SAN ANTONIO — Cristobal Lopez’ first visit to Mission San José was unforgettable.

“Even walking in it now, you see how big it is, how pretty the church is, how peaceful and tranquil it is,” Lopez said. 

More than 300 years of stories told within the walls of this Spanish colonial mission. Four of these missions make up San Antonio Missions National Historic Park.

“The connection that people have here because people were born here, they were baptized here, they were married here,” Lopez said. 

Lopez is with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), serving as a program manager for parks in San Antonio and El Paso. 

The missions that make up the park and The Alamo combined are a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site — the only one in Texas. 

“They are huge economic drivers because they get tons of visitation,” Lopez said. 

Last year, more than 1.2 million people visited Missions San José, Concecpion, San Juan and Espada.

Coffee shop Sit & Sip With Me sits right across from Mission San José.

“It’s definitely is an economic booster for us because they are from all around the world and they are coming here to San Antonio,” Jaclyn Tarrango, co-owner of Sit & Sip With Me said. “They are coming to Mission Road visiting the missions.” 

According to NPCA, traffic for the missions has increased by 16% since 2023. But financial support has seen an opposite trend, the association says.

“Staffing has gone down about 20%,” Lopez said.  

Lopez says budget cuts this past decade left employees wearing multiple hats. 

Recent cuts, he says, have taken an even bigger toll. 

“We did a study and we found that National Parks Service has lost an additional 24% of staff,” Lopez said. “Just since January, just since the beginning of the year.” 

Changes that impact businesses across the street. 

“They would start their day here with coffee and then there would days at a time we wouldn’t see them (parks employees), weeks at a time,” Tarrango said. 

All eyes are on the nation’s capital as both the Senate and the House are discussing what that funding looks like. 

“One of them is the House interior bill, which has a proposed cut of about $176 million to the National Parks Service,” Lopez said. 

Then there’s the Senate, which is proposing that funding remain the same. 

Tarrango plans to host an event on Oct. 7 at her coffee shop, where folks will write postcards to their congressman to push to protect National Parks Service funding.