San Antonio Current — July 13, 2022

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EXPLORE YOUR FUTURE The Alamo Colleges District offers clear, concise career pathways with your own personal success team from start to finish.

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in this issue Issue 22-14 /// July 13 – 26, 2022

San Antonio Current

survive ADA lawsuits

Editor-in-Chief: Sanford Nowlin General Manager: Chelsea Bourque

Bistro Bites

A casual feel pervades at Chef Michael Sohocki’s Five Points Food & Drink, but the kitchen works at an elevated level

33 Music

Nuclear Juarez is blazing new trails with instrumental rock. Just don’t ask it to play ‘Walk Don’t Run.’

San Antonio doom metal band Las Cruces drops its first album in 12 years, and the riffs are worth the wait

Music Listings

14 Feature

A recently unearthed report on CPS Energy shows just how fractured San Antonio’s climate response has become

News in Brief

CityScrapes

Ex-San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley is pushing for another convention center expansion — this one in Austin

Bargaining Baristas

Workers at San Antonio Starbucks are on the front line in a growing labor movement

17 Calendar Calendar Picks

20 Arts

The Secret Garden

New book painstakingly recreates the mysterious

Creative Services Circulation

Circulation Manager: Justin Giles

Euclid Media Group

Chief Executive Officer: Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers: Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services: Stacy Volhein Director of Agency Services: Mindi Overman Digital Operations Coordinator: Jaime Monzon Vice Presidents of Marketing: Emily Tintera, Cassandra Yardeni www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising: Voice Media Group (888) 278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

Broken Promises

The Opener

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Heavy Return

09 News

Digital Content Editor: Kelly Nelson Contributing Arts Editor: Bryan Rindfuss Food and Nightlife Writer: Nina Rangel Staff Writer: Michael Karlis Contributors: Abe Asher, Ron Bechtol, Enrique Bonilla, Daniel Conrad, Macks Cook, Brianna Espinoza, Kiko Martinez, Mike McMahan, Dana Nichols, M. Solis, Gary Sweeney

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25 Screens

Stubborn Disciples

Debunked documentary 2000 Mules still weighs on political discourse across Texas

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27 Food

Game Theory

The owner of the newly opened Black Potion bets San Antonio is ready to embrace a bar for boardgames (and more)

Compliance Claims

Trio of East Side mom-and-pop businesses worry they may not

San Antonio Distribution – The Current is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader.

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n the Cover: San Antonio’s mayor sat on a climate report while the city debated critical response. Design: Samantha Serna.

SNUS JUST GOT REAL. FINALLY, A snus from FOLKS that know a thing or two about real tobacco.

Now available in three varieties.

WARNING: This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes. sacurrent.com | July 13 – 26, 2022 | CURRENT

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ARPA 4 ARTS

Recovery grants for San Antonio arts nonprofits & artists Applications accepted from June 29 - July 29, 2022

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Of the 400 most trustworthy companies in America, guess how many make doors?

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Come see Tony Parker’s private pop culture and superhero statues from Hollywood’s biggest films.

Ok, and some villains too!

EXHIBITION OPEN DAILY TUESDAY–SUNDAY

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CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

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A new report offers a comprehensive survey of mistakes law enforcement made during the mass shooting that killed 21 people at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Among its major revelations: a Uvalde police officer reportedly asked a supervisor for permission to shoot the suspect before he entered the school, missing an opportunity to take him out.

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A San Antonio activist is heading to the White House this week to celebrate the passage of the first major gun reform bill in the U.S. in decades. Bennie Price, who was incarcerated for murder at 18, opened Big Mama’s Safe House on the East Side last year to serve as a safe haven for people experiencing gun violence. He’ll join other activists and lawmakers at an event commemorating the signing of the bill.

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Gov. Greg Abbott last week said he’ll begin expelling migrants from Texas in violation of federal law.

Abbott, who’s running for re-election this fall against Beto O’Rourke, ordered the Texas National Guard and the Department of Public Safety to return migrants who cross the border into the state illegally back to border checkpoints even though the federal government has jurisdiction over immigration matters. A federal lawsuit is likely forthcoming.

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into alleged civil rights violations committed as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star immigration crackdown.

Scandal has plagued the $3 billion scheme since its inception — and the DOJ now is reportedly investigating whether agents illegally detained migrants based on their “perceived or actual race or national origin.” — Abe Asher

YOU SAID IT!

“Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick are declaring open season on defenseless migrants and endangering millions of other Latinos and others who will be profiled along the way.”

— Rodolfo Rosales Jr.

Texas LULAC State Director

ASSCLOWN ALERT

Throwing the “I” word around with Texas Republicans Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.

In the summer of 2019, days after a gunman motivated by racial hatred killed 23 people in an El Paso Walmart, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott opened a public safety roundtable by admitting “mistakes were made” when his campaign sent out a letter full of anti-immigrant rhetoric a day before the mass shooting.

While not quite an apology, it was an acknowledgement by the Republican governor that the claims in his fundraising letter sounded awful close to the language of the shooter, who posted an online screed warning of a “Hispanic invasion” of the state.

Since then, the “I” word has crept into the day-to-day language of top Texas Republicans, including Abbott, who used it to justify an order last week allowing state authorities to expel undocumented migrants in likely violation of U.S. law.

Around the same time, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick invoked the “invasion” rhetoric on Fox News, claiming the U.S. is being “attacked just as we were on Pearl Harbor.” Further, he argued, Texas should “put hands on people” and force them back across the border.

Not to be outdone, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy also appeared on Fox News, arguing that by calling the surge in border crossings an “invasion” Texas can justify enforcing immigration law, something that falls under federal jurisdiction.

All three men know that words matter. All

Beto O’Rourke has narrowed Gov. Greg Abbott’s lead in the gubernatorial race to six points, a new poll from the Texas Politics Project (TPP) at the University of Texas at Austin has found. Though Abbott has led in every public poll of the race so far, his favorability in the TPP poll is at its lowest point ever — with significantly more voters disapproving than approving of his handling of gun violence and abortion.

A Texas state program will administer $180 million in grants to help the travel and tourism industries recover from the worst effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using federal funds made available in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, the state began taking applications last week for one-time grants of up to $20,000 for businesses like restaurants and hotels that were forced to temporarily close or scale back during the global health crisis.

news

That Rocks/That Sucks

Wikimedia Commons / Ruperto Miller

three men know that words have consequences.

Beyond holding political office, Abbott and Roy are attorneys, while Patrick rose to prominence as a talk radio personality. And at least one of the three, Abbott, has publicly acknowledged the hatred and violence anti-immigrant rhetoric can inspire.

Even so, they and Texas Republicans have chosen to ignore those harms because they’re more concerned about pandering to the xenophobes, hatemongers and extremists in their own party. That may be how political calculus works in 2022, but it still makes them racist assclowns. — Sanford Nowlin

The Tejano Music Awards are coming to San Antonio’s new Tech Port Center + Arena in November. The event’s organizers last week unveiled plans for the first in-person edition of the awards since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In previous years, the awards were held at the Alamodome. — Abe Asher

Bryan Rindfuss

Find more news coverage every day at sacurrent.com

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news CITYSCRAPES

Ex-San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley is pushing for another convention center expansion — this one in Austin

BY HEYWOOD SANDERS

Editor’s Note: The following is Current Events, a column of opinion and analysis.

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or Current readers who wonder whatever became of former San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley, she appears to be pleasantly ensconced in Austin, offering advice.

Her name came up as nonprofit news organization the Austin Monitor recently reported on a session organized by that city’s chapter of the Urban Land Institute, the national organization of developers and real estate types.

The topic? A proposed expansion of the Austin Convention Center. This expansion isn’t a modest proposition either — it bears an estimated price tag between $1.2 and $1.5 billion and would involve literally tearing down and rebuilding the city’s existing venue.

Bigger, of course.

Despite the challenges ahead, the ULI panelists were entirely upbeat and enthusiastic about the city’s prospects, the Austin Monitor reports. Tom Noonan, CEO of Visit Austin, argued that the city’s existing center ranked just 48th-largest in the nation, “putting it well behind facilities in smaller and less economically active cities.” And Noonan went on to contend that the resulting boom in hotel business and city hotel tax revenue would benefit local arts groups and the larger community — a way “to fund the things Austinites love.”

For Sculley the promise of a far bigger convention center would go well beyond just more conventions and visitors, according to the report.

During the session, she stressed the “public-private partnership” component of the expansion and its potential for substantial new private development downtown.

“If I can be brutally honest, I haven’t met a city that was great at retail, and so there would have to be experts that

would assist the city in any kind of private-sector development associated with the project,” she said.

Sculley’s enthusiasm for big downtown projects, and perhaps her brutal honesty as well, are rooted in a long personal history.

Well before she arrived in San Antonio, she built her reputation as a manager by heading up the effort to expand Phoenix’s convention center in the late 1990s. Her promises, in memo after memo, were grand.

City staffers argued that the existing center only ranked 60th-largest in the county even though Phoenix was the sixth largest city. A consultant study promised that a larger venue would boost the city’s convention business by 50% to 75%. Over and over, Sculley stressed that the expansion would involve no new taxes. Instead, it could be paid for with existing visitor taxes and a potential $300 million commitment from the state.

Sculley did much of the pitching to the Arizona Legislature herself, armed with a 2002 presentation that stressed “There is No Status Quo!” At stake were “$32 million in annual state tax revenues” and “12,000 jobs,” according to her presentation. It proved enough to get the state government to commit $300 million to the project.

But a tripled-in-size convention center simply couldn’t stand alone.

What Phoenix also needed, just like San Antonio, was a 1,000-room hotel next door.

The effort to get a private developer to build the big new “headquarters hotel” proved just as fruitless in Phoenix and as it did in San Antonio. So, Phoenix financed and built the new Sheraton-branded hotel itself with a city bond issue. Clearly, under Sculley’s guidance, the city was poised to

Courtesy Photo City of San Antonio

emerge as the next great convention destination in the country.

Except that it didn’t.

A final study from Ernst & Young in 2003 forecast that the grand new center would welcome 376,861 annual convention delegates, up from the 166,000 of 1996 and 193,000 in 1997. But the count of convention attendees was just 156,000 in fiscal 2011 and 233,000 the next year.

Without a boom in convention business, the new Sheraton — later dubbed the “Sherylton” by city hall staffers in San Antonio — struggled to pay off its debt and required continuing tax revenue support from the city.

Finally, in 2017, Phoenix sold off the Sherylton to a private owner, taking a significant financial loss.

The Phoenix experience did little to reshape public policy in San Antonio after Sculley’s arrival as city manager in 2005.

Armed with a bunch of consultant studies, Mayor Julián Castro’s push for the “Decade of Downtown” and the

renewal of Hemisfair, San Antonio sold $550 million in bonds in 2012 to fund yet another expansion of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

In other words, Sheryl Sculley’s enthusiasm for a $1.2 billion-plus convention center expansion in Austin isn’t surprising — it’s just par for the course.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have questions. Do city manager types learn from the success, or failure, of the projects they supported and promoted? Is there any way to hold them accountable for the grand promises — such as Phoenix’s 12,000 jobs — that aren’t realized?

