San Antonio (Texas) Legacy : Folklore and Legends of a Diverse People

San Antonio's is an unlikely legacy. The frontier city's remoteness attracted miscreants and adventurers of all kinds, too many of them with short tempers and quick trigger fingers. Yet frontier San Antonio also drew--from a dozen diverse cultures--missionary priests, conservative merchants and proper ladies, who established a polite society amidst all the commotion. The mix also gave rise to the stories, some true, others not so, in San Antonio Legacy: of disorder in the Bull's Head Saloon, of hiding silver on wagon trains to the Mexican border, and why Bob Augustine was lynched in front of the Bishop's house. Then there are tales of San Antonio as the mother-in-law of the Army, of a society matron's drive to save the Texas bluebonnets, of unrequited love at the Alamo. All are told in the words of those who watched these things or participated or who talked with those who did--or who just made them up for the entertainment of those who would come later. All 22 stories are illustrated by drawings by Jos Cisneros.