From once-in-a-lifetime events like a total solar eclipse over a cloudy San Antonio to yearly beloved traditions like Fiesta, San Antonio Report photographers were there in 2024. Here’s a look back at our favorite frames from this year.
January
The Tower of the Americas is seen from the observation deck at the Tower Life building. With new owners who are intent on ushering the building into its next century of life, and with Alamo Architects’ Irby Hightower on the team, the Tower Life is about to undergo the most significant transformation in its long history. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportCompass Rose Dream students play kickball during physical education class. The new charter school in San Antonio has become a bastion of diversity and multiculturalism since it opened, with a combination of location and word-of-mouth recommendations making it a preferred school for members of the Afghan community in the Medical Center area, who make up half of the school’s enrollment of about 200 students. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportChalk artist Joshua “Lakey” Hinson draws patterns of overlapping circles in chalk on the sidewalk along Austin and Hays streets. Hinson uses his artwork as a form of activism. But in two run-ins with VIA Metropolitan Transit police, Hinson’s erasable, ornately patterned and pastel-toned chalk drawings were equated to criminal mischief and trespassing. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio Report
February
President Joe Biden receives a briefing from Border Patrol officers in Brownsville, Texas on Feb. 29. Mayor Ron Nirenberg joined other South Texas mayors in a meeting with President Joe Biden in Brownsville. Like San Antonio, Brownsville operates a migrant resource facility intended to serve as a transit center, and Nirenberg’s office said the mayors used the 30-minute meeting to make the case for more resources to keep migrants moving through their cities. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportIsabel Vasquez and Jose Ybarra embrace after the county clerk declared them officially married during the Valentine’s Day mass wedding ceremony, where 141 couples became spouses at exactly midnight on Valentine’s Day at the Bexar County Courthouse. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportChristopher Cullum, who has been nominated for a James Beard Foundation award in the category of Texas’ best chef, plates a breakfast order at Cullum’s Attaboy, his restaurant in Tobin Hill. Read more here. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio ReportBexar County Constable for Precinct 4 Kathryn Brown dances with community members at the event City of San Antonio Community Coming Together: Working Beyond the March at Pittman Sullivan Park. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportRepublican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks at a rally at Historic Market Square downtown in advance of Texas’ March 5 primary election. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportRafa Moreno works on the sole of a custom pair of boots inside of the Little’s Boots Company workshop. Read more here. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report
March
Vested priests worship in the sanctuary for Holy Week Chrism Mass at the Holy Spirit Church as the church marks its 150th anniversary. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportKathy Valentine participates in a Dementia-Friendly Gardening Workshop at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, using a specially designed wheelchair-accessible raised garden bed. Christina Bittle started the workshop last year for her capstone project as a doctor of occupational therapy student at UT Health San Antonio. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportThen-U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, (R-Florida), speaks at a rally for Brandon Herrera, Texas 23rd congressional district candidate, at the Angry Elephant. The 28-year-old YouTube personality, who designs and sells his own line of firearms, took 25% of the vote in the March primary. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report
April
Visitors at Garner State Park wait for the eclipse totality at the top of Mount Baldy on April 8. Millions of residents, visitors, scientists and spectators across the Lone Star State experienced the rarity of a total solar eclipse — peering through heavy clouds to catch glimpses of the once-in-a-lifetime event. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportThe Thunderbirds, the air demonstration squadron of the U.S. Air Force, perform on April 6 during The Great Texas Air Show at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportPro-Palestinian protesters call for a ceasefire in Gaza chant and protest at UTSA on April 24. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio ReportKayla Miculka, shown backstage at Cornyation 2024. “Every year for me celebrating Fiesta is Cornyation. Cornyation is life. It’s a celebration of family and friends and just fun.” Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportGenise Head embraces her first child after a healthy delivery on April 27 at the San Antonio Nurse Midwife birthing center. Her doula, Loreal James, celebrates. National data suggests maternal mortality rates in the U.S. are still among the worst in the developed world, and Black mothers are most affected. Read more here. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio ReportA parade attendee plays a toy trumpet as the Alamo Area Boy Scouts of America march during the 2024 Battle of Flowers Parade. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio Report
May
