Melissa Rentería

Dr. Joseph A. Pierce, who had a medical practice for 40 years, collected works that preserved and promoted Black cultural heritage. He was 89.

State hunting, fishing licenses for fall season on sale now

Before she was killed by a stray bullet in downtown San Antonio early Tuesday morning, Ayden Burt was a beloved teacher and coach excitedly planning for the upcoming school year at a new school. Social media posts paint a portrait of the people and ambitions that shaped Burt’s short life. The banner on her Facebook page read: “Until further notice, celebrate everything.” The 28-year old came from a family of coaches and teachers in Jasper, an East Texas town of roughly 7,400 located about 40 mil…

Cars stopped on interstate highways and screaming revelers got out of their vehicles to celebrate in downtown San Antonio streets 25 years ago today. “It was Fiesta times 100,” one Spurs fan recalls of June 25, 1999, the night when the San Antonio Spurs won their first NBA championship by defeating the New York Knicks in five games. San Antonio police estimated 15,000 people filled downtown streets within minutes of the Spurs’ 78-77 victory at Madison Square Garden, according to news reports. GO…

Nino Brown had a bird’s-eye view of the Alamodome parking lot during the San Antonio Spurs’ 1999 season. His job working security and operations at the dome meant he often had an elevated perch watching fans leave the games. Sometimes, fans would get a little impatient trying to exit the parking lot and that could lead to yelling and honking, Brown recalls. “But then when we’d win, that took on another aspect. A car would cut in front of you, and you’d still honk but you were happy because the S…

The late TV music host Johnny Canales, who helped launch the careers of Selena and other Tejano artists, will be the subject of a feature documentary. The title: “Take It Away,” Canales’ stock line when he introduced an act on “The Johnny Canales Show.” Producers Myrna Perez and Adrian Arredondo have begun work on the film, the entertainment industry site Deadline.com reported. Perez first connected with Canales and his family while serving as an executive producer of Netflix’s “Selena: The Seri…

Johnny Canales, the influential television host who helped launch the careers of Selena and other Tejano music luminaries, has died at 76. “The Johnny Canales Show,” which debuted in 1983, provided a showcase for Tejano performers at a time when such platforms were scarce. Fans tuned in weekly to see both up-and-coming and established Tejano artists. At its height in the ’80s and ’90s, the show was taped in front of an audience of 3,000 at the American Bank Center Selena Auditorium (formerly the…

Greg Gonzales vividly remembers what he was doing 25 years ago today. Settled in front of a television alongside his wife, Janice, at his Northwest Side home, Gonzales was growing increasingly disappointed with how his San Antonio Spurs were playing. It was Game 2 of the 1999 Western Conference Finals and the Spurs were losing to the Portland Trail Blazers. The team he’d followed faithfully since childhood hadn’t led once in the game. At times, the Spurs trailed by double digits. As any true S…

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller apologized Thursday to San Antonio’s Jewish community and said he could not defend his “very poor choice of words” for social media posts regarding the government of Israel and the conflict in Gaza. The archbishop apologized in two separate posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, that were made about an hour apart Thursday morning. García-Siller did not specifically say if the apologies were for posts made and deleted three weeks ago that seemed to conflate all Je…

Tejano television star Johnny Canales, whose music variety show launched many careers in the 1980s and ’90s including Selena’s, took to social media Monday to thank his fans for their prayers and assure them he’s not going away. “Hello, everybody. Thank you for all your prayers,” a frail-looking Canales says in the short video posted on Facebook. “We’re doing real great and real good and we’re going to do better with your prayers. So, stick around. We’ll be here. We’ll be around.” Canales, 77, s…