Thursday Open Thread ~ history lesson edition ~ The Rise and Fall of an American Myth

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Remember the Alamo? According to Texas lore, it's the site in San Antonio where, in 1836, about 180 Texan rebels died defending the state during Texas' war for independence from Mexico.

The siege of the Alamo was memorably depicted in a Walt Disney series and in a 1960 movie starring John Wayne. But three writers, all Texans, say the common narrative of the Texas revolt overlooks the fact that it was waged in part to ensure slavery would be preserved.

"Slavery was the undeniable linchpin of all of this," author Bryan Burrough says. "It was the thing that the two sides had been arguing about and shooting about for going on 15 years. And yet it still surprises me that slavery went unexamined for so long."

In their new book, Forget the Alamo, Burrough and co-writers Chris Tomlinson and Jason Stanford challenge common misconceptions surrounding the conflict — including the notion that Davy Crockett was a martyr who fought to the death rather than surrender.

"Most academics now believe, based on Mexican accounts and contemporary accounts, that, in fact, [Crockett] did surrender and was executed," Burrough says.

The story of the Alamo has been central to the "whole Texas creation myth," Burrough says. But he adds it's past time to look critically at the "heroic Anglo narrative" associated with the site.

"One of the reasons that it matters most is that Latinos are poised to become a majority in Texas, according to census data," he says. "So if there's ever been a time for there to be a robust civic conversation ... about this, about the place of the Alamo in our history, about Texas history itself, we hope it was now."

On how Texas history often fails to address slavery

It still surprises me that slavery went unexamined for so long. But then you have to understand: The Texas revolt, for 150 years, was largely ignored by academics, in part because it was considered déclassé, it was considered provincial, and because the state government of Texas, much as they're doing now, has for 120, 130 years, made very clear to the University of Texas faculty and to the faculty of other state-funded universities that it only wants one type of Texas history taught ... and that if you get outside those boundaries, you're going to hear about it from the Legislature.

On how Mexican Americans were largely written out of Texas history

The Tejanos, who were the Texians' key allies and a number of which fought and died at the Alamo, were entirely written out of generations of Texas history [as it was] written by Anglo writers. This was mirrored very much in the kind of ethnic cleansing that went on after the revolution in which hundreds of Tejanos were pushed out of San Antonio, in Victoria and existing towns, their lands taken, laws passed against their ability to marry white women and hold public office.

On the myth that the Alamo defenders fought to the death

[Mexican Gen. Antonio López de] Santa Anna is coming north with 6,000 troops. [The Alamo defenders have] maybe 200 guys at essentially an indefensible open-air Spanish mission. There has always been this great mystery of why on earth [Lt. Col. William] Travis and [James] Bowie stay, and the best argument there is probably because they believe reinforcements would be forthcoming. Every other day they send off these plaintive, dramatic letters asking for reinforcement that, by and large, never came.

But the truly perplexing thing is that in the two weeks leading up to the arrival of Santa Anna's forces in San Antonio, Travis and Bowie are getting almost daily warnings of the progress. They know they're coming and yet still they stay there. It makes absolutely no sense of why they stayed there, except for the fact that these are men who, by and large, have never been in war. You get a sense that Travis never really believes something bad can happen to him. I mean, the idea that Mexican soldiers would show up and kill them all just seems like a notion that he never really accepted, that somehow something would happen to spirit them all the way to safety. And of course, it doesn't happen. And of course, this leads to one of the great myths, which is the bravery of the Alamo defenders, how they fought to their death and everything. And when you look at the facts, they never made a conscious decision to fight to the death. There was no line in the sand drawn. ...

What we now know is because Mexican accounts — accounts from Mexican officers and soldiers — a number of them, a dozen of them have come to light over the last 50 years, show that between a third and a half [of] the Texas defenders actually broke and ran. They ran out into the open where they were unceremoniously run down and killed by Mexican cavalry. Now, neither we nor the academic authors who first found this say that this means anybody was a coward. It was just that the place was overrun. It wasn't like every man fought to his death in place, as generations of historians have taught us.