Ramona Martinez listens to Mariachi Los Parientes perform a serenata in her living room. In San Antonio, Mother’s Day weekend is the biggest weekend of the year for mariachis aside from Fiesta, and can extend from Thursday evening to Monday morning. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio ReportThe 42nd annual Tejano Conjunto Festival kicks off with a Seniors Dance at VFW Post 9186. Attendees dressed to the nines in sequins, cowboy hats and boots, festive skirts and patterned shirts strolled straight to the smooth linoleum-tiled dance floor to take up an annual San Antonio tradition, as accordion melodies and a thumping bass drum filled the spacious hall. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportThe pilot of the first Condor Airlines flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to San Antonio unfurls a Texas flag on May 18 as the plane arrives at the gate. Only one month after the airline launched San Antonio’s first-ever nonstop flight to Europe, the service was scaled back for 2025. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report
June
Margarita Rubio crosses Southwest Military Drive while commuting from a doctor’s appointment. As San Antonio’s South Side booms with new businesses, education and job opportunities, many of its residents believe that more bus stops and improved wait times are needed for the growing population. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio ReportBottles of water are handed out at the Westwood Plaza Apartments. On a hot summer day, the city’s Human Services Department distributed the water at Westwood Plaza and three other spots in town where San Antonio Water System shut off service, citing property managers’ long-unpaid water bills. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportMimi Lee serves traditional Korean fare to first-time customers at Cypress Cafe on June 14, their last day in the basement of the H-E-B Cypress Tower building downtown. The restaurant’s owners received an eviction notice from H-E-B in May. The San Antonio-based grocer wanted to limit entry to the building to H-E-B employees only. Read more here. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio ReportNick Fearon, who started dancing when he was 10 years old, performs at the Lila Cockrell Theatre, where alumni and students celebrated the Earle Cobb Dance Studio’s 95th anniversary. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report
July
Taylor Swift fans attend a listening and dance party for Swift’s new album. The local group <I>210 Swifties</I> that organized the event started off with five members. But since May 2023 its social media accounts have exploded. The Instagram account amassed 200 followers in just two months and now boasts nearly 900 followers; currently, the organization’s private Facebook group has more than 1,100 members. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportFourth-generation farmer and Poteet Strawberry Festival vendor Wes Stevens is shown at Stevens Farm & Ranch in Poteet. Worried about the impacts that drought will have on their income, some farmers in rural South Texas are planting drought-tolerant cropsand have decreased the number of acres they farm so there’s enough water for irrigation. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportPerformance artist Marisela Barerra looks at wigs in the studio of Zachry Smith, the professional makeup artist she’s worked with since 2019 to bring her characters to life. In Lechuza Guide to the Lone Star State, Barrera plays the role of the legendary bird-witch creature that haunts the borderlands of northern Mexico and South Texas, keeping ne’er-do-wells in line. Read more here. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio ReportAn advertisement outside of The Purple Dragon Cannabis Inc. on Hildebrand offers “free weed” to those 21 and older. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio Report
August
Beverly Donathen pipes a birthday message on a cake inside of Lucy’s Cake Shop. Donathen recalls that her mother started baking cakes in 1967 when she made one for her sister. After demand for her mother’s cakes increased her family opened the first bakery in 1974. Lucy’s cakes celebrates their 50th anniversary this year. Read more here. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio ReportHorse-drawn carriages pass through Hemisfair on a Friday evening. Later this year, San Antonio banned horse-drawn carriages on downtown streets — the first Texas city to do so. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportA crowd yells in support of Venezuela at a demonstration at the Alamo on Aug. 17. They joined millions more across the world in protest calling on the South American country to release voting tallies and demanding that authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro recognize that Edmundo Gonzalez won the July 28 presidential election. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report
September
Students of the Karen Wagner High School JROTC participate in a memorial honoring the victims of the 9/11 attacks including Karen Wagner, whose legacy was honored by naming the school after her, a 1979 graduate of Judson High School who was among the 125 to die when a plane struck the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio ReportUT Quarterback Arch Manning passes the ball during the first half of the football game against UTSA on Sept. 15. UTSA played against its highest-ranked opponent in history, No. 2, Texas, knocked a Heisman Trophy favorite out of the game before a national television audience and left with a $1.6 million payout. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio ReportMembers of the local and national business community endorse incumbent Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate, a position he has held since 2013. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio ReportRobert Holliday, president of the Alamo Area Beekeepers Association (AABA), shows one of his remaining beehives after losing three in a wave of deaths in urban beehives in San Antonio. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportSpurs Center Victor Wembanyama poses for photos during Spurs Media Day at The Rock at La Cantera on Sept. 30, 2024. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio ReportSecond Gentleman Douglas Emhoff speaks at a rally for Kamala Harris at San Antonio College on Sept. 23. Roughly 500 people crammed into the gymnasium to see him speak. Read more here. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report
