Saturday, September 15, 2007

Little Mexico lives on — and it shows on Diez y Seis

By Marisa Treviño of Latina Lista

DALLAS — Mention “Little Mexico” and several parts of Dallas may pop into mind: Oak Cliff, Web Chapel area or even Grand Avenue.

These and other areas of the city are where we can find Carnival grocery stores, mom-and-pop taquerias and our favorite panaderias. It’s where we can also find today’s larger Latino communities, but that wasn’t always the case.

Back when Latinos first settled Dallas, there weren’t too many parts of the city where they were welcomed. So, everyone tended to live in one area of town, in the shadow of Dallas’ budding skyline.

It was dubbed “Little Mexico.” Today, it’s more popularly known as the Uptown and Victory Park areas.

Though the areas are hardly recognizable these days with their glass-sided skyscrapers, million-dollar condos and state-of-the-art sports/entertainment arena, Little Mexico lives on — in little ways.

Take the old St. Ann Catholic Church along Harry Hines. Built back in 1927 as the first Catholic school for Mexican-American children, the school became a casualty of the Dallas Diocese back in the late 90s when the Diocese was trying to find money to pay the record sex abuse settlement that resulted from the Rudy Kos trial.

The Diocese wanted to sell the school and its property to developers who were coming in and creating what would become today’s Uptown, but a group of die-hard Latinos who remembered what St. Ann’s meant to their families stood in the way and were able to get the property declared a historic landmark.

It didn’t mean that development would stop. In fact, Harwood International bought it and is creating St. Ann Court, a 26-story luxury office building that will be the tallest office building in Uptown.

Harwood International

New St. Ann Court luxury office building.

Since Little Mexico advocates were able to get the landmark designation for St. Ann’s, Harwood International has incorporated the school building into their designs. That means that along with the building’s private museum, a “Rockefeller Center-style” garden over the parking garage, and a penthouse sky garden, St. Ann’s will be converted into a top-class restaurant.

I have a feeling they won’t be serving just rice, beans and tortillas there.

Luckily, Little Mexico has other little reminders that it was once there: El Fenix Restaurant, Luna’s Tortilla company (Though the owners sold it recently, it’s still standing), Hernandez Grocery Store, Little Mexico Village (a low-income housing project) and what serves as the heart of what used to be Little Mexico — Pike’s Park.

City of Dallas

Little Mexico's Pike Park

Pike’s Park, with its majestic wrought-iron gazebo, has been the traditional site for the city’s Diez y Seis celebrations where tamales and tacos, mariachis, game booths and performances by the city’s ballet folklorico dancers have taken center stage and have drawn people from all over Dallas back to this one spot.

This year is the 80th anniversary of the Pike Park Diez y Seis celebration. After a Diez y Seis parade that starts at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral of Guadalupe on Ross Ave. in downtown Dallas and ending at Pike Park, festivities start and run all weekend.

It’s a safe bet that Little Mexico will be the most lively spot in all of Uptown this weekend.

Pegasus News content partner: Latina Lista. You can find the main site for Latina Lista, which includes national news and views, podcasts, the store and more here.

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Comments

Bill Betzen Verified

Marisa, The view of St. Ann's in the former heart of Little Mexico from Reunion Tower is POWERFUL, and about to be lost, possibly forever, to the public on 11/15/07 when that tower closes for 14 months for major renovation. I have crude photos of it online at www.studentmotivation.org/littlemexico. You may want to find some photographic crews, both video and still, to go to the tower to record this view before it is gone. Go to www.studentmotivation.org and see what I mean. A link to the little mexico page is also at the very bottom of that home page.

2 years ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )