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The Guadalupe Community Center, shown here in 1956, was one of the landmarks of Durango Street (later Boulevard). Its current address is 1801 W. Cesar E Chavez Blvd.<\/p>\n
UTSA Special Collections<\/p>\n
The Nathan Mitchell house, in 1967 at the northeast corner of South Presa and Martinez streets, was one of the old structures lost when Durango merged with Martinez and Victoria to make a wider, continuous east-west boulevard before HemisFair \u201968.<\/p>\n
UTSA Special Collections<\/p>\n
A new sign, sponsored by the Zachry Foundation, marks the new name of the entryway to Hemisfair in Civic Park. Aro de Abrazos, or “circle of embraces,” refers to the shape of the entry and the welcoming nature of the design.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Zachry Corp.\/James Barrett<\/p>\n
From left to right, Bob Shemwell, Andi Rodriguez, Susan Thompson, Tracy Watts, Sue Ann Pemberton and David Zachry all were involved in the realization of the new Aro de Abrazos entryway at Hemisfair, which opened to the public last month.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Zachry Corp.\/James Barrett<\/p>\n
Morrison & Fourmy\u2019s 1883 Revised Map of San Antonio probably is the first map to show the newly renamed section of streets named for Mexican cities or states that included Durango. At that time, Durango only extended as far east as South Laredo Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Courtesy SACS Foundation<\/p>\n
Durango Street sign at South Pinto.<\/p>\n
UTSA Special Collections<\/p>\n
This column doesn\u2019t typically take sides on current issues. It has come out against San Antonio\u2019s shabby Jim Crow-era treatment of a Black baseball great (March 18, 2023), false imprisonment during World War I of \u201cwayward\u201d women (Sept. 8, 2018) and some other bygone bad choices.<\/p>\n
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But recently, readers have written with suggestions about a current affair, the renaming of a street that had been renamed already \u2013 Durango Street, later Boulevard, changed in 2011 to C\u00e9sar E. Chavez Boulevard. Now there are calls to change the name again, either back to the historical one or to honor a different namesake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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You could do a lot worse than Durango \u2013 and we did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Early last month, what would have been San Antonio\u2019s 30th annual C\u00e9sar E. Chavez March for Justice, scheduled for March 28, was canceled because of a \u201csensitive matter\u201d that turned out to be claims of sexual assault by several women against Chavez, the founder of the United Farm Workers Union who died in 1993.<\/p>\n
Since then, the city has addressed the possibility of a name change with a survey, community outreach and meetings, expected to lead up to a public hearing and consideration by City Council next month, according to a timeline proposed in a March 20 memo by Assistant City Manager John Peterek, whose portfolio includes Development Services, which is tasked with the potential renaming process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That gives us all time to think about what we\u2019ve done and try not to do it again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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RELATED: Southtown street namesake<\/a><\/p>\n San Antonio\u2019s oldest streets were named for \u201cthe places they led to, how they looked, who lived on them or what happened there,\u201d says David P. Green in \u201cPlace Names of San Antonio.\u201d By the late 19th century, some areas beyond the traditional city center picked up theme names such as Alamo heroes, American cities or states, trees and vines or Mexican cities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Durango was one of that last group, along with Laredo, Matamoros, Monterey, Puebla and Saltillo. Another one was El Paso, not for the Texas city but for what\u2019s now Ciudad Juarez, known as El Paso del Norte until 1888, as noted by Beth Standifird, the San Antonio Conservation Foundation\u2019s research librarian who has compiled a chronology of Durango-related events.<\/p>\n Themed names like these brought a kind of organization to street naming. You were meant to know you were headed southeast of downtown if you set off for Florida Street, or just north of downtown to Baltimore Avenue.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Mexican-cities theme was adopted between 1877 and 1883, renaming streets on an earlier grid pattern for streets west of San Pedro Creek that alternated numerical and directional names. According to research by local historian Maria Pfeiffer, \u201cThird became Monterey, Fourth became Matamoros and Fifth became Durango.\u201d<\/p>\n This homage may have been intended to highlight San Antonio\u2019s economic ties across the border. The first newspaper reference to Durango as a street name was in the San Antonio Daily Light, April 24, 1882, and its first appearance in the city directory came in the 1883 volume (probably compiled during the previous year).<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Mexican trade of this city is a heavy item in its business,\u201d says the boosterish introduction to the city directory for 1879-1880. \u201cOur merchants have dealings with all the principal cities of Mexico. \u201cWith care, this trade can be largely increased, and the wealth derived therefrom would alone be sufficient to resist the depressing effects of the most disastrous panic which could occur in the North.\u201d<\/p>\n