People from different faiths and walks of life gathered at San Fernando Cathedral in the heart of downtown for the City of San Antonio’s first “Mesa de la Gente,” Spanish for “Table of the People,” Thanksgiving gathering.
Hosted by the San Antonio Food Bank, the canned food drive brought people together on Main Plaza to recognize food insecurity and featured a youth choir, orchestra and indigenous music. Later, Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller delivered an inspiring call to action during an interfaith service.
“Kindness is an important aspect of cultural dialogue,” Garcia-Siller said at the 32nd annual Thanksgiving Interfaith Service that brought together about 60 people from at least 10 different faiths, including Buddhists, Catholics, Hindus, Jews and Muslims.
“Dialogue is indispensable to live in peace. We do not always agree. This is normal. This is normal,” he said. “We only need to think about what the world would be like without the patient dialogue of plenty generous persons who keep families and communities together.”
“Kindness is not only an issue of good manners. It’s not a question of etiquette. … Instead, it’s a virtue to be retrieved and practiced every day in order to go against the tide,” he said.
“This Thanksgiving we choose kindness,” Garcia Siller said: “Kindness. Kindness. Kindness.”
Mayor Ron Nirenberg encouraged interfaith dialogue, nodding to the Compassionate San Antonio Resolution, which is an equitable approach to systems in place, that he signed in 2017 after becoming mayor. San Antonio was one of the first of 600 cities to support the Charter for Compassion, designating it as a Compassionate City. It “falls on each person to treat others the way they want to be treated,” he said.
“As a compassionate, welcoming city, we embrace cultural differences. We are proud to be a city that embraces refugees and works to help them become a part of our community. With communication, our differences become strengths, making us a more understanding community,” Nirenberg said.
“We will choose acceptance over fear and unity over division. Tonight, we are gathered to continue that mission and we are fostered and proud and blessed by it.”
Ann Helmke, the city’s faith liaison, said the event came from the desire to unite people, encourage them to come out of isolation and heal. So she assembled the Archdiocese of San Antonio, the city’s Department of Human Services’ Faith-Based Initiative Compassionate San Antonio, the Interfaith San Antonio Alliance, Main Plaza Conservancy, San Antonio Food Bank and San Fernando Cathedral.
The citywide gathering started in the late afternoon, when people were already sitting outside, drinking hot beverage sand watching San Antonio architects build a large, red heart out of canned soups, chili and refried beans near the front doors of the cathedral.
Beside the “canstruction,” made of 1,226 cans donated by the City of San Antonio, a tall Christmas tree shined bright, attracting people walking along Military Plaza Street. They were lured in further at the sight of organizers decorating the completed can structure with yellow flowers and flameless candles.
Planning for the event started in January of 2023 and became a collective effort in February 2023, when the organizations began to meet monthly.
“That’s how the conversation started, was to bring more San Antonians together as a form of healing through these times, a support to San Antonians, whether they come or not, that there are people praying in gratitude,” Helmke said.
“It’s a time of gifting and gratitude,” she said.
The name for the event was inspired by Una Mesa para la Gente, a mural tucked away along a wall on a car wash on the West Side on Zarzamora Street. The mural was painted in 1999 by Cruz Ortiz and Lisa Veracruz and restored in 2008.
The mural depicts a tableful of people, including a chicken-footed conjunto musician, Tejano Music Hall of Fame guitarist Lydia Mendoza, and Jesus Christ, sharing a family meal.
According to the San Anto Cultural Arts, Una Mesa para la Gente celebrates the diverse backgrounds, experiences and talents that people bring to the West Side community.
The San Antonio Food Bank made sure to make the moment an opportunity to talk about having food at the table, said Lauren Deal, interfaith engagement manager for the food bank. “Food is love, and love brings people together,” she said.
Canned goods and nonperishable food items were donated at a red food bank tent and were loaded onto a food bank truck with cans that formed the heart, which was dismantled by volunteers.
At about 6:30 p.m., the Raindrop Music Ensemble stopped performing for 30 minutes for an Indigenous healing drum performance that called people into San Fernando Cathedral.
Inside the cathedral, the San Antonio Youth Chorale welcomed different groups.
Helmke said the event showed how diverse religions are similar: “A gathering of people of faith, but experiencing each other’s culture expressed through faith.”
“We can do quite a bit changing food insecurity. … We’re grateful for the food we do have, but encouraging all of us to care for others the way we wish to be cared for and to feed others in ways we, too, need to be fed.”
“We are working together on food insecurity as much as we’re working on the need for housing,” she said.