And, ultimately, who do they really serve? Is it the broad community of city residents and taxpayers? Or is it a narrow constituency of developers, downtown property owners and hospitality industry boosters, all in search of the next grand public project?

Heywood Sanders is a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio. sacurrent.com | July 13 – 26, 2022 | CURRENT

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news

country, and finally, the first Starbucks in Austin unionizing early last month helped reach a tipping point.

“We realized we could pull it off,” said Craig. “Let’s do it so other people can feel like they can.”

Craig’s store became the first in San Antonio to unionize and the third in the state. Within a week, two more Starbucks locations announced an intention to join the union.

‘Battle for hearts and minds’

Bargaining Baristas

Workers at San Antonio Starbucks are on the front line in a growing labor movement

BY JAMES DOBBINS

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t may seem odd that a labor movement is percolating in Texas right now.

After all, this a right-to-work state where corporate welfare takes precence over a security net for workers and all levers of power are controlled by a rapacious Republican Party indifferent to the working class. Indeed, it’s a state built on the bent backs of the working poor.

However, the pandemic changed the relationship between businesses and many of their employees. White-collar workers allowed to work from home found a new sense of freedom from the dead time of commutes. Essential workers — many in low-paying food service and medical jobs — were forced to risk their lives to stay afloat. Along the way, many discovered that employers and state governments didn’t give a damn about them.

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CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

As part of that great rethinking, Starbucks coffee slingers, who keep the nation caffeinated, are lifting each other up in solidarity against a company they see as exploitative. Some labor experts now see those employees and the Starbucks Workers United union as lighting the way for a wider swath of workers to organize for better pay and conditions congruent with 21st-century America.

The union maintains that more than 180 of Seattle-based Starbucks’ stores are organized, a fraction of the nearly 9,000 corporate-owned locations nationwide. In San Antonio, four locations have unionized since April, with more stores set to vote on joining in the coming weeks, employees told the Current.

San Antonio Starbucks worker CJ Craig, 26, has been with the company for four years. Craig, an actor

Sanford Nowlin

Shift supervisor Sarah Wayment said her interest in organizing grew after she saw the union’s success in Buffalo, N.Y.

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who struggled to find roles during the pandemic, said he never thought about organizing a union until the first outlets in Buffalo made it a reality. A manager sent a letter to stores assuring staffers a union wouldn’t dare come to San Antonio, let alone Craig’s store at Loop 410 and Vance Jackson Road.

“The letter made unionizing a real possibility,” Craig said. “The initial chats among the partners were, ‘It’s going to take off, it’s going to blow up into a national movement.’”

The partners at the 410 and Vance Jackson store made their intentions to unionize known in February, becoming the first in the state. They quickly realized the best way to prepare for what now seemed like the inevitable — a union shop in Texas — was to strengthen their relationships with coworkers.

Craig helped organize game nights and social events after work. The coworkers’ growing bonds, the excitement of stores organizing across the

In April, billionaire Howard Schultz took over as Starbucks’ CEO for the third time. The reason for his return, he told the New York Times, was “to reinvent the role and responsibility of a public company at a time where there is a cultural and political change with regard to the crisis of capitalism — the needs, requirements of the employee in a company today.”

Or, as he explained further, to save Starbucks from its rapidly expanding union.

“We don’t believe that a third party should lead our people,” he said. “And, so, we are in a battle for the hearts and minds of our people.”

Later, Schultz emphasized that Starbucks is not abusing its employees, whom the company calls “partners,” like the coal mining industry did 60 years ago.

Despite Schultz’s pledge to reinvent the public company’s role, organizers argue it’s resorted to union-busting efforts straight out of last century’s playbook.

The National Labor Relations Board last month accused Starbucks of illegally intimidating workers in New York stores to keep them from unionizing.

The petition, filed at the U.S. District Court in Buffalo, argues the company fired and disciplined union supporters, threatened workers and tried to bribe workers with benefits to vote against the union.

The federal regulators sought to reinstate seven employees Starbucks fired for organizing. A spokesman for Starbucks said the accusations are false.

Almost 100% support At the Starbucks on East Houston Street in downtown San Antonio, 30-year-old shift supervisor Sarah Wayment works part-time, about 20 hours weekly. She wants 25-35 hours, but her manager cut her back after the last holiday rush ended.

“I try to plan and work more to save,” said Wayment, an 11-year employee. “Our store closed for a long time during the pandemic. If you’re not salaried, you’re basically part-time. Only the manager is salaried.”

After Wayment returned to work last year as the pandemic waned and the Buffalo Starbucks organized, a union no longer seemed like a vague dream.

She read books about labor movements and talked about possibilities with her co-workers on the morning shift.

“Some were like, ‘Oh, that’s great for them. That’s not going to happen for us,” she said.

Little did she know another partner on the evening shift had the same idea.

Soon, nearly all her co-workers were in favor of unionizing.

“We didn’t have union-busting at our store,” she said. “Our manager tried to talk us out of it. We kept it on the DL until we went public. Once we did that, it was clear we were almost 100% in favor.”

In February, Starbucks hired Parker Davis, a 20-year-old chemical engineering student, as a barista at its Blanco Road and Wurzbach Parkway store.

Davis said it didn’t take him long to realize he and his co-workers needed a union to protect themselves from the brand of capitalism CEO Schultz defends.

In May, a shift supervisor was burned on the job. Davis described it as a workplace accident that left the partner with second-degree burns.

Yet, the supervisor couldn’t leave the store without finding her replacement, which took more than 30 minutes, according to Davis.

“It was jarring,” he said. “Management was completely out of touch.

The supervisor was denied workers comp. And then they had to prove they weren’t under the influence of drugs.

We can all say they weren’t under the influence. After that day, I felt motivated to organize.”

Last year, Texas ranked as the thirdworst U.S. state for labor, according to an Oxfam analysis. Working 40 hours a week at minimum wage, a mere $7.25 per hour, only covers 24% of a living wage for a family of four.

What’s more, the state has provided no worker or union organizing protections beyond what’s necessary to comply with federal law. The average unemployment benefits cover about 12% of the required wages to live.

“The labor movement has deep roots in Texas, especially in San Antonio,”

Sanford Nowlin

said Greg Casar, the Democratic nominee for the 35th Congressional district, and an advocate for a $15 minimum wage. “It wasn’t that long ago we had a lot more union activity and worker power in Texas.”

Indeed, the Republican Party, which has steadily eroded rights from power centers at the Supreme Court and in Austin, wants to eliminate the last few worker protections in Texas, worker advocates argue.

Empowered to do something In its 2022 platform, the Texas Republican Party calls for the “Legislature to preempt local government efforts to interfere with the State’s sovereignty over business, employees and property rights. This includes but is not limited to burdensome regulations on shortterm rentals, bags, sick leave, trees and employee criminal screening.”

In other words, the big-government Republicans want to forbid San Antonio and other blue-leaning cities to choose their own local, and higher, minimum wage, or pass laws offering employed residents paid sick leave. In fact, Texas Republicans want to get rid of all minimum wage and mandatory

sick leave laws.

The battle Starbucks is waging for the hearts and minds of its workers is similar to conflicts between management and labor from earlier eras.

Unions helped achieve the minimum wage and other significant workplace benefits many now take for granted.

Yet, those rights may soon be taken away if laborers of all classes don’t fight to keep them, organizers warn. John L. Lewis, leader of the United Mine Workers union from 1920 to 1960, urged labor in all industries to organize the unorganized.

“With good organization, you have the aid of your fellow man,” Lewis said. “Without organization, you are a lone individual without influence and without recognition of any kind, and exploitation of you and your family when it pleases some industrialist to desire to make more money from your misery.”

That’s precisely what Starbucks employee Davis was doing when he reached out to the Starbucks United website for organizing help. Now, his store is set to vote in early August.

“It felt like an insurmountable task, but then I felt empowered to go forth and do something,” he said.

Sanford Nowlin

Top: CJ Craig’s San Antonio store became the first in the state to organize. Bottom: Parker Davis said a fellow worker’s on-the-job injury prompted his interest in the union

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sacurrent.com | July 13 – 26, 2022 | CURRENT

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Climate activists rally in front of San Antonio’s council chambers in 2019.

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And cleaning up the power supply at CPS Energy remains a work in progress.

So far, the only major plank to advance has been a rebooting of a moderately aggressive energy efficiency program previously known as the Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan, or STEP. Chief Sustainability Office Doug Melnick acknowledges the problem of pace.

“All the components are there,” Melnick said. “The challenge is we don’t have a lot of time and we’re experiencing [extreme weather] now.”

Critical report

Sanford Nowlin

Broken Promises

A recently unearthed report on CPS Energy shows just how fractured San Antonio’s climate response has become

BY GREG HARMAN

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fter decades of international efforts intended to slow and reverse global climate emissions, industry and governments around the world released more heat-trapping gases during 2021 than at any point in history.

And with Congress deadlocked on critical issues like a Green New Deal, the religious cult known as the U.S. Supreme Court recently voted to confound federal efforts to regulate climate-warming pollutants in power production.

“This decision is going to seriously slow U.S. progress in reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses and avoiding a dangerous climate change,” Princeton’s Michael Oppenheimer told PBS last week.

While we will remain harried — until voters decide otherwise — by Christofascists in Austin who view fossil fuels

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CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

and fully loaded automatic weapons as the pinnacle products of religious freedom, cities like San Antonio should now consider themselves the de facto leaders in responding to the global climate crisis.

“That’s why the Supreme Court decision is so disheartening, because this is a national issue,” said Doug Melnick, San Antonio’s chief sustainability officer. “When you start talking about what really needs to happen locally around energy infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, I mean these are major investments that are going to need federal support.”

Minus that support, what chance do we have?

None of the key elements of San Antonio’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan have advanced due to the confounding influence of business elites and political leaders who are less than

fully invested in rapid action.

The plan is intended to guide the city in reducing its share of the climate emissions responsible for global warming while better preparing residents for a world of ever-rising temperatures and increasing violent weather events.

It was developed over two years by more than 90 volunteers. For the sake ot transparency, it’s worth noting that I served on the plan’s steering committee.

“I don’t think I want to say the mayor hasn’t done shit, other than passing the [Climate Action and Adaptation Plan],” said Russell Seal, a longtime engaged member of the local Sierra Club. “But the CAAP has been meaningless. We’ve had, as far as I can tell, zero implementation.”

Efforts to improve energy use in buildings through a mandatory “benchmarking” initiative have been rejected by business leaders and San Antonio City Council’s conservative wing. Attempts to change building codes to smooth the way for electric vehicle and rooftop solar adoption have been delayed for three years by members of the building community — members who were just put in charge of a code super committee. Funding challenges and a lack of political will have limited any major transformations of public transportation options.

In the buildup to the climate vote, Melnick often warned of forecasts showing that San Antonio would see 90 more days annually over 100 degrees by 2100. Last month saw 17 such days, for a total of 28 this year, and set a string of heat records.

