Parque Zaragoza Bathhouse Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Join Austin Parks and Recreation on June 10 at 10 a.m. to celebrate the renovation of the Parque Zaragoza Bathhouse with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at 2611 Webberville Rd. This is an outdoor event so please dress accordingly. 

Parque Zaragoza Bathhouse enhancements include a renovated ADA compliant bathhouse with modern gender-specific restrooms and shower facilities, lifeguard office space, a dedicated entry to the pool facility, and large open enclosed pavilion space. 

Austin Parks and Recreation welcomes the community back to this renovated space. Aquatic staff will offer free Swim Safe swim lessons for children in Kindergarten through the 3rd grade at Parque Zaragoza Pool. Learn more at AustinTexas.gov/Swimming.

Parque Zaragoza History

East Austin’s Mexican and Mexican American communities grew steadily in the first decades of the twentieth century, a result of increased immigration, institutional segregation and rising discrimination in other parts of the city, and displacement from the Old Mexico neighborhood near today’s Republic Square.

The City of Austin’s 1928 master plan codified segregation by restricting all government services for African Americans to East Austin. Though the 1928 Plan did not explicitly segregate Mexican American residents, the City refused to provide services to all communities of color, including Latino Austinites, outside of East Austin. The 1928 Plan also formalized Austin’s park system. In 1929, “Lydia Street Playground” or “Mexican Park” was opened on Lydia Street near Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Dissatisfied with the size of the park, intensive lobbying by cultural advocacy groups, including founding members of Austin’s earliest "comité patriótico" or patriotic committee and community members, businesses, and affiliated organizations, finally convinced the city’s new Recreation Department to purchase a plot of land for a new segregated Mexican American park in East Austin in 1930. 

Following the opening of Zaragosa Park in 1931, the space quickly emerged as a cultural center. Following the land purchase, business and civic leaders in the Mexican American community established the Zaragosa Park Board to organize activities, celebrations, and park maintenance. The first members of the board were Severino Guerra, Amador Candelas, and Miguel Guerrero.

In 1941, residents of the neighborhood, organized by the National Youth Administration, a New Deal agency, built a "shelter house and caretaker’s unit” on the northwest corner of the park. The modest brick building’s two rooms served as the park’s only indoor facilities for the next 65 years. The building served as both the caretaker’s residence and an all-purpose community center. When community meetings or celebrations grew too large for the building's activity areas, organizers often set up tables outside. 

Established in 1981, the Zaragosa Recreation Center Advisory Board petitioned the city in the 80s for a new recreation center to serve the community’s expanded needs. In 1988, Austin Parks and Recreation changed the name of the park from Zaragosa Park to Parque Zaragoza to reflect the proper spelling of General Zaragoza’s last name and the name used by the community throughout the decades. A modern Parque Zaragoza Recreation Center was finally built and opened to the community in 1996 following the 1992 City of Austin Bond Election.

Though the original building is humble in scale compared to the park’s modern recreation center, it symbolizes the East Austin community’s grassroots achievements during the Jim Crow era of “separate but equal.” Today, Parque Zaragoza stands as a historic pillar of the community in East Austin. For more than nine decades, the park has been a place for families and community members to come together to play, swim, play baseball, listen and dance to Tejano and conjunto music, educate younger generations, and promote the preservation of Mexican American culture. The park continues to be a cultural centerpiece of East Austin’s Latino/a/e community and a reminder of its history, resilience, strength and triumphs in the city.

Watch Austin Parks and Recreation’s Parque Zaragoza Documentary (2022).