San Antonio poet laureate Carmen Tafolla captures her hometown--the city
of her ancestors for the past three centuries--in poems that celebrate
its history as a cosmopolitan multilingual cultural crossroads. Discover
San Antonio's corazón in Tafolla's poetry, accompanied by historic and
contemporary photographs that convey its enduring sense of place. A
century ago, San Antonio gave Oscar Wilde "a thrill of strange
pleasure." J. Frank Dobie claimed that "every Texan has two
hometowns--his own and San Antonio," and Will Rogers declared it to be
"one of the three unique cities of America." To Larry McMurtry, "San
Antonio has kept an ambiance that all the rest of our cities lack."
Carmen Tafolla calls forth the soul of this place--the holy home of the
waters, called Yanaguana by los indios--and celebrates the many cultures
that have made of it "un rebozo bordado de culturas y colores."