Since the deadly grid collapse during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, a growing gap of the population can’t keep up with their escalating bills, driven largely by spiking natural gas costs. Yet during our climate maelstrom, Mayor Ron Nirenberg apparently sat on a critical report for five months — even shielding it from his colleagues on the CPS Energy Board of Trustees — that all but begged for an immediate and public correction of important energy information that the analysts claim had been mischaracterized by the utility.

Dated December 10, 2021, a 21-page technical review of the utility’s January 2021 Resource Plan by nonprofit sustainability research group Rocky Mountain Institute states that CPS misled San Antonio residents about the cost of an energy transition to cleaner power sources.

The report also accuses CPS of downplaying the benefits of energy efficiency programs contained in STEP. What’s more, it argues that the utility limited coal-retirement scenarios to “suboptimal” choices that would create some of the worst cases for transitioning off of coal.

The analysis called on Nirenberg and CPS Energy to immediately and publicly correct the record. That didn’t happen. Early investigation into the document’s origin and chain of custody suggests that no one outside of

Nirenberg’s office even saw the report for another five months.

It’s unclear when exactly the paper was passed from the mayor’s office to former city councilman Reed Williams, who Nirenberg tapped to lead the utility’s Rate Advisory Committee (RAC).

But it was sometime in May, Williams said.

“When I got it, I wasn’t told it was confidential, so I didn’t treat it that way,” Williams added.

Williams passed it along to some RAC members, including, apparently, investment advisor Dana McGinnis, who shipped it off by email on Wednesday, June 22, with a lengthy complaint.

CCing the entirety of the RAC, all city council members and the CPS Board, McGinnis wrote: “Whoever commissioned the report should be known. …

Why has this report not been brought to light since it brings up many of the questions RAC has posed to CPS management and to RAC for possible discussion?”

McGinnis’s complaint centers on Rocky Mountain Institute’s statements about CPS’s failure to better forecast natural gas futures.

“Who knows if CPS could have done anything about the rapid rise in gas prices that has affected so many customer bills, but we never had serious discussions about the risks that were apparent in December and have now come home to roost in June,” McGinnis wrote. “This failure is irresponsible of management and of council.”

‘No big bombshells’ CPS trustees first touched on the document’s findings in their June 26 board meeting, more than six months after its apparent delivery to the mayor, when former board chair John Steen complained to staff that he first received the report “over the weekend.”

Acting CPS CEO Rudy Garza said he first saw it only a couple of weeks before Steen. “Our staff just kind of got wind of it and are just starting to take a look at it,” he said.

Given the nature of the document, Steen was uncharacteristically mild, and the conversation was brief.

Relative newcomer Trustee Francine Romero hit back at Steen’s complaint during the meeting, saying it wasn’t “fair” to “call staff on the carpet” over a report they didn’t commission. She shifted the conversation away from the document’s origins or recommendations by downplaying the significance

Sanford Nowlin

of the 2021 Resource Plan criticized by the Rocky Mountain Institute.

“I don’t think there’s any big bombshells so much,” she said.

No one asked fellow board member Nirenberg why he apparently kept the report from them while the community vigorously debated the future of key energy programs that Rocky Mountain Institute said had been seriously mischaracterized by the utility’s own leadership.

Closing the discussion, Nirenberg only offered that the report “was based on no new data” and was “one of the deliverables from the American Cities Climate Challenge [intended] to help meet the CAAP goals.”

He didn’t respond to two messages from Deceleration about the matter.

Slow movement For those deep in the work of climate justice, Rocky Mountain Institute’s findings are a vindication of years of sustained outcry over CPS Energy’s presentation of basic energy realities.

When the CPS board advanced in May a modest STEP program of $70 million per year to reduce energy use by 1% annually, they did so without the benefit of Rocky Mountain Institute’s analysis.

That followed months of dialogue in which community members repeatedly demanded to know how the utility was quantifying the costs of STEP while failing to calculate its many benefits.

Residents were told that an answer was forthcoming. The Rocky Mountain

Institute analysis is the closest thing to an answer we’ve received.

The stranding of the report in the mayor’s office for so long is emblematic of a political leadership that sets agendas in motion but quickly allows their capture and co-option by the local business interests.

In February, a small breakthrough at CPS Energy’s Board of Trustees was achieved when board members acknowledged for the first time that they were bound by the CAAP’s 2030 interim greenhouse-reduction goal and directed the RAC to prepare a recommendation for closing the utility’s JK Spruce coal plant by 2030. However, debate within the RAC has largely been limited to a proposal to close one coal unit while converting the other to run on gas.

Gaps of knowledge Belmares said not having access to the Rocky Mountain Institute’s findings about the benefits of STEP, for instance, needlessly clouded debates about the program before its council vote.

“It would have helped people to better understand how critically important it is to have energy efficiency programs and alleviate the concerns about the bill impacts of having to shut Spruce earlier than planned,” she said.

“We have to do everything we can to reduce demand.”

RAC chair Williams said he didn’t focus much on the Rocky Mountain Institute report when he received it in May, even as members of the RAC struggled

Marchers take to San Antonio streets in 2019 as part of the Global Climate Strike.

M

to come to a consensus on the importance of STEP ahead of a council vote.

Like Romero, Garza and Nirenberg, Williams sought to shift attention away from the document. Most of those culpable for the Resource Plan’s issues have left the utility already anyway, Williams said. What matters, he said, is the RAC’s work modeling a way off of coal power.

“We can go back and replay that game, but the game I’m worried about is the game we’re going to finish up in November,” Williams said. “I’m trying to get it right. I’m not sitting here trying to kick people in the ass.”

Garza told the board he wasn’t prepared to say how the utility will respond to the report’s findings. But Belmares said the Rocky Mountain Institute report will help the RAC chart a course for early coal retirement due to be completed by the end of this year.

“This report will fill in gaps of knowledge that CPS Energy is not giving RAC members because they are not doing the resource planning process right,” she said.

Greg Harman is a longtime journalist who worked as a climate organizer in San Antonio from 2017 to 2021. He is the founder and editor of Deceleration.news, an online environmental journal of news and analysis. An extended version of this story is available on the site. sacurrent.com | July 13 – 26, 2022 | CURRENT

15

AUTO AUCTION

AUGUST 31, 2022 at 3:00P at SAN ANTONIO VEHICLE IMPOUND FACILITY

ALL VEHICLES LISTED BELOW WERE IMPOUNDED BY SAN ANTONIO POLICE DEPT. AND WILL BE SOLD VIA JOYRIDEAUTOS.COM OR LIVE IN PERSON TO BE DETERMINED ID#

YEAR

MAKE

MODEL

VIN NUMBER

FEES

4892806

2005

OTHER NOT IN LIST

MOTORCYCLE

LWGYCBL0450D00345

$2,773.00

4499909

2008

YAMAHA

MOTORCYCLE

B118E014385

$7,146.30

4508033

2018

OTHER NOT IN LIST

GO CART

L5CSELLK8HM000372

$7,088.05

4546788

2006

NISSAN

ALTIMA

1N4AL11D66C183940

$6,655.05

4009746

2006

DODGE

CARAVAN

1D4GP21EX6B516012

$13,518.10

4087396

1900

OTHER NOT IN LIST

ATV

L6UB4HA23KA002380

$12,392.30 $5,457.60

4649116

2014

OTHER NOT IN LIST

MOTORCYCLE

L37MMGFV6EZ020409

4724220

2019

OTHER NOT IN LIST

MOTORCYCLE

LWGMDYZD9KA000005

$4,613.25

4742421

2000

OTHER NOT IN LIST

EXCAVATOR

4981M12925

$4,403.45

5007007

1997

OTHER NOT IN LIST

GOLF CART

1064058

$1,675.55

4597464

1982

KAWASAKI

MOTORCYCLE

JKAKZLB17CA005341

$5,895.50

4147081

2017

TRAILER

TRAILER

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FEES ACCRUE DAILY AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

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CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

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calendar

THU | 07.14 DRAG

JORGEOUS With her parents acting as chaperones, San Antonio native Jorgeous burst onto the local drag scene at the tender age of 16 — a feat that sparked jealousy from the old guard and even resulted in routine TABC inspections of the bygone local nightclub Babio’s. After her Alamo City debut, Jorgeous sought greener pastures in Nashville — albeit with a fierce sense of San Antonio pride. In January of this year, the self-described “Tex-Mex Latina showgirl” was among the diverse cast of characters who strutted into the Werk Room to compete on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14. Over the course of 13 episodes, Jorgeous only won one maxi challenge — the

Courtesy Photo / Tobin Center for the Perrforming Arts

FRI | 07.15 Marco Ovando

“Glamazon Prime” design competition — but scored big in other ways. During a record-setting five lip-synchs “for her life,” Jorgeous showcased her incredible dancing skills while racking up serious screen time. She also charmed fans by letting her guard down and being her authentic self, which was front and center as she finally bid farewell to the competition with an irreverent quote: “I’m going to smoke a fat-ass blunt!” As she explained during the Season 14 reunion, Jorgeous has been busy since her star-making turn on Drag Race. In March, she had the rare opportunity to perform alongside her idol Jennifer Lopez at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. Then she spent six weeks performing across Europe

COMEDY

AN EVENING WITH AMY SEDARIS

Actress, author and comedian Amy Sedaris wants to have a conversation with the citizens of San Antonio. She’ll sit down with them for a one-night-only event at the Tobin Center to talk about her career and observations on life. Sedaris is perhaps best known for her Emmy-nominated comedy series At Home with Amy Sedaris, which features her skills as a homemaker — from gutting a fish to cooking a meal without using pots or pans. Some of the guests she’s invited on the show include Paul Rudd, Rachel Dratch, Stephen Colbert, Jane Krakowski and Michael Cera. But that’s just the latest stop for her. During her 30-year acting career, Sedaris has starred in films and TV series including Strangers with Candy, BoJack Horseman, Elf, Jennifer’s Body and The Lion King. This year, she played a starship engineer in two episodes of The Book of Boba Fett on Disney+ and had a guest role on the musical comedy series Girls5eva on Peacock. Sedaris will be seen next in the Alison Brie romantic comedy Somebody I Used to Know and the romantic action flick Ghosted starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas. $34.50-$75, 8 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — KM

as part of the Werq the World Tour. And in June, Jorgeous

FRI | 07.15

joined an array of her Drag Race castmates and Olympian Gus Kenworthy in an amusing Pride-themed commercial for the cannabis-infused beverage Cann. In the midst of

FILM

living her best life, the fast-rising starlet touches down at Rey Lopez Entertainment and hosted by snaggletoothed

MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA WITH LIVE SCORE BY MONTOPOLIS

camp queen Tencha La Jefa. $20-$25, meet and greet ($20

Austin-based indie chamber ensemble Montopolis — which

supplement) at 9:30 p.m., shows at 10:30 p.m. and midnight, The

draws its talent from members of the Austin Symphony,

Bonham Exchange, 411 Bonham St., table reservations via text

Okkervil River, Tosca String Quartet and the Polyphonic

only at (210) 386-4537, facebook.com/reylopezentertainment. —

Spree — is coming to the Slab Cinema Arthouse. The group

Bryan Rindfuss

will perform composer Justin Sherburn’s live musical

the Bonham Exchange for two performances presented by

accompaniment to the 1929 Ukrainian documentary Man

THU | 07.14 SUN | 07.24 COMEDY

ANJELAH JOHNSON-REYES

with a Movie Camera. Directed by Dziga Vertov, the silent film Courtesy Photo / LOL Comedy Club

is an exploration of urban life in Moscow and the Ukrainian

employee Bon Qui Qui and Vietnamese nail salon worker

cities of Kyiv and Odesa during the Soviet era. Man with a

Tammy (“You have boyfriend?”). A video of the latter has

Movie Camera is famous for pioneering a variety of inventive

gathered 42 million views since being posted 15 years ago.

