As San Antonians gear up for the Easter weekend, Brackenridge Park transforms into a lively campsite, resplendent with families continuing decade-long traditions of community and celebration. Celia Perez, part of the family that encamped a week before the city's overnight camping curfew was lifted, shared with the San Antonio Report the efforts put into guarding their spot, "It gets tiring. There’s times when I’m just like, I want to throw in the towel and go to sleep, because we’re running on three to four hours of sleep each day," Perez admitted.
The lifting of the curfew allows the park to fill with tents, tables, chairs and by late afternoon bustling with families readying for the festivities, some of whom, as the San Antonio Express-News recounts, have been part of this tradition since the 1950s like the Cerna family who start securing their longtime spot a week in advance; Josh Cerna, now leading the family's Easter gatherings, reminisces about the special moments "I can attest to a number of things," he mentioned, reliving memories at the familiar spot over the years.
While the Easter weekend is a warm reunion for families, volunteers from the San Antonio Parks Foundation play a critical role in maintaining the park's beauty; Barbara and Carl Scheib, armed with trash pickers, dedicate their time to educate the public on the importance of leaving no trace, as described by Barbara in her recommendation to the San Antonio Report: "Our main purpose is public outreach to educate people to leave no trace, take their trash, recycle, put it in bags for city staff to pick up," and she hopes this will encourage others to follow suit.
This traditional assembly at Brackenridge Park not only serves as a family affair but also as a cultural festivity, especially for the Hispanic community in San Antonio; it's a sentiment that local artist Micheal Menchaca captures in an 8-by-4-foot collage, a vivid portrayal of childhood Easter memories in the park as the San Antonio Express-News describes, Easter indeed is as ingrained in the city's identity as is the familial love that permeates the atmosphere, "Everybody looks like relatives. And on some level, we are," Menchaca reflects on the strong sense of extended family surrounding them in the park.
The events culminate on Easter Sunday, where a professional photographer sponsored by the Brackenridge Park Conservancy captures moments of the park's vibrant life, a complimentary service marking its 125th anniversary, with the hope that images of joyous reunions, like the Cernas' ever-growing one, will become part of the shared memory of the city's heritage and its park's storied history.
