prisoners will be taken. In response they shot a cannon indicating no surrender; Santa Anna attacked the north wall on the 13th day at 4am. Travis and his men where the first to die, The women and children were sent to the church along with the ammo. The bodies were burnt and the women and children let go with money and blankets. When Santa Ana was caught Travis made him sign a deal which made Texas a free Rebuplic.

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas are in charge of the Alamo and since they are descendants of the defenders of the Alamo the Tejanos and Mexicans are not truly depicted for their true contributions that they did. Even on the official web page you can read letters from Bowie, Travis and Crockett but what about Navarro or other important Mexicans that defended the Alamo? I don’t have any specific examples because my family and I went to visit the Alamo before I knew exactly what was expected of this assignment. I did have the chance to see the beautiful wall and read it. It gave me a better view of the history leading up to the battle.

At Peace

At Peace
Peaceful. Quiet. Spiritual. Those are just some of the words I would use to express how I felt walking through the beautiful Yanaguana Trail of Mission San Juan Capistrano. The history of this mission ,that was established in 1716 as Mission San Juan de los Nazonis but later on March 5,1731 reestablished on the east bank of the San Antonio River and renamed Mission San Juan Capistrano, is amazing. This mission was actually moved from the woods of East Texas to the east bank of the San Antonio River. According to the message board when you first enter the trail states that the trail is part of the original channel of the San Antonio River. The word ‘Yanaguana’ means ‘the refreshing water’ by the Coahuiltecan people, and oh how it live up to that name. While I was walking by the river on a beautiful breezy afternoon, I felt so refreshed and relaxed listening to the flow of the river, even thought the river was calm you could see from the trees the damage that could be done by major floods. There are logs in trees and broken branches from the path that Mother Nature created for herself. There was no one else walking the trail there so I was able to enjoy the whole experience without being disturbed, as it would have been in the 1730’s with the birds singing and flying in the clear blue sky. No cars, no cell phones, no noise. It made me appreciate nature all over again. At that moment I knew exactly how according to his diary, Father Isidro Felix de Espinosa, the president of three east Texas missions, felt when he wrote on Thursday, May 14,1716,” By an open path we arrived at the river San Antonio worthy to be coveted, and praised for its pleasantness …its copious waters, which are blue, crystalline, and sweet..” The times have defiantly taken a toll on the environment which is evident when you consider what Father Damian Massenet states,” There are a great many fish, and upon those plains many turkey. Today there were so many buffalo that they mille through our horse herd and drew off forty horses.. I named this spot St Anthony of Padua, because it was his day, and in the Indian language it is called Yanaguana”. Even though we are no longer able to see such beautiful, awesome animals such as peccaries, buffalo or eels there still feels a presence of how rich this land once was in both animals and nutrition from the land to grow crops. These days now everything is handed to us, like HEB, internet, pizzas just a phone call away, and for the younger generations they truly don’t appreciate anything because they have truly never had to work in order to survive. If only we were able to travel back in time and live the way the mission Indians lived if only for a day so that maybe we would be able to appreciate now how much hard work it took for these wonderful structures to be built and how much hard work people used to do in order to survive then maybe we would have a better feeling of accomplishment.

Mission Espada

San Antonio has many interesting sites that we who live here take for granted. This past week I was able to revisit Mission San Francisco de la Espada, or just Mission Espada, for most of us. It was established on March 5, 1731 by Spanish Franciscan missionaries and had about 200 people. Many of the Coahuiltecan Indians which were hunter and gathers came to the mission because the missions had a lot to offer such as food, shelter and a way for them to survive. Our guide, Ranger Tom Castano, talked to us a lot about the water system that basically established the city we live in today. The acequia is the water supply that was brought from the San Antonio River, which is 56 miles long and 20 miles wide, down to the mission in order for them to grow crops. The acequia channels are miniature versions of dams. Sloe scats which are dug in the acequias are exit trenches all over the mission fields. The Espada Dam still brings river water to the acequia madre (the mother ditch) today. Today this system is still in place but not used for farming because of the fact that the soil is not rich in the nutrients it once had. The way the roads are built today on the South side are because of the water system that was created back in the 1730's because land wasn't given out in perfect little square but in abnormal shapes and sizes that when the city came and wanted the land for roads only got the end of each property. It was interesting to learn all these facts and it is going to be great to learn many more about the city I call home.