Anne Elise Urrutia Miraflores

Annotation

Aureliano Urrutia, a prominent physician and public servant in Mexico City, built Miraflores garden after he immigrated to San Antonio, Texas, from Mexico in 1914 during the Mexican Revolution. A man of science, Urrutia professed the importance of nature, art, literature, history, music, and community.Everything in Miraflores, located near the headwaters of the San Antonio Riverthe plants, architecture, sculpture, and artisanshipformed an atmospheric landscape reflecting Urrutias love for and memory of his homeland. Sculptures and fountains created by Luis L. Sanchez, Ignacio Asnsolo, and Dionicio Rodrguez, and other Mexican artists and artisans evoked the ideals of Mexican culture, all surrounded by Talavera tile and plant species native to Mexico.The wear of time saw many of the gardens features, artworks, and landscape elements decayed, lost, or significantly altered. Despite being one of the countrys unique cultural landscapes, situated at the edge of historic Brackenridge Park, the garden became barely recognizable.In Miraflores, Anne Elise Urrutia, the great-granddaughter of Urrutia, recounts the gardens history, drawing on family archives and other primary sources to reconstruct this remarkable story.Miraflores celebrates the importance of green spaces in urban areas and the vitality of a places cultural, historical, and artistic meanings. Urrutias garden was a magical gift to Texas and an international tribute to his Mexican homeland.