Commentary: A Crisis, a Contest and a Continuance

April 22, 2020 - San Antonio

By Jonathan Guajardo - Publisher/Editor-In-Chief, San Antonio Sentinel

Over the past few weeks, we have had to cope with life in the “new normal.” Filled with unforeseen obstacles, actuated anxieties, and updated streams of bad news at every turn, this new life contains its fair share of struggles. However, despite all of this, we’re witnessing our community come together in ways only the Alamo City can. Faced with this uncertain reality, we remain strong, united, and generous. Often described as “one of the biggest little cities,” San Antonio is well-known for its community and family atmosphere and we’re witnessing citizens continually prove this adage with their perseverance and determination to press on and help their neighbors on a daily basis.

A few weeks ago, we began our #MaskOnSA Fashion Contest with the goal of giving our readers a creative outlet to express themselves during these unnerving times of quagmires and quarantines. The contest started just a few weeks before the CDC would shift their tune on mask-wearing to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and the City of San Antonio would mandate the wearing of masks in public spaces.

When ideating about the contest, we never expected to get the kind of turnout that we received during the submission process, much less all the votes that we received between April 16-20. We received many beautiful, colorful, and eccentric submissions from our readers and, after much deliberation, we ended up choosing five top submissions that we felt represented both the frustration people are currently feeling with the quarantine as well as the hope and imagination of our citizens in the face of this global pandemic.

So, when we sat down to tally the votes for the Mask Contest, we had to face a realization: in this tumultuous time when our world has been turned upside down, we’re all winners. Every day, when we wake up, roll out of bed and press on, we’re winners. Every day when San Antonians make the decision to stay inside our homes to flatten the curve, we’re winners. Every day when essential workers such as nurses, doctors, police officers, and grocery store employees get dressed and go to work wearing masks and gloves to stay healthy, we’re on the road to winning this war. All these things may not be easy, but they are indeed necessary.

In this spirit of victory, we, at the Sentinel, have decided that every one of our mask contestants have shown such remarkable perseverance and creativity in this time of crisis and is, in our eyes, a winner. As such, we will be awarding a $50 H-E-B gift card to each of the top 5 winners to thank them for their submissions and their willingness to push on in the face of adversity.

After all, we’re the city that is known for fierce determination in the face of what seems to be insurmountable odds. When the Alamo defenders made their stand against President General Antonio López de Santa Anna nearly 184 years ago, we set the mold for the city we were to one day become…a city that endures from generation to generation against new obstacles and a community that doesn’t back down from a fight.

The time to fight has come once again, San Antonio. This time, we don’t have thousands of soldiers charging towards the Alamo, rather we are faced with an invisible enemy threatening to break into the homes of every citizen. Despite this challenge, we will persevere. We will get back to normal. We will live on.

We are the Alamo City. We are the River City. And COVID-19 has nothing on us.

Jonathan Guajardo is the editor-in-chief at the San Antonio Sentinel. He can be reached at jonathan@sasentinel.com.