Along with her stand-up comedy and sketch work, John-

Reminder:

son-Reyes hosts the podcast Nights at the Round Table with

If you’re a fan of comedian Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, cross

her husband Manwell and recently released her memoir

your fingers. As of press time, tickets for 13 of her 16 shows

Who Do I Think I Am?: Stories of Chola Wishes and Caviar

at the LOL Comedy Club over the next two weeks are already

Dreams. The dedication at the beginning of the book reads:

gone. That shouldn’t be a surprise, however. These days,

“To my younger self who had the audacity to go for a dream

Johnson-Reyes, who was once a professional cheerleader for

that started as a fantasy and turned into a reality. Thank you

the Oakland Raiders, is a hot commodity on the stand-up

for your bravery. I wouldn’t be here without you.” $80-$640,

circuit. The roots of her fandom go back to her time on the

7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 7 p.m. and

sketch comedy show MADtv, which led to her popularity

9:30 p.m. Saturday, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop

on YouTube performing characters such as angry fast-food

410, (210) 541-8805, improvtx.com/sanantonio. — Kiko Martinez

Courtesy Photo / Montopolis

Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

calendar and innovative cinematic techniques, all of which are interpreted and

Drag Race and fan favorites from seasons past. Fresh off Season 14 — one

hit pay dirt when he was cast as a repertory player on the 22nd season

expanded by Sherburn’s score. Montopolis is known for its audi-

of the most diverse in franchise history — San Antonio-born Latina

of Saturday Night Live, where he would work for seven years. After

ence-engaging performances that employ everything from film to the

showgirl Jorgeous, outspoken oddball Daya Betty and lovable Southern

SNL, Morgan landed his own sitcom, The Tracy Morgan Show, where

spoken word to express the wonders and mysteries of the world around

belle Angeria Paris VanMicheals are set to slay the Majestic’s storied

he played the owner of an auto shop. While the series was canceled

us. While many of the ensemble’s past performances have focused

stage, along with five other Drag Race alumni: New York-based Scottish

after one season, he found success again when he teamed up with

on subjects close to home — such as 2019’s The Legend of Big Bend,

queen Rosé (Season 13); tatted-up “body builder Barbie” Kameron

his former SNL castmate Tina Fey on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock. On that

which captured the lore and essence of West Texas — this performance

Michaels (Season 10, All Stars 6); fringe-loving Dallasite Asia O’Hara

long-running show, he played Tracy Jordan, a movie star with impulsive

looks overseas. It’s intended to celebrate the beauty and resilience of

(Season 10); Milwaukee-born Season 12 winner Jaida Essence Hall; and

behavior, and nabbed an Emmy nomination for the role. Although

Ukraine’s people while inspiring American audiences to support the

rowdy Puerto Rican diva Vanessa “Vanjie” Mateo — who is currently

known for his comedic abilities, Morgan might try his hand at drama

country in its time of need. $12, 7 p.m., Slab Cinema Arthouse, 134 Blue

starring in the Drag Race spinoff and “social dating experiment” Vanjie:

soon. Last year, his Coming 2 America costar Jermaine Fowler revealed

Star, (210) 212-9373, montopolismusic.com. — Macks Cook

24 Hours of Love. $49.50-$125, 7:30 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston

that Morgan was self-financing a biopic where he’ll portray trumpeter

St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — BR

and singer Louis Armstrong. In March, Morgan became only the ninth

FRI | 07.15 SUN | 08.07

recipient of the Friars Club’s Entertainment Icon Award. Past winners include Tony Bennett, Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. $39.50-$102.50, 7:30 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — KM

TH EATER

ONCE ON THIS ISLAND The Tony-winning musical Once On This Island is equal parts spellbinding and sincere, delivering relevant commentary on the power dynamics associated with race and class via an electrifying score and a simple but poignant yarn about the forces of love and death. Written by Lynn Ahrens, the musical tells the story of Ti Moune — a young Black peasant Marco Ovando

girl from the Caribbean — who discovers wealthy white boy Daniel injured in a storm and decides to nurse him back to health. Ti Moune finds herself falling in love with Daniel throughout the course of his recovery, but societal norms and the gods that preside over the island put seemingly insurmountable barriers in the way of their relationship.

SUN | 07.17 Courtesy Photo / Tobin Center for the Performing Arts

ART

THU | 07.21

Directed by Danielle King, the Public Theater’s production stars Janecia

PAPER TRAIL SA

Stevenson as Ti Moune and Michael Salinas as Daniel. Due to brief

San Antonio’s homegrown — both rooted and blossomed — celebration

on-stage violence and fearful moments, this production is not recom-

of design and printmaking is back for another year at The Rock Box,

mended for children under 10. $17-$47, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2

boasting more than 40 artists selling handcrafted work. Born in 2015,

THE LOVE BUG

p.m. Sunday July 15-Aug 7, The Public Theater of San Antonio, 800 W. Ashby

Paper Trail has evolved into a forum for diverse artists to sell prints,

Family film classic The Love Bug will get an outdoor screening at

Place, (210) 733-7258, thepublicsa.org. — Caroline WolFF

original zines, stickers and more. This year’s featured creators include

Mission Marquee Plaza thanks to a partnership between the City of San

typographer Maria Castro of thetinybrainproject, writer and comic

Antonio World Heritage Office and Slab Cinema. One of many films in

illustrator Ashley Franklin and Vanessa Macias, who will be selling

Mission Marquee’s Summer Film Series, this infectious 1968 comedy

tattoo flash art. Whether you’re redecorating a whole apartment or just

follows race car driver Jim Douglas (Dean Jones) and his eccentric auto

your laptop case, Paper Trail is likely to have you covered. However,

mechanic friend Tennessee Steinmetz (Buddy Hackett), who purchase

you could fill an extra-large tote bag with all the artistic treasures on

a Volkswagen Beetle — which they affectionately name Herbie — from

offer. Free, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 772-1453,

mysterious sports car dealer Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson). After

papertrailsa.net. — MC

discovering that Herbie possesses sentient qualities, Jim and Tennessee

FI LM

begin climbing the ranks in the racing world, sending Peter into jealous attempts to sabotage Herbie’s success and steal the car back for himself. The plaza opens at 7 p.m., and the film will start 15 minutes after dusk. Families are welcome to bring their own snacks or purchase food from on-site vendors. Pets on leashes are welcome. For a full list of this year’s family film screenings, visit Mission Marquee’s website.

Free, 7 p.m., Mission Marquee Plaza, 3100 Roosevelt Ave., (210) 207-2111,

Mia Isabella Photography

SUN | 07.17

missionmarquee.com. — CW

DRAG

RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE: WERQ THE WORLD TOUR A live offshoot of the RuPaul’s Drag Race universe, the Werq the World Tour has been trotting the globe since 2017 — save for a COVID-related hiatus in 2020. Presented by the production companies Voss Events and World of Wonder in partnership with VH1, Werq the World

Connie Chapa

THU | 07.21 COMEDY

recently wrapped up a 24-city European tour and is freshly rebooted

TRACY MORGAN

for a North American leg that touches down in the Alamo City. Staged

Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan’s No Disrespect tour is bringing

in a concert-like format — complete with convenient jumbotrons for

him to San Antonio. Morgan got his start in comedy on the streets of

those in the balcony seats — the high-octane shows feature elaborate,

Brooklyn before making his career debut in the early 1990s on the BET

choreographed lip-synchs showcasing stars from the latest season of

sketch comedy show Uptown Comedy Club. A couple of years later, he

18

CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

Disney+

SAT | 07.23 SPECIAL EVENT

NATIONAL DAY OF THE COWBOY

This free, full-day event celebrating the National Day of the Cowboy has grown into a beloved annual Briscoe tradition, which serves to honor and preserve the legacy of cowboys, cowgirls, vaqueros and other American pioneers. The family-friendly festival has something for everyone. The youngest in the herd are likely to enjoy diversions such as a scavenger hunt, stick-pony barrel racing, horseshoe toss, dress-up and balloon animals, along with a storytime centered around important figures in Western history. Sculpting, saddle- and spur-making, rawhide braiding and lassoing tutorials will be available for older buckaroos, along with live music from local country band Clint Tomerlin & The Turnarounds. Chuck Wagon Cooking will serve up peach cobbler and beans to accompany assorted Wild Westthemed grub from San Antonio’s award-winning food truck Benjie’s Munch. Free, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Briscoe Western Art Museum, 210 W. Market St., (210) 299-4499, briscoemuseum.org. — CW

Courtesy Photo / Briscoe Western Art Museum

improvtx.com/sanantonio | 618 Nw Loop 410, SaN ANTONIO, TX 78216 | 210•541•8805 JULY

JULY 29-31

AUG 11-13

AUG 18-21

AUG 24-25

Anjelah

Jason Banks

Mark Normand

Desi Banks

Carlos Ballarta

14-24

Johnson-Reyes

sacurrent.com | July 13 – 26, 2022 | CURRENT

19

Monumento a la Ciudad de Mexico, detail.

a

— 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

CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

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-

arts

Josh Huskin

tute of Architects (AIA) for an “evening fiesta” complete with a flamenco performance on the stage bridge. Among the guests at that AIA event was architect Atlee Ayres, who was fascinated by Aureliano Urrutia’s inventive use of Talavera tile throughout Miraflores.

During her extensive research, Anne Elise Urrutia dove deep into the history of Talavera.

“I learned a lot about the history of Talavera,” she said. “It’s definitely something that was brought by the Spanish colonists … but it’s also a craft that is indigenous to Puebla, Mexico. And the people of Puebla really embraced the making of Talavera tile.”

While Miraflores shows Aureliano Urrutia to be an early champion of Talavera, Anne Elise Urrutia suspects he actually might have been the first person to bring it to the United States. At the very least, he was way ahead of the curve — as was architect Ayres, who helped embed Talavera tile into the cultural fabric of San Antonio through landmarks spanning from the McNay Art Museum and the Randolph Air Force Base Administration Building, also known as the Taj Mahal, to numerous residential projects.

Changing hands In 1962, at the age of 90, Aureliano Urrutia sold Miraflores with a deed that stipulated it would be preserved as “a spot of beauty.”

As Anne Elise Urrutia details in her book’s epilogue, that deed wasn’t properly upheld by subsequent owners USAA (1962-1974), Southwestern Bell Telephone (1975-2000) or the University of the Incarnate Word (20002006).

