Spanish Queen

Hauntingly she rest, the Texan sun warming her stone exterior, as bus loads of tourist brush their hands against her stucco walls. Her existance is mere legend now; she is no longer the fortress she once was. Yesterday's sounds still whisper through her halls; the playing of harps and violins echo unnoticed; guitar strings plucked in a spanish melodic tone saturate the limestone cathedral while the young children repeat their spanish prayers. She appears to smile as the days shadow creeps across one pillar to the next. She poses for a picture and then again, she escapes to her days of pride. The memory of glowing gardens lining her courtyards with bushels of corn and beans; peaches weighing over a pound. The humming of the turbine as it pushes power to the flour mill. The rustle of some 2,000 cattle drowning out the calls of the Indian vanqueros as they attempt to organize the herd for branding. The 'Queen of the Missions' stands proud. She is the San Jose Y San Miguel De Aguayo Mission. http://www.nps.gov/archive/saan/visit/MissionSanJose.htm