Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Sombrilla Magazine, Spring 2008.
(May 3, 2019) — HemisFair, which opened on April 6, 1968, two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., drew participants from more than 30 countries and brought in performers such as Louis Armstrong, Bill Cosby, and Pat Boone. The event lost $5.5 million by the time it was over, but the civic leaders who organized the exposition say it forever transformed the city’s worldview—as well as the world’s view of San Antonio.
Today [in 2008], those leaders celebrate the 40th anniversary of HemisFair with nostalgia and pride, looking back on it as the defining event that finally brought San Antonio into the 20th century. Some are also looking forward with hope that today’s civic leaders can revive the stripped-down 96 acres where the fair took place and bring HemisFair Park into the 21st century.
UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures, which was created during HemisFair as the Texas State Exhibits Pavilion, opened a retrospective exhibit of the event on April 6, exactly 40 years after the fair’s opening day. The exhibit is titled “HemisFair 1968: San Antonio’s Introduction to the World.”
>> Read the rest of this story and relive other memories from UTSA’s history as we celebrate UTSA’s 50th Anniversary.