“During USAA’s ownership of Miraflores, the company encroached on the five-acre garden, converting it to expand their parking lot, and added a small building and a conventional rectangular swimming pool to the

Rebecca Schenker

southwest quadrant as a recreational area for their employees’ children,” she writes.

Although Southwestern Bell claimed it would “continue the preservation” of Miraflores, it leased the property to the Telephone Pioneers of America, a volunteer group that proceeded to drain and fill in a large pond, cut down trees, destroy pathways and install a 4,000-square-foot pavilion flanked with barbecue pits and bathrooms. During this period, some of Miraflores’ key objects began decaying — and even disappearing.

Within a year of taking ownership, UIW destroyed Dionicio Rodríguez’s trabajo rústico fountain that once served as the joyous center of Miraflores.

“Not only did they take it apart, but the city came in and sealed the well that was powering that fountain,” Anne Elise Urrutia pointed out during conversation. “That was an artesian well that was drilled 150 feet down.”

The university attempted to relocate 14 works of public art and build a parking lot in the garden — both were unsuccessful — but managed to block a nomination that would have placed Miraflores on the National Register of Historic Places.

Uncertain future Owned by the City of San Antonio since 2006, Miraflores is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is designated as a State Archaeological Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission. In 2019, the nonprofit Brackenridge Park Conservancy signed a 10-year agreement with the city to manage Miraflores, then commissioned a cultural landscape report that indicates it has “great potential as a restoration candidate.”

During our chat with Anne Elise Urrutia, we asked the author what an ideal restoration might look like to her.

Anne Elise Urrutia

From left: author Anne Elise Urrutia; the author’s interpretation of her great-grandfather’s largely non-extant garden, illustrated by Rebecca Schenker, AIA; Miraflores in ruins, 2012.

M

“It’s a good question,” she replied. “I worry a little bit about what might happen in a restoration. I think there’s a tendency to sanitize things when they get restored. And there are a lot of different interests at work. … Miraflores is now part of Brackenridge Park, and it belongs to the city — so the garden belongs to the public, to the people. How is that going to be incorporated into a restoration? Will there be access hours? Will there be security? Will there be maintenance? How are they going to reinstate waterways that were once there?

There are huge logistics in terms of any sort of restoration. That said, on the other hand, you have a park like Central Park in New York City, which was a huge mess in the early 1980s. And they got it together and restored that park largely. … So, it’s not that it’s not doable. But the question is really, is it doable in San Antonio at this time? Is there the will to do it? … I don’t see it immediately.”

Will aside, funding is a sizable factor.

“I can pretty safely say that there is no money set aside for the overall restoration of Miraflores,” she added.

Although Anne Elise Urrutia hopes her book will generate interest in a thoughtful and comprehensive restoration of Miraflores, she also wrote it as a living record of sorts.

“What I really wanted to do was show what Miraflores was at the time,” she said. “Basically to recreate it in a book just in case it never gets restored.”

Find more arts coverage every day at sacurrent.com

A Superhero Adventure Night

Friday, July 29 I 6:00–8:30 p.m.

Film begins at Sunset Free with Museum admission | All ages welcome Tickets: samuseum.org/calendar It’s Heroes vs. Villains!

Choose your path through the galleries while answering riddles–but choose carefully because you might meet your demise.

At sunset, enjoy a free screening of the classic 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Food and beverages available for purchase.

200 West Jones Avenue | samuseum.org 22

CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

arts

Tommy Escobar

‘Big Mike’ at Bat

San Antonio Missions’ new batboy is all about bringing an infectious energy to the field

BY TOMMY ESCOBAR

T

he June sun beats down on Nelson Wolff Stadium as the San Antonio Missions get in some practice before a regular season game.

Music booms through the PA system, and the Minor League team’s players spread out across the diamond, fine-tuning their skills.

In the dugout, batboy “Big Mike” Garcia overlooks the field like it’s his own personal kingdom. A beaming smile suggests there’s no other place the 31-yearold would rather be.

Garcia was a baseball fan from a young age, but born with a mental disability, he knew he’d face limitations pursuing a career as a pro athlete. That hasn’t stopped him from bringing his contagious brand of enthusiasm to two Minor League teams.

The San Antonio native is in his first season as batboy for the Missions — his childhood dream job — and he’s already become a critical part of the club’s fabric, according to players and staff.

“It’s all a good family here. I love it,” Garcia said. “I was new here and didn’t know anybody on the team at first, but I showed the team my hard work. Everybody started talking to me and congratulating me.

They’re like my family.”

That camaraderie is clear during practice as Garcia hustles back and forth from the clubhouse, refills water coolers and whips up a batch of “Big Mike Special” Powerade. He’s met with handshakes and fist bumps from every staff member, coach and player who crosses his path.

Fan favorite

On game days, Garcia arrives at the stadium at 2 p.m. He stocks the fridge with water, brings out towels for the players, provides the game balls, hangs the umpires’ clothes in their lockers and gets the field ready for his favorite part of the day: game time.

Although born in the Alamo City, Garcia’s family later relocated to the Houston area, where he attended Clements High School and became batboy for its baseball team. He found his fit with the sport.

After graduation, he attended a job fair for the Sugar Land Skeeters, the Houston-area Minor League team later renamed the Space Cowboys. Through a program for hiring people with special needs, he landed a position as that club’s batboy.

His nine-year tenure with the Skeeters came at an exciting time. He was part of championship teams in 2016 and 2018 and became such a fan favorite that the club created a “Big Mike” bobblehead in his honor. Earlier this year, Minor League Baseball’s official website published a profile of Garcia, highlighting his enduring popularity in Sugar Land.

When he and his mother moved back to the Alamo City before the 2022 season, he reached out to the Missions, inquiring about bringing his skills to the team he’d grown up wanting to be part of.

New team, same enthusiasm Since landing the position in San Antonio, Garcia has brought his signature blend of energy and charisma to his hometown team, winning the respect of

‘Big Mike’ Garcia was so beloved by fans when he was batboy for the Sugar Land Skeeters that he had his own bobblehead.

M

both players and fans.

“Whenever he goes out and grabs the bats or gives the umpires balls, the fans scream ‘Big Mike’ every single time he’s on the field,” Missions pitcher Thomas Eshelman said. “I understood the magnitude of how much he puts into this, and a lot of players come through here and know who ‘Big Mike’ is. So, it’s good to see he gets a lot of recognition for who he is.”

After each batter’s time at the plate, Garcia sprints to retrieve the bat, waving his arms toward the crowd like a conductor with a symphony. He knows his job goes beyond picking up equipment.

Clearly, he knows his role as the spark plug that can ignite a dull crowd. Beyond that, he’s the helping hand when a teammate is down, and ultimately, the reminder of why we love baseball to begin with, members of the club maintain.

“There are some days when we’re down on the scoreboard, this guy [Garcia] goes out there and starts moving his arms and tries to get the fans going.

I think they already love him here,” Missions Hitting Coach Raul Padron said. “Outside of the field, he’s a real humble person. [He’s] always checking to see if you need anything, and I think it’s important to have him around our players and our clubhouse.”

As Garcia stands just outside watching practice unfold, he mimics a pitcher’s throwing motions. There’s little doubt he’d love to expand his role at Nelson Wolff Stadium.

“My next goal is actually to be signed to the Missions for the last game of the season and get an at-bat,” Garcia said. “If not that, I’d like to be called up to the [San Diego] Padres and be a batboy for them. It would be a blessing to finally be in the show.” sacurrent.com | July 13 – 26, 2022 | CURRENT

23

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CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

Debunked documentary 2000 Mules still weighs on political discourse across Texas

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

A

s the sun set on a Friday in June at Northwest San Antonio’s Faith Outreach Center International, senior pastor Charles Flowers welcomed his congregation to a screening of right-wing filmmaker and conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza’s 2022 documentary 2000 Mules.

The film falsely claims that paid Democrat operatives known as “mules” illegally deposited thousands of ballots with votes for Joe Biden into drop boxes across the country during the 2020 presidential election.

Together with controversial Texas-based nonprofit True the Vote, D’Souza alleges the widespread fraud occurred in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — five states where Biden beat Donald Trump in the final vote count.

Although 2000 Mules has been debunked by legitimate media outlets, nonpartisan fact checkers and numerous technology experts, conservative organizations across Texas continue to hold screenings to discredit Biden’s election victory. Since the film’s release on the subscription-based platform Locals in early May, Texas churches including Faith Outreach Center and others have staged viewings. The Republican Party of Texas also held a series of screenings during its convention last month.

San Antonio-based movie chain Santikos Entertainment even booked 2000 Mules to play at a handful of its theaters in early May. The Current reached out to Santikos about its decision to screen the film, but representatives didn’t respond to multiple email inquiries.

Flimsy claims D’Souza, True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht and former True the Vote Board Member Gregg Phillips — all of whom appear in 2000 Mules — argue that the film uses technology to throw back the curtain on widespread fraud in the 2020 election. The filmmakers claim they used data collected through cell phone geotracking technology in five swing states, along with 4 million minutes of surveillance footage.

True the Vote has said it paid $2 million for

screens

Stubborn Disciples

D’Souza Media

the data, which allegedly shows that at least 2,000 mules visited an average of 38 drop boxes each to stuff illegal ballots for Biden.

Engelbrecht argues that her organization also proves that mules picked up extra ballots from nonprofit groups working as “stash houses” for the scheme.

However, there’s a big problem with 2000 Mules’ claims. Nothing D’Souza shows during his 90-minute documentary is definitive proof of the voter fraud he alleges. If the movie proves anything, it’s how inadequate D’Souza’s investigative reporting skills are.

For example, D’Souza never provides the names of the organizations moonlighting as stash houses, which would be a critical piece of information to get closer to the root of the purported conspiracy.

Also, D’Souza never shows the same alleged mule at more than one drop box. If the average mule visited 38 drop boxes to stuff illegal votes, it’s curious that the film doesn’t include a montage edited together of at least one of them visiting 38 — or 10 or even two — different drop boxes.

True the Vote didn’t respond for an interview request from the Current, but its website attempts to explain the oversight by saying the group does, in fact, have that video but didn’t use it in the final film because of its “extremely poor quality.” The organization also maintains that “most jurisdictions had no video or if they did, it was (illegally) destroyed.”

True the Vote promised to release “all of the raw video footage so America can see for itself” at an unspecified future date.

Laughed off During testimony in front of Congress’ Jan. 6 committee, former Trump Attorney General William Barr laughed off 2000 Mules when asked about any evidence he’d seen that proves that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Numerous organizations also have debunked True the Vote’s claim that the cell phone data it purchased proves anything unlawful took place.

“You could use cellular evidence to say

this person was in that area, but to say they were at the ballot box, you’re stretching it a lot,” Aaron Striegel, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame, told the Associated Press.

As easy as it is to discredit 2000 Mules, there are, of course, die-hard Trump supporters who regard the documentary as undeniable evidence of Democrats’ dirty dealing.