On how the 1960 John Wayne movie The Alamo perpetuated these myths

[Wayne] made the movie basically because he wholeheartedly believed that America was falling apart, that it was going to the dogs and that somebody needs to stand up for what are today called "patriotic values," "family values," "American values." And it's also pretty clear ... [Wayne] was ardently pro-Nixon in the 1960 presidential campaign and ardently anti-Kennedy and in his mind, believed that this type of huge shout-out of American patriot values could somehow defeat John F. Kennedy.

The movie, most reviewers would tell you, is a mess. It perpetuates every hoary Alamo myth. And yet it spoke to a certain cross section of American and international viewers. It was really the thing that more than anything, caused the Alamo to become the international icon that it's become.

On how the Anglo-centric narrative of the Alamo history has affected Latino kids

Mexican American kids can grow up in Texas believing they're Americans, with the Statue of Liberty and all that, until seventh grade when you were taught, in essence, that if you're Mexican, your ancestors killed Davy Crockett, that that's kind of the original sin of the Texas creation myth. It has been used just anecdotally for generations to put down Mexican Americans, a big beefy white guy going up to the little Mexican guy and punching him in the arm and saying, "Remember the Alamo," that type of thing.

To an amazing degree, maybe because the Texas media [are] still dominated by Anglos as well as the Texas government, that viewpoint has just never really gotten into the mainstream. ... By and large, any time you've had any type of Latino voice come out and question the traditional Anglo narrative, they've been shouted down.

Listen to the discussion on FRESH AIR [NPR]

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Raggedy Ann's picture

No offense, but I'm pretty tired of white people and their supremacy issues.

Enjoy the day! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

phillybluesfan's picture

@Raggedy Ann Thought the FRESH AIR discussion of how recent document study has shed light on what really happened at the Alamo, such as the likihood that Davy Crockett surrendered to execution rather than fought to the death, was interesting beyond how the slavery debate of the time led to the confrontation.

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Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets

Raggedy Ann's picture

@phillybluesfan .
I'm sick of it.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

phillybluesfan's picture

@Raggedy Ann Tell us how you really feel.

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Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets

zed2's picture

@phillybluesfan @phillybluesfan

This is a fairly typical example of how the facts taught to young people in history classes are often inaccurate and why.

I have one question, presumably, Mexico had already abolished slavery at the time of the Alamo, is that correct? Iknow that Spain at the time of the so called Reconquista was divided between the Islamic forces who were well known to be a slave trading society (as long as people were not Muslims, they could be enslaved and were, freqently, including many people of European ethnic background, particularly Slavs which is where the word came from. ) and Christianity

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It was really interesting and I think the book might be a good read. I just kept thinking about how much of our history as taught in most places is so mythologized. I guess that's the only way one can be patriotic about America... forget the destruction of Native cultures, the dropping of atomic bombs on innocents in Japan, the incarceration of US citizens of Japanese background, the torture programs at Abu Garib.... one could spend a whole day on this.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

@Fishtroller 02

I guess that's the only way one can be patriotic about America... forget the destruction of Native cultures, the dropping of atomic bombs on innocents in Japan, the incarceration of US citizens of Japanese background, the torture programs at Abu Garib....

myself included, don't really see a conflict between acknowledging the above *and* being patriotic - to the idea and ideals of America. Not to be confused with uncritical acceptance of the claims of any particular regime to run/represent/define it.

Not limited to Americans, either - city where I live was subject to repeated attacks by American forces in WWII rising to the level of war crimes: deliberate fire bombing of residential areas under high wind conditions - thousands dead in a single night. A student of mine is only alive because her mother was able to flee through burning streets carrying her on her back.

Yet, some of the most positive people toward America you could meet are people who lived through that - although their idea of America may be more Gary Cooper and Route 66 than Antifa, Biden and gender-fluid...

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@Blue Republic

what are "American ideals"?

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

phillybluesfan's picture

Is Forget the Alamo a textbook example of independent jourlism?

