thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: american history tv products are available at the new c-span online store. go to c-spanstore.org to see what is new for american history tv, and check out all of the c-span products. this year, c-span is touring cities across the country exploring american history. next, a look at our recent visit to san antonio, texas. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span three. [bell tolling]

anna: san antonio is here because of these missions. what is really kind of wonderful is that a lot of people who this their call parish home and come here can trace their ancestry to the colonial period, the people who build these mission buildings and built these churches. the missions are about the start of the city of san antonio. we are at the entrance. this is a part of san antonio mission's national historic park. this is a unit of the national park service. there are more than 400 national park sites around the country. each of these 419 help to tell -- 419 plus units help to tell some part of the american story, the part of the american story that we tell here at the san antonio mission is the spanish colonial history of this area of

this part of the world. mission san jose is one of four missions that make up the national park. the national park is comprised of the four missions. we have got a model of this mission, mission san jose. this is a model that shows the exterior wall, the exterior walls were a series of rooms that served as the living quarters for the mission inhabitants. the mission compound also, in the colonial period, would have also included buildings and workshops. today we see remnants of foundations for some of those buildings. the mission would have included the church and the fryeriery.

where theave been missionaries had their living quarters, classrooms, etc. we are going to walk towards the church and talk a little bit more about what these missions were all about. here we are standing in the place where the missionaries would have made living quarters, offices, classrooms. it is a structure that is behind the church and today is missing roof in the second floor. this would have been a two story structure. you can still really see the artistry that went into these buildings. the whole idea behind these

missions was to claim this land for spain. by doing that and establishing spanish colonies here, they are hoping to claim the land for spain. they had started to get nervous with the french that were showing up in what is today louisiana. while spann had been in what is today mexico for 200 years prior to establishing the missions here, they had not had much interest in establishing these missions until they started to feel that pressure from france, in what is today louisiana. they established missions in what is today east texas and establish the missions here to serve as a kind of rest stop for travelers going from the provincial capital and what is

-- in what is today northern mexico. that was a long ways to go to the east texas missions and they established these missions here to serve as a rest stop for travelers. the national park service maintains the grounds. the other historic structures and visitor center, but the church building itself, because it is still an active parish, is maintained not by the national park service but by the archdiocese. it is still an active church and because today we do abide by the separation of church and state in the national park service, does not maintain the building. another thing about the structure of the church, these walls would have been covered with amazing frescoes. if we come around the corner here, we can see a segment of that fresco that has been reproduced here on the wall.

this is a reproduction, done in the 1940's and 1950's, and while it is not original, the design and the colors are original. if you can imagine all of these walls would have been covered with frescoes. a fresco is this wall decoration where the colors and the pigments are applied to the plaster when the plaster is still wet, still fresh. still fresco. that meant they were working on a small segment at a time. they would apply the plaster and then the pigment and go to the next section. that had to have been something to see when all of these flat surfaces would have been covered within these frescos like this.

so here we are at the aqueduct for the mission. it was the irrigation canal and so the system was this whole system of bringing water from to the antonio river river to the farm fields at the different missions. the san antonio river was a source, a plentiful source, of good water that was really important and necessary for the kind of farming they were doing here. they were irrigating and the farming was how they were going to provide food and resources for the mission inhabitants. this particular structure carried the water for the espada creek.

this creek is a low spot and as they were built following the contour of the land, the way they could get water from one side of the creek to the other was by building this aqueduct. there is evidence of human habitation in this area going back 10,000 years. for most of that time, the indigenous people in this area and doing well. but there started to be some changes that affected their ability to make a living. when europeans arrived in north america, they brought with them horses. other indigenous groups, the apache and the comanche and

other groups took those horses and became some of the best horse people that the world had ever seen. what that meant for them was that those groups, the apache and comanche, could expand their territory and could live in very large groups. they were also quite aggressive, much more aggressive than other groups in the area. they eventually came into this area and so the apache caused some pretty serious problems. they were reading and kidnapping andso forth -- raiding kidnapping and so forth. a much bigger problem than that was the problem of diseases that had brought by europeans that were devastating, that wiped out huge portions of the population.

the americas, for the groups that tended to live in small groups, maybe a couple dozen or so at a time. so for these groups that may be at their peak maybe had 20 to 30 people, but then would get wiped out by a disease, others would get kidnapped by apache and other groups. so you might end up with just a handful of individuals. into that situation come these strangers and the missionaries who say, come with us and you will have enough to eat and we will protect you against the apaches and come with us and you

will survive and you will find salvation. so the groups thought about that and most of them said, no, thanks, we will figure it out for ourselves. some, coming into the mission was a means of survival. coming into the missions was about surviving and may be finding a way for their children and offspring to survive and persist. it was a difficult decision to come into the missions, but it was one that quite often was made from desperation. when we are talking about the story of the missions, it is about the whole region of the country where the spanish influence today continues.

where we see that not only in language and food and culture, but in the very persons who make up the population here. that spanish influence is something that continues to persist and that is really central to our identity, certainly here in san antonio. so these missions are our story and not just something from long ago. announcer: our cities tour staff recently traveled to san antonio, texas to learn about its rich history. to watch more video from san antonio and other stops on our tour, visit c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend, on c-span three.

you can watch archival films on public affairs each week on our series reel america. saturday at 10:00 p.m. and sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern, on american history tv. here is a quick look at one of our recent programs. unwanted, foure dangerous characters dedicated to bad health. this is her story. carrier.n infection i think i will find me a group to mingle with. a school bus full of children! i will wait here until it arrives. and then, heehee, -- >> let's see what will happen. >> ah ha! oh, dear, another group protected by immunization. >> where does she go from here?

anywhere. protect your family. take a tip from anna immunity. >> ♪ keep your family safe protection can be yours when you immunize ♪ you can watch archival films on public affairs in their entirety on our weekly series reel america, saturday at 10:00 p.m. and sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern here on american history tv. announcer: in february, 1957, a new influenza virus emerged from asia, leading to a pandemic that killed more than one million worldwide and 116,000 in the united states. some health officials have predicted that the coronavirus could have a similar effect as the 1957 flu. next on "reel america," from july 1957, a half hour educational broadcast explaining

asian flu as it was spreading throughout the united states. westinghouse broadcasting in pittsburgh teamed up with the american medical association, the u.s. public health service, and the university of pittsburgh to produce "the silent invader." the film is from the u.s. national library of medicine's digital collections. carl: in the public interest, the westinghouse broadcasting company and the university of pittsburgh, one of the nation's major health centers, in cooperation with the american medical society and the united states public health service bring you "the silent invader," an up-to-the-minute report on asian influenza. how do you do? i'm carl ives. throughout history, mankind has been forced to wage many battles in order to protect his family or nation against misfortune, disaster, or even possible extinction.