Devine resident Loreyn Velazquez-Roman is one of those people. She said screening 2000 Mules was a “mind-blowing” experience. Velazquez-Roman, who does not “watch the news” but is active on Truth Social, believes the 2020 election was stolen and said attempts to discredit D’Souza’s film are “fake news.” She also argues that the U.S. Capitol was stormed on Jan. 6 by paid Antifa supporters.

When asked why so many Republican election officials have testified under oath that they have not seen any widespread evidence of voter fraud, Velazquez-Roman called them RINOs, or Republicans in name only.

“How do you believe in God when you’ve never met him?” she asked to rhetorically justify her belief the election was a sham.

That biblical turn brings the story back to Faith Outreach Center and pastor Flowers, who told the 65 or so attendees of his church’s 2000 Mules screening that many local, state and federal elected officials are trying to “implode [the system] from the inside.”

“If you’ve ever talked to someone who believes [the 2020 election] was the cleanest election we’ve ever had, it defies logic,” he said. “There is something far more sinister going on. There is a spiritual element to this that blinds people’s minds. We must pray that the doors shut on unrighteousness.”

True the Vote’s Engelbrecht and Phillips will be at Cowboys Dance Hall on Sunday, July 24 for a gathering called the Alamo City Freedom Fest. According to the event’s online description, its mission is “to unite conservatives” and “[turn] San Antonio red.”

The festival’s organizers didn’t respond to the Current’s inquiries by press time.

Find more film stories at sacurrent.com

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food

Game Theory

The owner of the newly opened Black Potion bets San Antonio is ready to embrace a bar for board games (and more)

BY NINA RANGEL

N

estled in the same Fredericksburg strip that hosts the historic Woodlawn Theatre and music venue The Starlighter, new bar Black Potion boasts impressive craft beer and wine lists.

Neither those nor its hip location are intended as its primary draw.

Instead, owner Enrique Cortez envisions the spot as a tabletop tavern — a sanctuary for gaming enthusiasts to imbibe, unwind, roll dice and even purchase games stocked at the establishment. He’s put immeasurable effort into making sure his space at 1900 Fredericksburg Road is an enjoyable atmosphere for all — not just those with enough geek cred to know its name is derived from a game about werewolves.

We took a tour of the 6,500-square-foot Black Potion and spoke with Cortez about his plans for the all-are-welcome bar and game shop.

We’ll start with the obvious question: why a board game bar?

I really fell in love with board games about five or six years ago because they’ve evolved so much from when we were kids. Back then, they were honestly terrible games in a box, when you actually play them. Now, more games are so sophisticated and so interesting — they’re like moving puzzles, they’ve got beautiful artwork and a great story to tell.

And they engage your mind. For the same reason people like crochet and people do puzzles, games allow you to engage that part of the brain, and there’s the social element too, because you get to play against other people and have that interaction. So, I rediscovered them and I fell in love, and I started getting involved with a board game community here in San Antonio. I met some great people, and through all those connections over the years, I met this gentleman who had a retail shop. And he knew I had side hustles with board gaming and gaming in general, so I asked him what he thought I should do.

I had a little bit of extra money; times were good and he happened to be looking for partners. At the time, I’d been traveling, and I knew that board game cafes and taverns are a big thing in other cities, and San Antonio didn’t have any. So, we partnered and opened a small space, essentially the original and

Nina Rangel

only tabletop tavern in San Antonio.

I wouldn’t consider this space “small.” What happened to that venue?

We got our beer and wine license in September of 2019. We were hitting our stride, you know, going through Christmas, through January 2020. And then by February, we started to hear about COVID. And then we were told to prepare for a two-week shutdown in late February. Then we had an employee who was like, “Hey, my grandmother got tested, she’s sick, and I live with her.” My partner and I had to have that internal discussion, basically figuring out how to handle that. So, we shut down because of COVID, and then we just couldn’t survive. So, during COVID I dedicated so much time to driving around and looking for commercial properties that fit my vision. I wanted a large footprint, free parking in a high-traffic area; I wanted to be in a certain side of town. And I found this place, which took me six months to build out. It was a lot of work, but now we’re able to offer things unlike any other game shop in town.

Such as?

I want people to feel like there’s a chill vibe, where they can hang out with friends or even work. I offer free WiFi for people who just want to get out and be productive in a different environment. I also have several private rooms available, and those lend themselves to a more private space for tabletop gaming and roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons.

There’s also a 49-person theater built into the back of the building that brings this place to a whole different level — unlike any other game shop. We just hosted the 48 Hour Film Festival and screened the final films in the theater, and it was such a thrill — inviting artists and creatives to come in here and use this space and make it their own. I’m beside myself that that just happened. I’m so proud

of these kids, and now I’ve got an improv group, House Party Improv, coming through a few Saturdays a month to do shows on that stage.

So, it sounds like the space opened your capabilities up to be a home for local artists, not just a game shop and bar?

Absolutely. I put out a call to artists on my social channels, basically saying, “I have this gift that was given to me, and I need to share it. If you’re a creative person, and you want to put on a showcase or a play, talk to me. The answer is yes.” I want to see cool shit happening. I want to bring that to the community and be a gathering place for creatives so we can see their ideas come to life. I did all of this to make this place come to life, and now we’re getting a chance to do that for others.

I have so much open space on the walls that I’d be happy to host local artists’ work there too. I just want this to be an opportunity for creatives to shine.

What’s your ultimate goal with Black Potion?

I got the weirdest compliment a few weeks back, this guy came in and told me, “This place is so cool. It feels like I’m not even in San Antonio.” And I [get his] meaning, but it was also off-putting, because San Antonio is cool. It’s just cool in its own way. I just want to add to that in several ways by catering to different types of people. Gamers come in all shapes and sizes, all ages, so there’s something for them. And secretly, one of my metrics of success is if this place can be seen as a date night spot. Because that means that I’m speaking not just to gamers but to the community at large. That I’ve created such an inviting place that people would want to bring someone here to impress them. That’s how I’ll know I’ve done something right.

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CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

food Compliance Claims

Trio of East Side mom-and-pop businesses worry they may not survive ADA lawsuits

BY NOAH ALCALA BACH

S

ince taking over the East Side’s Sunshine Bakery in 2018, Kayla Matta has dealt with her share of adversity.

The 45-year-old panadería established by her grandparents has survived vandalism, a car crashing into its building and the lingering economic crunch of the pandemic.

Now, an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuit from a local litigant with a history of such claims is seeking $20,000 in damages and legal fees — a financial hit Matta said she may not be able to handle. The suit accuses the small business of not having a ramp to its entryway and failing to provide van accessibility.

After being served with papers, Matta consulted with a local attorney but said she declined representation because the legal fees would exceed the amount sought in the suit.

“My grandmother was in tears. When we were leaving the lawyer’s office, I told my mom about it, and she was crying on the phone,” Matta said. “I don’t understand what kind of person just looks around for people to pick on in this way. I’ve been crying since I read that letter.”

Sunshine Bakery isn’t the only business dealing with a lawsuit filed by plaintiff Joseph Castillo. Court records show he’s filed more than a dozen suits citing ADA violations against local buildings.

Most target commercial property owners, investment or real estate firms, but at least three — including the petition against Sunshine — are against mom-and-pop businesses on the economically disadvantaged East Side.

Tank’s Pizza and Teresita’s Mexican Restaurant were also recently served papers alleging they violated the ADA. Tank’s Pizza owner Michael Brown said the lawsuit felt like a “punch to the face.” He said his restaurant regularly serves customers with disabilities, adding that everything inside is up to code.

The ADA violation Castillo cited against Tank’s was a lack of parking for people with disabilities. The suit asks for $15,000 in damages.

Brown insists he had a sign designating the parking space, but it was stolen.

He also acknowledges the blue paint designating the spot is now too faded to be seen.

“It’s just one of those things that I’ll get to, but we have other things that are just so much more pressing,” he said.

Brown said paying out the $15,000 claim would likely bankrupt his pizzeria. In the short term, he worries the suit could cause his staff to lose confidence in the health of the business.

Fighting for compliance?

The Current made multiple attempts to reach both Castillo and his attorney Duncan Strickland for an interview.

Castillo never returned calls, but Strickland did email a statement.

In the email, Strickland said he’s proud to help clients enforce ADA rules, which have been in place since 1990. He added that he’s happy to take on businesses that “thumb their nose at this law,” especially those with multiple ADA violations.

“I am honored to represent individuals in wheelchairs to require these businesses to get into compliance with the law — something they have refused to do for decades,” Strickland said.

Despite his work for Castillo, Strickland’s Houston-based law firm specializes in property management, specifically evictions, according to its website.

Both Matta and Brown said they feel unfairly targeted and question why Castillo is pursuing claims against them rather than businesses with more significant violations. “[We’re] mom-and-pop shops you know, small restaurants, who barely made it through COVID,” Brown said.

“And we’re finally starting to kind of bounce back a little bit. And now you’re threatening to take everything from us.”

‘Quick way to make a buck’ Both Brown and Matta speculate the suits could be aimed at acquiring their

Sanford Nowlin

buildings as gentrification continues to roll through the East Side. They said they’re looking into joining forces with Teresita’s Mexican Restaurant to hire an attorney that can represent all three businesses at a lower cost.

“I don’t believe this gentleman has ever been to any one of our locations,” Brown said. “I just think he’s in cahoots with this law firm, and they figured it out, man, this is a quick way for them to make a buck.”

Matta said she asked Strickland, the plaintiff’s attorney, to reduce the claim or drop the suit once she brings the building up to code.

“He was kind of just like, ‘No, my client needs the money because of legal fees, because that’s what he paid me,’” Matta said. “When I told him that my grandparents don’t have that much because they’re on a fixed income, he kind of scoffed like, ‘Well, I don’t know where the money is going to come from, but it needs to come from somewhere.’”

In the meantime, Matta plans to use money out of her own pocket to fix the alleged violations. She’s already started applying for permits to install a ramp. She’s less sure how to deal with the financial fallout from the lawsuit, though.

“I’ll figure it out, but it’s going to be a lot of elbow grease and probably ... help from the community,” Matta said.

“The building is so old. It’s been there since before the ’70s. It didn’t cross anybody’s mind.”

To that end, she started a “Save Sunshine Bakery!” GoFundMe campaign.

At press time Monday, it’s only raised $1,670 of its $20,000 goal.

Local complaints San Antonio visual artist Jacqueline Lucero is a regular at the bakery and has participated in pop-up events there. During Sunshine’s June 18 night market, artists donated their sales to help with the legal woes.

“It really frustrated me because it’s a small business, and I’m a disabled person. I have a broken back. I use a cane sometimes,” Lucero said. “Kayla has made it a point to try to make the space as accessible for me as possible.”

The city of San Antonio’s Disability Access Office (DAO) fields complaints against businesses suspected of being out of ADA compliance. While the office will send an education letter to businesses about their violations, the city doesn’t have enforcement authority.

“The DAO recommends residents speak with the owner and manager of a business prior to filing a formal complaint with either Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation or with the Department of Justice or filing a lawsuit,” said Deborah Scharven, the city’s accessibility officer.

