For anyone who missed the Miraflores Symposium, or would like to review it, a video of the 3-hour event is now available. A preview is below. The full version is available here.

Miraflores ~ del pasado al futuro was convened in September 2021 to educate and help generate discussion regarding this culturally significant and endangered garden landscape created by Dr. Aureliano Urrutia from 1921 to 1962. Dr. Urrutia was a prominent Mexican surgeon who came to San Antonio in 1914 during the Mexican Revolution. His garden was a metaphorical reflection of many aspects of Mexican cultural heritage, but it remains to be seen whether it can be restored in any meaningful way.

Today the garden is in a state of advanced decay and ruins, with only the most robust features remaining—a wrought iron fence and beautiful gate of colorful ceramic tile murals, tile benches in ruins, a full-size replica of the Winged Victory, a small cottage in disrepair, a bronze statue in a round pool, and curious faux bois sculptures. What is left of the 100-year-old existing landscape merely hints at Urrutia’s original expression.

This symposium examines the multi-layered character of Miraflores and its status in 21st-century San Antonio. Lectures on the garden's historical, cultural, and archeological significance, its place in Urrutia family history, and its meanings in landscape architecture are followed by a panel discussion that considers possible futures for the site.

Moderated by Kathryn O’Rourke, PhD, professor of art history at Trinity University, the presenters and their topics are as follows:

Speaker tour of Miraflores site in July 2021. Left to right, back—Bill Pennell, Donna Guerra, Jenn Mathews, Anne Solsberry, middle—Elise Urrutia and John Phillip Santos, front (selfie-taker)—John Troy.

Anne Elise Urrutia, author and family historian ~ Dr. Aureliano Urrutia’s Mexican Garden of Memory
John S. Troy, FASLA, landscape architect ~ A Cultural Landscape Perspective
Jennifer Mathews, PhD, archaeologist (Trinity University) ~ A Garden of Goddesses and Emperors
John Phillip Santos, scholar of mestizo studies (UTSA) ~ In the Ruins of Miraflores

Additional comments are provided by Donna Guerra (Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word), Lynn Bobbitt (Brackenridge Park Conservancy), and Bill Pennell (City of San Antonio). Of particular interest are added comments and feedback from the audience.

Kathryn O'Rourke, Elise Urrutia, Miraflores symposium organizers, San Antonio, Texas, September 2021. — Kathryn O’Rourke and Anne Elise Urrutia, symposium co-organizers. Photo by Jennifer Mathews.

Special thanks goes to the San Antonio Botanical Garden for hosting the symposium, along with Trinity University Department of Art and Art History, and Trinity University Press for marketing support.

The symposium was organized by Kathryn O’Rourke and Anne Elise Urrutia.

For more information on accessing the full video, please email Ms. Urrutia.

Published December 18, 2021.