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Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
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studentofearth's picture

and justify acts of rebellion. It is one the methods a small group of planners (instigators) can focus action of a larger population for the benefit of the smaller group. "Remember the _______" (fill in the blank) is a United States rally cry for action. If a group of martyrs does not exist circumstances can be arranged to increase the likelihood of their creation.

Let's prevent the next 911.
Remember the dead soldier. We can not leave Iraq because all those lives lost would be in vain.
Remember Pearl Harbor. Join the war effort.
Save the children.
March for the homeless.
Be a voice for the oppressed.
Join our fight to get a traffic light at this intersection, before someone else dies.

Three high danger points exist which need to be navigated. First, when individual(s)are needed to become the martyr symbol. The martyr can be an example of the problem or those who are working on the cause. Second, later in the process when group mentality is creating new enemy targets of offenders. It is not uncommon to look towards bystanders (non-committed) or supporters not showing enough purity for a targeted punishment or purge. Third, when the objective has been achieved and allies are no longer required.

On how Mexican Americans were largely written out of Texas history

The Tejanos, who were the Texians' key allies and a number of which fought and died at the Alamo, were entirely written out of generations of Texas history [as it was] written by Anglo writers. This was mirrored very much in the kind of ethnic cleansing that went on after the revolution in which hundreds of Tejanos were pushed out of San Antonio, in Victoria and existing towns, their lands taken, laws passed against their ability to marry white women and hold public office.

Tejano Origins

Spanish colonial administrators had originally settled Texas as a "buffer province" for northern New Spain. The Spaniards had learned from the Iberian peninsula centuries earlier to use a buffer zone between their own settlements and those of the Moorish invaders. They had learned to control a depopulated zone, or despoblado, for defensive purposes as they steadily reconquered their lands from the Moors. The Spaniards had established armed municipalities, presidios or forts, and missions within the despoblado. These municipalities, presidios, and missions constituted the defensive borderland or frontera. A second factor unifying the Tejano frontera was the mixture of the racial groups peculiar to Tejano settlements. Soldiers stationed on the frontera integrated socially into the Tejano civilian communities, reinforcing the unity of the different regions. And finally, the racial heritage of the Tejanos reinforced the contrast between them and the Anglo-American settlers daily arriving from the United States. Indeed, in its very settlement, Texas had developed a defensive governmental structure which was described by historian Herbert E. Bolton as being "almost wholly military."1-1

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@studentofearth

on the Tejano origins paper - a worthwhile read:

The story of the Tejano culture is definitely not one of decline. The Tejano population dwindled in relation to the flood of Anglo-Americans who poured into Texas, but the Tejanos and their families remained in the Texas Republic. In fact, the strongest surge that Tejano population experienced was between San Antonio and the Río Grande after 1836. More significantly, the Tejano culture has been adopted and spread by the Anglo-Americans themselves. Because Texas was the first Mexican state settled by the Anglo-American tide, Texas probably had a greater influence initially on that westward-moving frontier. The use of words like lasso, corral, and mustang in distant western states like Wyoming and Montana indicate the extent to which the tools, techniques, and animals of the Tejanos have spread across the United States. With those tools and animals, of course, spread the laws for water, land, and resource management. Aspects of Tejano life have colored and benefited American life.

Tejanos don't seem like the kind of people with a worldview of themselves in the perpetual victimhood that the race hustlers flogging Critical Race Theory and similar insnanities* would have them consigned to.

*(Of course that's a word - I just made it up - denotes something that manages to combine the qualities of being both insane and inane)

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after a cursory search of causes of the revolt.
It seems racial tensions have been well studied and documented.