Matta said even her 10-year-old daughter, who has a close friend in a wheelchair, questions why someone would sue her mom rather than ask her to make upgrades to the building. “[She] said ‘I think that you need [a ramp], Mom. But I don’t think that somebody should be doing it like this,’” Matta said. “She knows. If a little kid knows right from wrong, it should be obvious to [an adult] ... why it’s so wrong.” sacurrent.com | July 13 – 26, 2022 | CURRENT

29

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CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

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food Bistro Bites

A casual feel pervades at Chef Michael Sohocki’s Five Points Food & Drink, but the kitchen works at an elevated level

BY RON BECHTOL

T

he building at 1017 N. Flores that until recently housed gluten-free dining haven Five Points Local has a varied food service history that also included a vegetarian restaurant whose chef and owner lived on the floor above.

It’s long been — and still is — a challenging hodgepodge.

But the structure isn’t without charms that could be exploited by a dedicated owner and fixer upper.

Such was apparently the attraction for chef Michael Sohocki, who recently moved his well-regarded downtown restaurants, Gwendolyn and Kimura, into the quirky space and even took advantage of the upstairs for a standalone bar.

The place is still a work in progress. Though Sohocki didn’t indicate that any changes were afoot for Kimura and its ramen format, he did suggest that he was reconsidering the decision to keep the Five Points name for the business’ “European” aspect.

“It’s too confusing” he admitted, adding that the Gwendolyn moniker might come back with a “bistro” tag.

Based on the new menu, it appears Sohocki has jettisoned that restaurant’s ethos of sourcing ingredients from a limited local radius and eschewing electric appliances in the kitchen as part of the move.

However, the casual diner is unlikely to notice the change.

The menu’s Small Plates category isn’t headed by the charcuterie board, but it might as well be.

Sohocki has always had a strong charc game, and this iteration is no exception. A smoky lomo, a crisply grilled slab of guanciale and some gossamer coins of lardo — the apotheosis of cured pork fat — form the slate slab’s backbone. Snappy house pickles and “apple pie-spiced” almonds provide taste and textural contrast.

The so-called “Falafel with Love” seemed like a sideways step in a list that includes escargots and classic beef tartare, but, if the falafel is actually “given the care and attention it deserves,” as the menu boasts, why not? After trying them, maybe not. The fried orbs of ground chickpeas were a tad too crunchy for this taster. Ravioli with sage brown butter slipped back into sync and were, if a touch chewy around the edges, a beautiful rendering of the traditional northern Italian pairing of butternut squash and sage.

At three or four, the entrée list is short, and at first glance, disappointingly unambitious given Sohocki’s aspirations at Gwendolyn. It seems there’s usually steak — on one menu it was New York strip, on anoth-

Ron Bechtol

er a filet mignon — and an obligatory burger.

The seared market fish proved to be a skillful and crisp-skinned mackerel, a variety of fish that can come across as oily and assertive in other hands. An equally impressive risotto served as its pillow — unabashedly cheesy, bright with lingering whispers of white wine and cooked to that perfect point where there’s just a hint of resistance. I’m happy to say the kitchen gave the dish the attention it deserved.

And the same held true of the breaded pork schnitzel, not normally an entrée to excite either intellect or libido. But if pounded pork can be sexy, a condition that was aided and abetted by its plate mate of mousseline potatoes bolstered with “a disturbing amount of butter,” this is its opportunity. I’d only be tempted to add an even stronger shot of heat to the Dijon cream that pooled in the plate like the accompaniment to an upscale chicken fried steak.

Desserts are also few, and if you’ve been cautious about consuming alarming amounts of butter, feel free to go for a gâteau with white chocolate mousse or its current variation. House-made ice-

cream seemed a better course of action in our case.

The restaurant offers four flavors, each with its own unique point of view. Spiced peach won by a whisker.

Wines aren’t a feature of the drinks presented at the table, a disappointment to those wanting to extend the European aspect of the “fancy-casual” experience.

However, there’s a selection of beers and sakes, along with a couple of ciders. Give the draft Texas Keeper a try. You could certainly order a cocktail, too, but why not head upstairs to Dash Bar before or after — or as a sole destination for that matter. It’s especially pleasant during the 4-7 p.m. happy hour.

Reflective of the multi-talented team Sohocki has assembled, our server one lunch was the bar’s stirrer and shaker on a following day, and he turned out creditable cocktails. The Crazy 88 is a riff on the classic, bubbly French 75, unique in its addition of a floral matcha tea syrup. The icy and fruity Butterfly Rumble features rum, blackberries and butterfly pea flower, an extract that enhances the drink’s purple hue.

FIVE POINTS FOOD & DRINK 1017 N. Flores St. | (210) 222-1849 | 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday Entrée prices: $18-$42. The same menu is offered all day.

Best bets: Charcuterie board, ravioli in sage brown butter, seared market fish, classic risotto, mousseline potatoes, specialty house cocktails The skinny: Lauded local chef Michael Sohocki has moved his sibling flagship restaurants, Restaurant Gwendolyn and Kimura Ramen, out of downtown to a quirky building on North Flores Street, where he added an upstairs bar. The menu at Five Points Food & Drink is more casual and far less polemical than Gwendolyn’s. There are only three or four entrées, though an ample list of small plates compensates. The crew’s kitchen skills haven’t diminished with the move, lifting dishes such as pork schnitzel out of the ordinary and into more elevated realms.

sacurrent.com | July 13 – 26, 2022 | CURRENT

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CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

music

Nada Surf

Nuclear Juarez is blazing new trails with instrumental rock. Just don’t ask it to play ‘Walk Don’t Run.’

BY MIKE MCMAHAN

S

an Antonio’s Nuclear Juarez dropped one of last year’s best local albums, Exil, proving the guitar-driven instrumental trio has the potential to make waves.

Just don’t call it a surf rock band.

While Nuclear Juarez’s music has some of the hallmarks of surf rock classics like Dick Dale’s “Miserlou” — the song featured in Pulp Fiction’s opening credits — or the Ventures’ “Walk Don’t Run,” the members are eager to point out the breadth of their musical approach.

“We’re not a surf band at all,” drummer Brian Parrish told the Current during a Zoom conversation. “There’s maybe a surf beat on a few of the songs. A lot of those bands have to look a certain way, their guitars have to be a certain model, they have to use a certain kind of amp. We’re not that cool.”

“And I don’t look good in shorts,” bassist Michael Pittman added.

To their point, basic surf rock ingredients float to the surface in the Nuclear Juarez sea.

You’ve got your reverb-soaked chords that invoke surf whitecaps. And yep, some double snare hits on 2 and 4.

But those core elements are balanced out by dissonant lead guitar lines, unusual melodic choices and the occasional riptide burst of jagged noise.

The members of Nuclear Juarez have a way of playing off each other conversationally, and it’s also evident in the way their music unfolds.

“We play the emotive stuff, and you can put the pictures together in your head,” said Parrish. “I consider us a soundtrack band.”

The members agreed that jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo and the Velvet Underground are key influences.

“I wouldn’t say they introduce avant-garde into what we do,” said Parrish. “But maybe something out there in the perimeter.”

Guitarist Gus Wanner said the band’s sound stems from the individual members’ varied tastes.

“You’ve got three cooks coming into the kitchen,” he said. “Let’s break some new ground and see whose cuisine reigns supreme.”

For his part, Parrish likes to keep things loose for their performances. “The music should not sound the same every time you play it,” he added. “It should be a unique

Courtesy Photo / Nuclear Juarez

fingerprint every time.”

That said, Nuclear Juarez does write a setlist in advance, though the members aren’t averse to switching things up midstream, depending on how the crowd is reacting to the material.

While surf rock underwent a ’90s revival, thanks in part to Pulp Fiction’s influence, a broader interest in instrumental rock has been growing in popularity for a while now.

Wanner has a theory as to why that might be. But then again, Wanner — a man whose bandmates claim can play “anything with strings” — always has a theory.

“Ear fatigue,” he said. “You’ve got this deluge of words coming out of every speaker.

When you can massage the ears with good melodies and good sonic procedure, that’s gonna be more popular.”

‘Sometimes dreamy, sometimes moody’ Let’s be honest: artists are notoriously not the best interpreters of their own work. So, to sort out the best descriptor for the Nuclear Juarez sound, we spoke to a bona-fide expert in the field, Mark Sanders, the host of Mark Malibu’s Surfin’ a Go Go Radio Show. Sanders’ online show features instrumental guitar music from all decades, and he’s included the San Antonio band in his playlist, which spans genre luminaries to lesser-known artists.

Sanders said Nuclear Juarez’s unusual chord choices — “sometimes dreamy, sometimes moody … but always tasty” — differentiate the trio from the surf rock crowd. So do Wanner’s playing techniques, which Sanders hears as informed by flamenco. He pointed to the title track of Exil as a prime example.

Sanders said the ubiquity of instrumental

rock — whether or not its practitioners apply the “surf” tag — helps explain its continued growth.

“The music is layered into so many of the TV shows, films and commercials that we consume,” he said. “The viewer may not know the song or the artist, but they know it’s surf music.”

Battle of the bands On the tail end of a string of unconventional road gigs, Nuclear Juarez is back on home turf and will play a free gig at north-of-downtown nightspot Sanchos Cantina y Cocina on Friday, August 5.

As part of that recent jaunt, Nuclear Juarez recently returned from Toronto, where it participated as the sole U.S. band in the Great Lakes Surf Battle.

Parrish said he enjoyed seeing “bands that concentrate on the tonal variants of ‘traditional’ surf music instead of the pompadoured, Hawaiian shirt Beach Blanket Bingo haze that many American bands fall into.”

Nuclear Juarez also appeared at three home baseball games for the Seguin River Monsters, members of the Texas Collegiate League. The trio played brief sets before and after the games and wowed the crowd with a polka version of — you guessed it — “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

In a saddening turn of events, the River Monsters lost all three games, but please don’t speak of that. After all, it’s better to judge Nuclear Juarez based on its winning record with instrumental rock than on its record with inspiring sports teams.

Free, Friday, Aug. 5, 8 p.m., Sanchos, 628 Jackson St., (210) 320-1840, sanchosmx.com.

Reminder:

Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

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CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

music Heavy Return

San Antonio doom metal band Las Cruces drops its first album in 12 years, and the riffs are well worth the wait

BY SANFORD NOWLIN

W

hile revered in underground circles, San Antonio-based doom metal band Las Cruces has been plagued by a release schedule even slower than its lumbering riffs.

Formed 28 years ago, the group dropped a pair of ’90s-era albums that garnered critical praise and helped it land enviable slots at metal festivals.

However, since then, revolving-door lineup changes prevented it from putting out anything other than a 2010 EP. That means Las Cruces’ long-awaited new album, Cosmic Tears — released last month on high-profile stoner label Ripple Music — has been a dozen years in the making. The band will perform Saturday, July 23 at Burleson Yard Beer Garden to celebrate the new LP with Peth and X.I.L. rounding out the bill.

In the years since Las Cruces’ last release, doom has undergone the same subgenrefication as the rest of metal, with bands delving into narrow specialties such as death doom, funeral doom and the like. That could spell trouble for an ensemble determined to keep up with evolving tastes and revolving trends.

