San Antonio Travel Forum

Hello,
I'm thinking about moving to the South someday in the future and I was wondering if some of you guys could help me with some information.
I grew up in Venezuela (a tropical country, near the beach) but I have lived in Missouri/Kansas for 12 years. Now that I have a family and two kids I realize that I’m staying in the US to raise my family (can’t move around so easily as before).

I’m a little tired of living in the center of the US where people look down on me if I speak spanish, I really want my kids to speak spanish, I want to live closer to the beach/ocean, I want to live in a city that is family friendly (not Miami), I want to live away from cities with racist people or history (South-East US), I also wouldn’t mind traveling to Mexico by car to visit a Latin-American city every now and then without having to spend $800 per person to go to Venezuela, I’m also a christian (not fanatic, respectful of other religions) and very proud of my latino/hispanic heritage.

Based on this, I believe that San Antonio is a perfect city for me and my family. Seems close to the beach, Mexico, has a lot of hispanic historic places (I like that), big hispanic population, warm, not a party city like Miami, etc, etc.

What do you guys think?
Can you please tell me the bad things about San Antonio, I’ve found many things that make me like San Antonio, but I also need to know the bad ones.
I’ve heard something about the water not being completely clean, very hot during the summer, any problems with military people (they tend to be party animals)?

Sounds like you are talking more about California. I grew up there with friends from many cultures, not realizing the difference till I got older and was "told" (but that was only when I moved to Chicago) ^O^
Martin
(PS, those people who "look down on you for speaking Spanish", you should ask them how many languages THEY speak, that usually works wonders ;O))

Thanks for the suggestion about California,
but I've discarded California because my in-laws live in Missouri and it would be a really long trip to visit them and it would also be a longer flight to visit my family in Venezuela.

San Antonio is a fine place for a family. I don't think you would have a problem with military party animals - SA is not a remote base with nothing to do, but a good sized city...besides, with several base closures, there are more retired military than active duty now (just a guess, but it is a popular place for military to retire to).

There are party animals, but these are mostly tourists down on the Riverwalk...easy to avoid if you live there.

Yes, it is very hot in the summer...in fact, there are probably 9 months of summer and 3 months of everything else...maybe 10 months of summer.

Downsides? I image that there are neighborhoods that are not so family-friendly, and you will need to look well to find which schools are good. We in Texas have a lot of crummy schools, sad to say...although I place the blame on parents who don't want their children to have to learn anything and politicans that pander to them. A large percentage of the population is bilingual, but the problem is how to you learn to speak in an educated fashion in both languages? The predominant Spanish is "Tex-Mex" or Spanish from Northern Mexico with a healthy mixture of English borrowings...when y'all go back to South America, you may find your relatives laughing at your kids' Spanish (or not understanding it at all). "Fixar la trocka" is a common Tex-Mex expression - would South Americans understand that at all? ;-)

Bill

So far it sounds excellent.
I just gotta wait until next year to visit San Antonio because my wife already has plans for this year.
The other thing is that I just got a promotion at my job, so I want to wait a year or 2 to get the experience (electrical engineer) and then I can move on.

San Antonio would probably be a good choice for you. The population is mostly Hispanic, Spanish is regularly spoken there, it's only about 2 hours from the beach, and 3 hours from the Mexican border. There is a lot of tourism and partying, but mostly in the downtown tourist areas. The cost of living is not high, and there has been a lot of recent job growth in the area. The schools are fine as long as you stay away from the SAISD, and some of the smaller, low income districts.

As far as the poster who suggested California; It's not the paradise Californians seem to think it is. The taxes are outrageous, and they tax everything. Median housing cost in San Diego or L.A. are about $480K for a 1500 sq. ft house. In the San Francisco area it's about $600K. In San Antonio, Texas you can get the same house for $90K, or a really nice large house for $180K and up.

Buena Suerte

Marc

Another Mark chiming in here... have you considered Austin? Its only an extra hour to Mexico than San Antonio, and you would have the benefit of being in the capital city. San Antonio is a very touristy town, but Austin is a great place to raise a family.

You also get alot of native spanish speakers, but without the stigma of being a Spanish speaking town. Also, there are some really great opportunities in Electrical Engineering.

Just a thought.

Tenias un buen dia!
Mark

Yeah, it looks like San Antonio and Austin would be great.
They seem to be very close to each other and I also have read that those are 2 of the best 5 cities in the US for hispanics.

Thanks Mark for pointing that out.

Hola Danilo,
Soy de Venezuela y tengo un poco más de un año vivendo acá en San Antonio. No tengo mucho tiempo para escrirte, pero te puedo decir aue San Antonio es una buena opción para mudarse. En este momento las casas son todavía accesibles en comparación con otras ciudades de USA. Esto está cambiando porque San Antonio está creciendo aceleradamente. Mucha gente de California se está mudando para acá y por eso están aumentando los precios de las casas (entre otras cosa). Se espera para los próximos 10 años San Antonio sea del mismo tamaño que Dallas. Además muchas compañías se estan mudando para acá, por lo que se espera incremente mucho la oferta laboral. La colonia hispana acá es del 60%, aqui somo mayoria, no te digo con eso que no haya cierta discriminación, pero esta asociada más al nivel de educación que al hecho de ser latinos.
Si quieres me escribes a mi correo personal, te puedo dar algunos tips, si realmente estás interesado. ernasanchez@yahoo.es

Saludos cordiales
Erna