Travel Tuesday: El Mercado in San Antonio, 1980, 2008, 2010, 2011

cousin Donna shopping at El Mercado, January 1980

One of my favorite places to visit the summer I lived in San Antonio - and a favorite place to take guests in subsequent years - was El Mercado, the Market Square, "the largest Mexican marketplace outside of Mexico."

Market Square (El Mercado), 7 August 2010 / David (Brokentaco) /  CC BY-2.0

This historic site (in existence since the 1820s) has over 100 shops and galleries, restaurants and a food court, and (since 2012) the Educational and Cultural Arts Center of Texas A&M University - San Antonio (in what used to be the Museo Alameda), which features exhibitions of Latino arts.

Museo Alameda [now the Educational and Cultural Arts Center], 1 June 2012 / Karen / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Probably the biggest reason I'd travel from my work place of Mission San José to El Mercado was to eat great Mexican food at Mi Tierra Café, or buy goodies at its panaderia (bakery).  This awesome place, open 24 hours a day with year-round Christmas lights and decorations, has the BEST panes dulces (sweet breads - try the empanadas or cuernos de azucar) and Mexican candies (leche quemada is my favorite).

Mi Tierra Restaurant, San Antonio, 28 January 2008 / Mathieu Plourde / CC BY-2.0

For those of you going to San Antonio for the Federation of Genealogical Societies' 2014 Conference in late August, you can buy a one-day pass for VIA Transit and ride the Red (301) Circulator bus from the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, site of #FGS2014 to Market Square and other sites of interest (like the Alamo).

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.