Fortunately, on Cosmic Tears, Las Cruces plays to its primary strength: delivering the kind of tough and timeless riffs, slow tempos and foreboding atmosphere pioneered by groups such as Black Sabbath and Trouble. Sadly, though, the album was the last for drummer Paul DeLeon, whose often-introspective lyrics seemed to predict his own 2021 death during the COVID pandemic.

Despite DeLeon’s untimely passing and the ominous sound of the record-

ing, it feels like something of a rebirth for Las Cruces — thanks in part to new vocalist Jason Kane, whose powerful tenor brings an accessibility to the proceedings. While doom metal too often suffers from singers whose anonymous, post-Ozzy caterwauling is best buried in the mix, Kane is a forceful, emotive presence.

The approach is particularly powerful on Cosmic Tears’ epic title track, a nearly eight-minute showcase for the band’s versatility. An ominous, angular opening riff gives way to subdued and mournful verses, soaring choruses and a thudding interlude full of wah-driven pyrotechnics from guitarists Mando Tovar and George Treviño. Along the way, DeLeon’s drum work highlights the dynamics, toms Courtesy Image / Ripple Music rumbling at all the right places, kick drum driving as the song reaches full throttle.

On “Wizard of the North” and “Egypt,” the clarity of Kane’s voice evokes the lyrics’ eerie fantasies, keeping them distinct from the appropriately thick and lurching riffs. Jimmy Bell’s slithering bass opens “Terminal Drift,” a psychedelic interlude that provides a little breathing room amid the heaviness. While more subdued, the tune sacrifices none of the album’s sense of pervading calamity.

In the end, Cosmic Tears is a 10-track doom masterpiece with the potential to sate patient Las Cruces fans while luring in a new generation of listeners looking for a dose of the heavy stuff.

Let’s just hope the band won’t take 12 years to release the follow-up.

Free, 8 p.m., Saturday, July 23, Burleson Yard Beer Garden, 430 Austin St., (210) 354-3001, burlesonyardbeergarden.com. sacurrent.com | July 13 – 26, 2022 | CURRENT

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music listings

After 12 years fronting the beloved Uncle Lucius, Kevin Galloway embarked on a solo career when the Austin-based band ended in 2018. His aptly named solo debut The Change introduced fans to his own Americana sound, which infuses soul elements with a Southern twang. It’s lively enough to scoot a boot to but reserved enough to enjoy over a glass of bourbon. This show celebrates the release of Galloway’s newest album, Secondhand Starlight. $15-$70, 9 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — EB Horse Jumper of Love While the band’s name suggests forward momentum, Horse Jumper of Love’s brand of indie-rock is so slow that it almost comes across as doomy. Although their brand of slowcore-influenced rock may not be for everybody, fans of the genre can appreciate its absorbing, almost hypnotic approach. $13, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BE

Tuesday, July 19

Coheed and Cambria Alexandra Gavillet

Wednesday, July 13 Bonner Rhae Soulful singer Bonner Rhae performs originals and covers, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. Yes, that means you’re in for a night of slow, country-tinged music from the Houston-based performer, who got her start performing at church. $7-$40, 8 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — Brianna Espinoza

Thursday, July 14 Inspector, Elefante Though they emerged from Mexico as a part of the Avanzada Regia movement nearly three decades ago, Inspector is still going strong with a mix of ska and ’60s rock ’n’ roll spirit. The band’s 2009 self-titled LP even included a cover of “Our House,” Madness’s ska classic. Elefante takes more of an alt-rock approach and had early brushes with fame opening for Shakira and Maná in the 2000s. $45-$70, 9 p.m., The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, therockboxsa.com. — Mike McMahan Mike Love Note that there’s no mention of the Beach Boys or Trump fundraisers in relation to this show. That’s because we’re talking about a different Mike Love. And, yes, we’re sure he gets this all the time. This Mike Love hails from Hawaii, where there are beaches as well as boys. But rather than surf rock, he focuses on acoustic guitar music that, while rooted in reggae, pulls from genres ranging from flamenco to soul to classic rock. Appropriate to his style and general vibe, Love is active in the fight for animal rights and environmental reform. $15-$70, 8:30 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — MM

Friday, July 15 Paradise Lion Alamo City-founded alt-rock upstart Paradise Lion brings a diversity of influences to their sound. Citing artists including the Beatles, Rush, Metallica and Stevie Ray Vaughan as inspirations, the sextet released the EP Souls of Paradise earlier this 36

CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

year. “Pink Hair Girl,” the band’s most recent single, evokes an anthemic take on the Dead Milkmen’s “Punk Rock Girl”. $10-$15, 7:15 p.m., The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, therockboxsa.com. — Danny Cervantes Alesana These screamo boys from North Carolina are carrying on the legacy of their 2000s-era flippy hair days with earnest songs about lost love. These days, the band leans more toward a post-hardcore sound, but expect the high-pitched vocals and pop hooks older emo fans are likely to eat up. $25-$30, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BE

Friday-Saturday, July 15-16 Gary P. Nunn Gary P. Nunn is considered a pioneer of the progressive country scene that started in Austin in the early 1970s, and he’s carried the torch for decades, releasing acclaimed albums on his own label. The singer-songwriter has seen trends come and go, sharing stages with many of the greats while cementing his own legacy as one himself. $25, 8 p.m. Friday, 9 p.m. Saturday, Gruene Hall, 1281 Gruene Road, (877) 856-0806, gruenehall. com. — Enrique Bonilla

Saturday, July 16 Coheed and Cambria, Alkaline Trio, Mothica Cult rockers Coheed and Cambria — creators of some of the longest album titles in history — are touring in support of their most adventurous LP in years, Vaxis — Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind. The band turned heads two decades ago by pioneering a sound that pulled from post-hardcore and prog rock, two genres that previously seemed diametrically opposed. Since then, frontman Claudio Sanchez has devoted most of the band’s material to developing the Amory Wars, a Star Wars-length saga that inspires the band’s lyrics, sung in his signature high-pitched vocal style. $46-$146, 6:30 p.m., Whitewater Amphitheater, 11860 FM 306, New Braunfels, (830) 964-3800, whitewaterrocks.com. — MM Kevin Galloway

Adrian Ruiz Quintet While trumpeter Adrian Ruiz leads this jazz ensemble, it features plenty of solo time for saxophonist Gil Del Bosque, pianist Collin Shook, bassist Sam Pankey and drummer Daniel Dufour. The quintet’s LP Premiere: A Collection of Originals also features material from the other members, not just Ruiz, and it covers a range of styles, even veering into blues. $15-$20, 7:30 p.m., Jazz, Tx., 312 Pearl Parkway, Bldg. 6, (210) 332-9386, jazztx. com. — MM

Wednesday July 20 Trisdon Federic Once an all-star offensive lineman at San Antonio’s Harlandale High School, Trisdon Federic is now tearing up the country music charts. His new EP Lone Star Nights features his biggest single yet, “’84 Old Ford,” which made it into the top 50 of Billboard’s Texas Country Chart. His single “Beach Vibes” also saw Billboard chart action thanks to its feelgood Gulf Coast-influenced sound. $10-$50, 8 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — DC

Wednesday, July 20 Broadside The name Broadside certainly sounds like it’s tailor-made for a pop-punk band. And that’s exactly what you get with this Virginia outfit that features half-talking, half-screaming vocals and punchy instrumentals. The band lost its last original member in 2015, for what that’s worth. $18-$20, 7 p.m., The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, therockboxsa.com. — BE

Wednesday-Saturday, July 20-23 Roger Creager With more 20 years leading bands through honky tonks, fairs and festivals, Creager has established himself as a Texas country heavyweight. His latest album, Gulf Coast Time, which features an all-star cast of musicians, pays homage to his fishing and seafaring upbringing near Corpus Christi. Expect to hear songs from the record as well as hits and fan favorites during his four-night stand at Gruene Hall, staged around his birthday. The first night promises an acoustic set. $20-$25, 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 9 p.m. Saturday, Gruene Hall, 1281 Gruene Rd, (877) 856-0806, gruenehall.com. — EB

Thursday July 21 Bad Bad Hats Minneapolis-based trio Bad Bad Hats showcase the witty lyrics of vocalist Kerry Alexander over a ’90s garage-rock sound.

The band’s latest release Walkman is a platform for the gentle sincerity of Alexander’s voice, which paired with her driving guitar, evokes Liz Phair and Juilana Hatfield. The single “Detroit Basketball” offers a sample of her quirky lyrics: “Gotta find a man who deserves my kissing / and doesn’t blow my money on the Detroit Pistons.” $15-$100, 8 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — DC

Friday, July 22 Reed Brothers Just as the name suggests, the Reed Brothers are a duo of, well, siblings. These San Antonio natives both strap on guitars and perform their soul-fueled music with rugged, and at times delicate, vocals. Appropriate to their Texas origins, the bros also show some country roots. $15-$65, 9 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — BE

Saturday July 23 Read Southall Band The Read Southall Band may be just the ticket for those craving real-deal Southern rock. Stillwater, Oklahoma native Southall expanded his acoustic act in 2015 with the release of Six String Sorrow, an album that showcased a grittier approach. The

band’s latest effort For the Birds further diversifies its unique and soulful brand of rock, offering something for fans of anyone from Waylon Jennings to Chris Cornell. Austin Meade and Midnight River Choir open the show. $25-$39.50, 8 p.m., Whitewater Amphitheater, 11860 FM 306, New Braunfels, (830) 964-3800, whitewaterrocks.com. — DC

Saturday, July 23 William Beckmann Beckmann is making waves in the country singer-songwriter circuit with a whisky-smooth voice and a deft hand at songwriting.

The Del Rio native grew up on mariachi and Norteño music, and traces of those influences remain in his music. That’s especially evident with the storytelling-style narratives in his songs. His lyricism pays homage to the simple but deep approach of Townes Van Zandt. $15-18, 8:30 p.m., Floore’s Country Store, 14492 Old Bandera Road, (210) 695-8827, liveatfloores.com. — EB

Monday July 25 Brick + Mortar This indie rock duo comprised of bassist and frontman Brandon Asraf along with drummer and electronic sampler John Tacon has carved out a distinctly heavy alternative sound. Known for the 2015 hit “Train,” the New Jersey-based pair showcase Asraf’s manic lyrics with creative samples from Tacon. “Self Care (So Frustrated),” Brick + Mortar’s recent single, is emblematic of its drum and bass work. Andres and America Part Two open. $15, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 666-6666,

Enanitos Verdes Courtesy Photo / Enanitos Verdes

papertigersatx.com. — DC

Tuesday, July 26 Enanitos Verdes These rock en español veterans have been going strong since 1979, when they formed in Mendoza, Argentina. From there it was a slow build, though by 1988 they’d amassed enough of a following to perform shows to tens of thousands in Chile and Argentina. They split up briefly in 1989, but by 1992 were back in action and they’ve been going strong since. Their most recent album Tic Tac was released in 2013. $59.50-$109.50, 8 p.m., Aztec Theater, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — MM

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CURRENT | July 13 – 26, 2022 | sacurrent.com

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