{"id":307916,"date":"2025-10-16T11:29:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T11:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/307916\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T11:29:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T11:29:19","slug":"museo-del-westside-to-honor-communitys-heritage-and-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/307916\/","title":{"rendered":"Museo del Westside to honor community\u2019s heritage and stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center\u2019s long-awaited Museo del Westside is set to open its doors Saturday, Oct. 18 at the historic Ruben\u2019s Ice House. The museum highlights history and voices originating from the West Side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Located in the Rinconcito de Esperanza on the corner of Guadalupe and South Colorado streets, the museum is dedicated to preserving the \u201cunique history, heritage, culture, pride, work ethic, and diverse experiences\u201d of the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to put this museo up because of those who provided stories for us to tell,\u201d said Graciela Sanchez, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center\u2019s director. \u201cWomen in the area came forward and gave us stories to tell, so that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s debut exhibition \u201cOur Work Transforms the World\u201d honors women in the community who were providers or embodied the community\u2019s spirit through their work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a couple people ask why we don\u2019t really feature men. Well, who donated to us? Who donated their stories, their photographs, their artifacts? The women did.\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cAs a museum, we have to work with what we\u2019ve got.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"A donated sign from Romana Rios de Ramos\u2019 midwife practice overhangs an exhibit wall in the Museo del Westside. Ramos operated a maternity home, La Casa de Maternidad, and practiced midwifery on the West Side of San Antonio for over 50 years. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Museo del Westside\u2019s grand opening will feature a stacked lineup of musical performances and workshops from local artists and families. There will be opening remarks from Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) and activist Mar\u00eda Antonietta Berrioz\u00e1bal, who became the first Hispanic woman to serve on the city council of San Antonio in 1981.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The workshops will be presented and led by members of the museo\u2019s community advisory committee, including Graciela Sanchez\u2019s older brother Xavier Sanchez. He said he hopes the museum can help people see the West Side in a new light.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of harmful stereotypes about the Westside being a violent place,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope this museum helps people understand that, it\u2019s not.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Community advisory committee members also volunteer as tour guides for Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. Initially, they only served as guides for walking tours of the West Side, but now they will be guides for the museum too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis museum reflects what those of us who have spent our lives in the West Side see it as,\u201d said Committee member David Gonzalez. \u201cIt\u2019s a mirror to the West Side of its history and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museo is located in what was formerly known as Ruben\u2019s Ice House, a restaurant that once served as a meeting place for the community, and a small grocery store owned by the Reyes family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Ice House was known as a welcoming spot for all, serving businessmen, local politicians, and people from the community looking to enjoy a beer. Women sat outside in the patio area and watched their children play while their husbands drank inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The walk-in freezer the drinks were stored in remains intact and is on display in the museo.<\/p>\n

\"\"San Antonio artist Miguel Rodriguez, 36, joined Museo del Westside as its lead exhibit designer two years ago but has been involved with the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center since he was a teenager. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I wanted was to provide an interactive experience,\u201d said Miguel Rodriguez, the museum\u2019s lead exhibit designer. <\/p>\n

The museo includes a few physical artifacts from the former businesses housing it, such as the cash register from the Reyes family\u2019s grocery store and a replica of the jukebox used in the ice house.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s even got the playlist they used back then,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cIt\u2019s full of musicians from here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The section of the museum housed in the former grocery store features other small businesses that once served the West Side, and displays maps and census data from different points in the community\u2019s history. <\/p>\n

\"\"Xavier Sanchez, a Museo del Westside community advisory committee member, museum guide and lifelong West Side resident, points out where his childhood home was on a map of the West Side, one of the museum\u2019s interactive exhibits. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a credit system where they would write down what people took and they could come pay for it whenever they had the money,\u201d said Xavier Sanchez. \u201cI asked one of the Reyes\u2019 once, \u2018What happened if someone didn\u2019t pay?\u2019 She told me it never happened. Everyone always paid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Esperanza Center acquired Ruben\u2019s Ice House in 2007 and planning for the Museo del Westside began later that year. After years of fundraising, construction on the former community space started in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three years later, the museo is finally ready to welcome the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born and raised here, but I stayed to keep my kids connected to their cultural roots,\u201d\u00a0 Xavier Sanchez said. \u201cTruly, there\u2019s no place like home. Mexican culture is still alive here. The museo will show people what the West Side is really like, beyond the negative stereotypes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center\u2019s long-awaited Museo del Westside is set to open its doors Saturday, Oct.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":307917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,155873,72486,7452,155874,155166,155875,155167,7202,7203,358,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,20705],"class_list":{"0":"post-307916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-esperanza-center","10":"tag-esperanza-peace-and-justice-center","11":"tag-gina-ortiz-jones","12":"tag-graciela-sanchez","13":"tag-museo-del-westside","14":"tag-rinconcito-de-esperanza","15":"tag-rubens-ice-house","16":"tag-san-antonio","17":"tag-sanantonio","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-typedaily","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-wc-750-1000"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115383616936206246","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}