 We're here at Mission San Jose, one of the five missions that have just been declared World Heritage sites by UNESCO. This is a very significant moment in San Antonio history, and it's an opportunity for something really wonderful to happen. But it's also a possibility that something less than wonderful will happen. It's very hard for us to move away from a Eurocentric perspective, a perspective that says that all civilization came from Europe. It's very easy for us to praise the Spanish missionaries who came to San Antonio and established the Presidio in 1718 and the missions thereafter. It's very easy for us to even say that San Antonio history begins in 1718 with the arrival of the Spanish. Conquerors or Colonials, however you would like to put it. But if we do that, we miss a chance to understand why the missions are here. The Spaniards were not the first residents of San Antonio because the missions were missionizing somebody. And those somebodies had been here for 10 to 12,000 years. It's very important to remember that this is not just an economic opportunity, a chance to develop our missions into money-making ventures. But that it's a chance to change the way we look at San Antonio history and world history and to respect the indigenous peoples that were here and that in San Antonio's instance still are here. Now we may have the last names García or López, Sanchez or Tafoya, but we represent the direct descendants of the people who built these missions and who built civilizations and settlements here before the arrival of Europeans. It's important in today's world to not disrespect those people who still live here and to wipe out their neighborhoods. We saw this happen once before, right before Hemisphere in what was called urban renewal and which in our barrios we began to call Mexican removal. And some of our neighborhoods, especially near downtown and in the south side of town, are beginning to feel that they are being wiped away again, chased far out of town because they can't afford to keep living here. The original settlers, the original owners, the original inhabitants of this city, whether you call it San Antonio or whether you call it Yanahuana.