https://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his1693/causes.html

Moreover, those issues have been taught as far back as the 1950's when I was in grade school.
The ideas of the besieged being executed, as opposed to fighting to the death, have also been taught since the 1950's.
Also notable is that the military tactics of the Battle of the Alamo are taught at military academies throughout the world. I have met various military officers from around the world who came just to walk the site, pay respect to the fallen. It wouldn't surprise me to learn the Nazis studied it as a model for their siege of St. Petersburg. My US Army officer father did at the time Germany was conducting their siege.
The myths are Hollywood. As long as the Alamo stands, it is fascinating to walk into the rooms and imagine the hand to hand combat. The logistics, tactics, overwhelming odds are what makes the battle noteworthy.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

zed2's picture

@on the cusp @on the cusp @on the cusp @on the cusp This is a very interesting free book about recent North Korean history that can be found via the Wayback Machine.. Kim Jong Il may have killed his own father, Kim Il Sung, to prevent another relative from being named the successor by he elder Kim Il Sung. Quite the "family" huh?
Very much like the Mafia. There is much more that does not appear elsewhere.

http://web.archive.org/web/20120911230800if_/http://reachdc.net/book2/Ki...

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@zed2 I will find the time to read it, and thanks so much!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

dystopian's picture

Hi PBF,

Good post and subject. Of course history has been whitewashed figuratively and literally. The victors writing it seems to be the problem. Turns out the great public education in the 60's wasn't the whole truth. In particular regarding anything about people that were here first, above all else. In this case the movie sure didn't help. In lots of Texas the bigotry and racism runs deep. Good to see some light shed on the Alamo story.

In case of interest, a little more info on the movie set... The place it was mostly filmed was called Alamo Village. They built it on a ranchers land about 8 miles north of Brackettville, which is about 110 miles west of San Antonio, 40 miles east of Del Rio on Hwy. 90. The Duke fell in love with the area, bought a bunch of land or partnered in some. The movie sets became a tourist site for 4-5 decades but I think about 10-15 years ago Alamo Village closed down finally. There were billboards along Hwy. 90 for Alamo Village for decades. Likely all the myths were propagated more there.

But.... there is a fantastic spot at Brackettville, anyone doing Hwy. 90 ought to make a half day for at least, which is the big main attraction in the area. I used to spend days there birding. It is called Ft. Clark Springs. It is on the other side of the Hwy. 90 from the town of Brackettville. It is a 2000 acre public/private property that encloses the historic Ft. Clark which is a great historical site. I haven't been there recently, but you flash your binocs and tell them you are birding and it was free windshield pass. There are campgrounds, RV places, a golf course, a bunch of historical buildings from the Fort, a bit of art colony folk. Mostly retirees. There is a millions of gallons per day spring there with a creek and a huge Pecan bottom forest, out in the desert. I think 3rd largest rock swimming pool in the state. The barracks are converted to an acceptable motel with decent rates and rooms. You can buy a house there, even the original stone officer's quarters! But it is of course very controlled by the Ft. Clark Historical Soc. and HOA.

Sorry for getting off topic, when I hear Alamo, I think of birding at Ft. Clark Springs. Wink

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

enhydra lutris's picture

really good book. I was a kid when the Disney shit came out, but later on learned about the real Crockett, the politician, but that's about it. The Alamo story always rang false, or insane, one or the other, and still does, though the whole slavery question does bring much into focus. Obviously a ton of the Tejas gringos would've been slave owners and advocates of slavery, and equally obviously, Mexico, which Tejas was part of, did not tolerate slavery (they had peons and peasants for that). Thus we get the gringo motive for revolution, though any kind of stand at the Alamo is still ignorant and insane even if only partly true. The thing about all of the pleas for help and the lack of military experience among the leaders makes it make a bit more sense, though.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

zed2's picture

So maybe Santa Ana wasn't as bad as they said?

This looks on point, but unfortunately I don't speak Spanish.

http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1665-4420201...

La abolición de la esclavitud en México, 1810-1917

The Abolition of Slavery in Mexico, 1810-1917

Jaime Olveda Legaspi*

El Colegio de Jalisco. * olveda@coljal.edu.mx

Recepción: 11/11/2011;
Aceptación: 13/06/2012.

