Monumento a la Ciudad de Mexico, detail.
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— gathered for intellectual discourse. Amid the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution, Aureliano Urrutia was appointed secretary of the interior — a brief but fateful position that made him a scapegoat for the atrocities of Victoriano Huerta’s rule and eventually led him to flee Mexico in 1914. “His escape from Mexico was essentially sponsored by the United States government,” Anne Elise Urrutia explained. “He fled Mexico City and went to Veracruz with six or seven members of his family, [all] disguised as peasants. They were intercepted by the United States government and were given passage on a military ship — the only passengers on a military freight ship to Galveston.”
Sanctuary in San Antonio
The Secret Garden
Anne Elise Urrutia
New book painstakingly recreates the mysterious San Antonio landmark Miraflores BY BRYAN RINDFUSS
T
here’s a distinct sense of mystery to Miraflores, the gated green space viewable from Hildebrand Avenue near Broadway. Evocative of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s early 20th-century novel The Secret Garden, Miraflores invites imaginative speculation and has unwittingly welcomed countless trespassers. Many San Antonians who have driven past its ornate gates — which seemingly lead nowhere — have wondered what it is. But the bigger question lies in what it was. Writer Anne Elise Urrutia answers that in depth in her new Trinity University Press book Miraflores: San Antonio’s Mexican Garden of Mystery. A labor of love six years in the making, it employs archival photographs, maps, diagrams and a research-driven narrative to offer a virtual tour of the enigmatic landmark her great-grandfather Aureliano Urrutia began creating in 1921. Born in 1872 in the Mexico City suburb of Xochimilco — a World Heritage Site famed for its picturesque canals and “floating gardens” — Aureliano Urrutia grew up with modest means during the Porfirio Díaz era and benefited from the president’s education initiatives. “Education started to become more available to people of the lower income classes,” Anne Elise 20
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Urrutia explained during a recent interview with the Current. “He wound up getting promoted into a very prestigious high school in the center of Mexico City. He was at the top of his high school class. … And Porfirio Díaz sponsored his medical education through his entry into the army.” During his two-year stint in the army, Aureliano Urrutia caught the attention of Victoriano Huerta, a rising army colonel who became a general and eventually the dictatorial president of Mexico. By the turn of the century, Aureliano Urrutia had emerged as one of Mexico’s premier surgeons. Opened in 1911, his 25-acre hospital complex Sanatorio Urrutia was surrounded by gardens, walking paths and outdoor sculptures. As Anne Elise Urrutia recounts in her book, Sanatorio Urrutia was also a cultural salon of sorts, where her great-grandfather’s friends and colleagues — “influential writers, historians, musicians, lawyers, artists, and doctors”
Upon settling in San Antonio, Aureliano Urrutia bought two properties on what would later become Broadway — one for his medical practice, the other for a mansion to house his family of 13. When his wife Luz Fernández de Urrutia died in 1921, he purchased the tract that would become Miraflores. Loss — of his wife, his homeland, his culture — essentially fueled the creation of Miraflores. An avid gardener and art collector, the successful surgeon began filling his nascent garden with plants native to Mexico and commissioning Mexican artists to create monumental outdoor works. Beginning with Luis L. Sanchez’s 1921 statue of the Aztec ruler Cuauhtémoc, the sprawling outdoor collection at Miraflores grew to include staircases, gates, bridges and a volcanic-style fountain by trabajo rústico pioneer Dionicio Rodríguez, a bust of Porfirio Díaz and elaborate benches adorned with illustrative Talavera tile. Perhaps the most recognized elements of Miraflores, the imposing gate “Monumento a la Ciudad de México” still stands guard on Hildebrand while the massive, tile-covered Urrutia Arch now resides at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Full-scale buildings were constructed on the property as well, including a quaint country house dubbed Quinta Maria and a three-story watchtower with a conical roof, blue-andwhite tile detail and a bell. Located near the source of the San Antonio River, Miraflores sits atop underground springs and once boasted natural ponds. In homage to his roots along the canals of Xochimilco, Aureliano Urrutia celebrated these natural water features and commissioned a bridge that stretched across a pond and doubled as a stage for live entertainment. In its prime, Miraflores functioned as a sanctuary for quiet Trinity University Press contemplation, a destination for meetings of the minds and a venue for special events ranging from chamber concerts and fundraisers to private parties. In 1931, the garden welcomed the American Insti-
