Republic Square: the Heart of Austin's Mexico
BY SARAH MARSHALL
1873 Bird’s Eye View of the City of Austin with Mexico highlighted, (Austin History Center, Austin Public Library).
Republic Square Park located in the heart of downtown Austin has undergone some beautiful renovations over the past few years thanks to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, the Downtown Austin Alliance, and the Austin Parks Foundation. Many know the park as one of the original four public squares platted for the new city of Austin in 1839, and it’s also well acknowledged for the Live Oak trees which provided shade for the sale of city lots that same year. This civic space is intrinsic to the history of the city’s earliest beginnings. However, for almost 50 years, the space was known to Austinites simply as “Mexico,” and served as the nucleus for the lives of many Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans living in the city. This chapter in the life of the park is less known in contemporary times, but the cultural significance of the public space to the Mexican American community is immense.
Republic Square Park, 2021
In the early 1870s, Mexican immigrants began arriving in Austin in large numbers and their population continued to grow for the next five decades. The Mexican population in 1875 is estimated at 297, but by 1930, that demographic grew to almost 5,000 or about 10% of Austin’s population. One of the reasons Mexicans began arriving at this time was due to internal unrest in Mexico leading the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). The absence of political stability in Mexico and economic dislocation caused many Mexicans to look elsewhere for economic opportunities.
However, this reason is also coupled with the increased demand for labor and better work. At the turn of the 20th century, Mexican immigrants in Texas mostly resided in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, but as demand for their labor grew, the area of settlement steadily advanced northward. When the Great Migration of African Americans to northern industrial cities caused a labor shortage in Austin, many Texans turned to Mexican immigrants to solve the problem. Therefore, the Mexican Revolution is viewed as a catalyst for, rather than the main cause of, the massive immigration occurring during this time.
When Mexicans immigrated to Austin in the 1870s, they began to settle in areas just south, southwest, and west of the public square bounded by West 4th, West 5th, Guadalupe, and San Antonio streets. In the 19th century, non-whites in the South were often forced to settle in areas that had greater exposure to environmental hazards, such as flooding and disease. The area around the square where Mexican immigrants settled was located in the flood zone along the flatter lands of the north banks of the Colorado River and the banks of Shoal Creek, both of which were often used as dumping grounds for the city. The neighborhood surrounding the square was in the most flood prone area of town.
This 1869 image is the earliest known photograph that shows Republic Square Park, seen here across the street from the courthouse building (PICA 27837, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library).
By the mid-1870s, Austin newspapers dubbed the neighborhood “Mexico,” and by 1905, the neighborhood was largely identified with Austin’s Mexican population. The square would be dubbed “Mexican Park” by Anglos, but most of those living in the area called it “Guadalupe Park” for Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, built in 1907 across the road.
Daily life in Austin’s Mexico was difficult, even for the time, with inadequate housing and lack of city services. Streets were unpaved. Most of the tiny homes were made of old lumber and rapidly deteriorated as they were patched with used boxes, pieces of canvas, or more often, sheet iron found in heaps throughout the city. Although the living arrangements in the neighborhood were blighted, the park served as a beautiful green space amongst the destitution.
Residents of Mexico used the park as they would a traditional Mexican village zocalo, where street vendors sold candy and tamales, and families convened there after mass on Sunday to connect with friends and family. The space was used for public gatherings as well with concerts and dances, church fundraisers, and Diez y Seis celebrated there every year. Temporary bandstands, speaker stands, vending booths, and large plank dance floors were erected on the public square for some of the events. An account from the Austin Statesman in 1927 recalled “Five thousand Mexicans” from Austin and the surrounding countryside participating in Diez y Seis celebrations at the “Mexican park.”
The original Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (AR.2009.047(012), Jesse Herrera Photography Collection, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library).
One of the anchors of the neighborhood stood at the corner of West 5th and Guadalupe streets. Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church was built in 1907 from wood and cost $2,500 to construct. The diocese built this church as a “sister church” to St. Mary’s Cathedral, where Mexicans were forced to sit on the back rows, separate from white parishioners. After the church was constructed, most residents of the area referred to the square as Guadalupe Park. In 1919, 150 Mexican children entered the doors of the newly organized Our Lady of Guadalupe School, located next door to the church. However, in 1926, they demolished the church and school and relocated to the city’s east side.
Another anchor in the neighborhood at the time was Walker’s Austex Chili Company. Founded in 1900 by T.B. Walker for the manufacture and sale of Mexican seasonings and food, the company became one of Austin’s largest industries in the first half of the 20th century, employing “15% of Austin’s Mexican population” at its peak. With the exception of company administrators, the majority of the chili factory employees were Mexican. At a time when many white businesses would not hire Mexicans, Walker Chili Factory provided jobs for those workers, and this helped thousands of immigrants establish a foothold in Austin. The factory was so significant to the area, the public square was deemed “Chili Park” for many years by Austinites.
Walker’s Austex Chili Factory ca. 1950 (PICA 15019, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library).
During the 1910s-20s, many Mexicans coming to Austin settled on the east side of the city, concurrently building a neighborhood in that area. It is thought that the decision to relocate Our Lady of Guadalupe Church to East 9th and Lydia streets was because it could better serve its Mexican-American parishioners there, and those left in the neighborhood around the public square followed the church to its new home. The 1928 Koch and Fowler City Plan solidified the end of any people of color residing around the square or anywhere on Austin’s west side, with few exceptions. In 1929, Deiz y Seis celebrations were held on the east side of the city, proving that the square was no longer associated heavily with Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in Austin.
The public square largely went unused in the 1930s and 40s. In 1950, the city paved over it, demonstrating the lack of value assigned to the space. Then, as part of the U.S. bicentennial celebration in 1976, the city returned the area to a park. This was when the name Republic Square was given as a tribute to the Republic of Texas.
Workers in the Walker’s Austex Chili Factory on July 19, 1924 (C05482, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library).
Today, the civic space bustles with life from the activity surrounding the Federal Courthouse which directly abuts the park, and also from the farmers market bringing families on the weekends. Hints that the park was once the center of life for most Mexicans living in Austin include two sculptural busts of Mexican “founding fathers” Miguel Hidalgo and Jose Morelos, installed in 2003. There is also a new sculpture titled BLACKBIRD, which was inspired by the black pottery of Mexico. These are reminders that while the branches of Austin’s heritage grow and twist like the great Live Oaks that reside here, Republic Square Park will always be firmly rooted in the experience of the Mexican people that came before.
All images originally featured in “Austin’s Mexico: A Forgotten Downtown Neighborhood,” a project of Mexic-Arte Museum with the Austin History Center & Photography Collection. The author would like to thank and acknowledge Terri Myers for her research on the topic.
THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN FOR PRESERVATION AUSTIN’S WINTER 2018 NEWSLETTER. READ OUR COMPLETE NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE HERE.