Silvestre Revueltas

Revueltas was born in Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, St. Edward's University in Austin and the Chicago College of Music. After his years with Chávez's orchestra he scored the film Redes in 1934, a commission that ended their friendship, and in 1937 he went to Spain during its civil war. He fell into poverty and drinking and died of pneumonia in Mexico City in 1940, on the day his ballet El renacuajo paseador premiered. His remains were moved to the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in 1976.

What the plaque says

Silvestre Revueltas Mexico native Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) spent a short but prolific life as a violinist and composer. He came to San Antonio in 1926 and became concertmaster at the Aztec Theatre. He also performed and taught at the San Antonio College of Music. While living in the city, for a time at this address, he composed his septet Batik and sent it to colleague and friend Carlos Chávez, whose recommendation brought inclusion for Revueltas in the American Association of Composers. In 1928, Chávez invited Revueltas to be associate director and featured soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de México in Mexico City. His works continue to garner acclaim from musicians and audiences throughout the Americas and beyond. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• King William Historic District — 0.4 mi
  Mission farmland turned German merchants' quarter on the San Antonio River, renamed in World War I, then saved by a neighbor who restored fourteen houses, starting with his own.
• La Villita Historic Arts Village — 0.9 mi
  The little village across the river from the presidio, where Cos surrendered San Antonio in 1835, rebuilt by Depression-era youth crews as a working crafts village.
• San Antonio River Walk — 0.9 mi
  A Depression-era park one level below downtown, built because San Antonio refused to pave its river after the 1921 flood, and designed by an architect the project later fired.
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 1.1 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.

More markers nearby

• Guenther's Upper Mill, Site of — 0.5 mi
• King William Neighborhood — 0.6 mi
• United States San Antonio Arsenal — 0.7 mi
• Old Mill on the Pajalache Acequia — 0.7 mi