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 River-the plants, architecture, sculpture, and artisanship-formed an atmospheric landscape reflecting Urrutia's love for and memory of his homeland. Sculptures and fountains created by Luis L. Sanchez, Ignacio Asunsolo, and Dionicio Rodriguez, 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 garden's features, artworks, and landscape elements decayed, lost, or significantly altered. Despite being one of the country's 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 garden's 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 place's cultural, historical, and artistic meanings. Urrutia's garden was a magical gift to Texas and an international tribute to his Mexican homeland.
- ISBN10 1595349367
- ISBN13 9781595349361
- Publish Date 11 August 2022 (first published 28 June 2022)
- Publish Status Forthcoming
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Trinity University Press,U.S.
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Language English