Anne Elise Urrutia is a writer and explorer of family history, especially the life, work, and legacy of her great grandfather, Dr. Aureliano Urrutia, a renowned surgeon who came to San Antonio in 1914 as an exile of the Mexican Revolution.

Her first book, Miraflores: San Antonio’s Mexican Garden of Memory, tells the story of this now endangered historic landscape.

As a teenager in the late 1970s, Elise’s interest in journalism inspired her to photograph Urrutia’s disappearing family garden, which he had created from 1921 to 1962 as an expression of his connection to Mexico. After further traversing the family history through extensive conversations with her father, Elise’s personal journey took her deeper into ancestral territory, and inspired her to recreate, through words and pictures, the doctor’s lost landscape. She was delighted to find herself transported to this beautiful and expressive place, near the headwaters of the San Antonio River, to receive her bisabuelo’s powerful messages of cultural heritage.