October
Sam’s Burger Joint and Music Hall celebrated its 25th anniversary in October. The restaurant and music venue is a San Antonio institution, its iconic neon record sign still glowing each night. Over the years it has fended off vagrants and petty crime, watched the Pearl grow into a national destination for food, drink and live music, tussled over parking, survived a global pandemic and is hanging on through seemingly endless road construction. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportGiraffes can be seen from the balcony outside the Spekboom Lodge at the Naylor Savanna at the San Antonio Zoo. Read more here. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio ReportU.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) speaks at the Paper Tiger on St. Mary’s Strip. The politician was seeking to reengage potential Democratic voters in the November presidential race. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportCustomers shop inside Thrif-T-Mart, a grocery store on South Zarzamora Street that was later inducted into San Antonio’s Legacy Business program. Today, Thrif-T-Mart is owned and run by the daughter of Fermin and Ramona Rodriguez, who purchased the grocery mart in 1975. Thrif-T-Mart survived the pandemic — including an unfounded claim of price-gouging — and manages to hold its own, despite an H-E-B plus! located right across the street. Read more here. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio ReportBrad Wuest, president and CEO of Natural Bridge Caverns climbs up to an attic that possibly led to the surface thousands of years ago. Researchers believe it’s a possibility the prehistoric cats came into the caverns using this entrance. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio ReportLaw enforcement officials investigate the scene of an operational landfill for evidence in the missing persons case of Suzanne Clark Simpson. After the real estate agent and mother of four went missing from Olmos Park on Oct. 7, her husband Brad Simpson was arrested and jailed two days later. He now faces a murder charge, even though she still hasn’t been found. Read more here. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio ReportDemocrats’ U.S. Senate candidate, Colin Allred, who roughly performed on par with his party’s past standard-bearers — came closer than other members of his party in traditionally Republican territory in Bexar County on election night. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportVisitors walk through Menefee Manor, a “spooky walk-through” a Westside family built in their yard. Each night, Michael and Patricia Hernandez open the gates of their driveway to all comers for a stroll through their yard, to be confronted by more than 200 ghastly figures from skeletons and rotting corpses to cackling witches and mad-eyed clowns. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report
November
State House Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio) hugs his mom Yolanda Lujan and dad John Lujan Jr. at his watch party at Missions Open Air Market on election night. Lujan took nearly 52%, to Democratic challenger Kristian Carranza’s more than 48% in the expensive House District 118 race. This Southside seat became the epicenter of Texas politics in the final months of the election, with both parties pouring in millions of dollars to help their candidates. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportElections office staffers, state monitors and partisan poll watchers are shown around midnight on election night in the “tab room” as polling site totals arrive electronically. Jacque Callanen, Bexar County’s elections administrator for the past two decades, oversaw her final general election before retiring. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportRoca de Refugio is a nonprofit housed inside of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Together they envision a “neighborhood plaza” that could have on-site housing, worship and other resources, including language and job training, recreation, health care and entrepreneurial opportunities for anyone seeking to improve their financial situation in San Antonio. Read more here. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio ReportDr. Tarah Hadley tends to a treeshrew at the San Antonio Zoo’s clinic. She accepted the position of Senior Director of Veterinary Care at the San Antonio Zoo, making her both the first woman and first Black person to take the role in the zoo’s 110-year history. Read more here.
December
Maurine Molak has spent the years since her youngest son David’s death working to protect other young people from online harm. Before her 16-year-old son died by suicide in 2016, Maurine Molak’s political activity began and ended with voting. Now, as she gears up for her 14th trip to Washington, D.C., Molak has become a formidable foe to the tech giants spending millions toblock a new law that would regulate online child safety. Read more here. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportAttendees participate in the procession at a posada at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center’s Rinconcito de Esperanza on Dec. 19. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportAna Reyes, piñata maker and co-founder of the west-side shop Piñata Time, hangs piñatas outside of her store. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio ReportThe Coca-Cola Christmas Classic experience at the Toyota Field on a Friday night. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report
Brenda Bazán, Bria Woods and Scott Ball contributed to this report.
