About the Lecture

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HemisFair ’68 was the first officially designated international exposition held in the Southwestern United States. Timed to coincide with San Antonio’s 250th anniversary, it dramatically reshaped the city’s center using federal urban renewal funds. In the process, it demolished nearly 100 historically significant buildings and displaced approximately 1,600 residents, erasing San Antonio’s most ethnically diverse neighborhood. Amid this destruction, however, emerged a bold vision of mid-century modern architecture, exemplified by the Texas Pavilion—the first announced and largest exhibitor at the fair.

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Designed by Caudill, Rowlett, and Scott—at one time the world’s largest architecture firm and notable for having a Mexican American partner, William M. Peña—the Texas Pavilion embodied the fair’s theme: "The Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas." Drawing on San Antonio’s deep roots as a city older than the United States itself, the Pavilion celebrated the city as a crossroads of commercial and cultural exchange between the U.S. and Latin America. Its design reimagined the Mesoamerican temple with a thoroughly modernist twist, offering an idealized vision of San Antonio’s past as well as a response to the era’s social turmoil.

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Inside, the Pavilion’s exhibit challenged stereotypical images of Texas by presenting a diverse, global population shaping the state’s identity. Our guest speaker will explore the rich, multiethnic community displaced by HemisFair ’68, the pioneering contributions of architect William M. Peña, the significance of Mesoamerican influences in the Pavilion’s design, and the building’s current status as a surviving landmark of a transformative moment in San Antonio’s history.

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