"Abstract (I made oe small edit in parenthesis)

On the study of slavery in Mexican history there is a vast historiography produced by Mexican and foreign historians, who discuss the existence of this practice from the sixteenth century until Miguel Hidalgo’s abolition decree —dated December 6, 1810—, and that from this time on, slaves did not exist in Mexico anymore. However, since Hidalgo and the rest of the insurgent leaders did not have control over New Spain’s territory, nor (+was) their authority (-was) thoroughly recognized, slave owners did not comply with such decrees. During the administrations of Victoria and Guerrero, after Mexican Independence was formally established, new abolition decrees were issued; this time, establishing compensations for slave owners as an attempt to keep property rights intact. Later on, Mexican authorities suppressed slavery on different occasions, which indicates that this issue was still debated during the nineteenth century. In order to eradicate this practice, successive Mexican Constitutions —federalist and centralist-oriented alike, as well as the 1917 Constitution— indicated the abolition of slavery."

Key words: Decrees, Slavery, Miguel Hidalgo, Indemnification, Constitutions.

It appeas that the abolition of slavery in Mexico was announced in 1810 but as authority was disputed so realistically the emancipation of slaves became politicized and occurred over a long period) It might even be said that emancipation of slaves in a sense has not been fully completed in Latin America, because debt peonage lives on in many poor countries in the region..

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@zed2 and it is nice to see you on the site.
Santa Ana was not a good guy, by most measures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliad_massacre

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

I caught a bit of it on the radio when I was out running errands and was happy to hear that this history was being reexamined. I grew up in Texas, and experienced the myth of the Alamo as a public school attendee. I think it was in 4th grade, maybe 5th, that we were bused to see the movie mentioned. Very heroic and all that. I didn't buy it, but I think most did. It's a familiar narrative--the Bowie knife, the fighting to the death with "honor"--not too different from Star Wars or other such fables. I don't remember the movie in any detail, but for a country kid in Texas, it was my first experience seeing a movie on the big screen. And, perhaps more importantly, the theater was *air conditioned*. First time experiencing that too.
Over the next few years, I think it was our sixth grade History class, we went to the Alamo itself (San Antonio is about 150miles from home so this was a big deal). And in 7th or so, there was a trip to Washington-on-the-Brazos. Nice spot. Mostly a lot of talk about heros and pseudo history and San Jacinto. (Kind of like the internet meme, "they had us in the first half", I recall a bit of embarrassment at the defeat at the Alamo, but "we" got even at San Jacinto. Rah for the home team bullshit. With some serious hubris and racism mixed in.

It was bullshit then. It hasn't changed.

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@peachcreek was when I was 4 or 5. My soldier Dad led me through the building, room by room, explaining how a battle would have "looked", then onto the outside wall, an explanation of siege tactics, and he was basically the tour guide for our family group, as he had studied the battle in OCS school.
I honestly do not remember anything about the Alamo as myth, only facts. The revolutionaries were never, in my home, or education (I have a degree in history) myths. They were not glorified, beyond just fighting until they died, and no soldier would have not tried to get through the siege lines to survive. They had time to run, and did not.
The John Wayne movie did not impress soldiers or their families, who saw it as entertainment only. The Bowie knife is just a good knife that was and likely is still selling. Dad was only mildly impressed with Jim. Pretty sure my brother has one.
I applaud all re-examination of history, and putting known facts into new perspectives.
What I do not like is anyone posing "likely" as a new truth.
The new research comes from Mexico for the past 50 years. It is "unlikely" they would come up with any historical evidence that puts them down as factually eventual losers, because, as this whole essay and book and thought declares, history is written by the winners.
NPR is a near wholly owned subsidiary of the Koch Brothers.
I wish you had seen Dad measure the Bowie bed from the door, mentally calculate the time to shoot, the distance of the bayonet stab, if only to get a perspective on the soldiers, not any racial motives.
I should have posted this as a comment, not a reply, and for that, I apologize.
I am not taking aim or exception, just not impressed with the authors hawking a book that to my mind is trendy and so forth.
Again, apologies. If I knew how to post it as a general comment without starting over, I would.
And I didn't know you grew up in Texas!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

opining about what minorities think, gee - never seen that before...

They actually have *some* valid points, especially the extent to which slavery was a motivating issue for quite a few of the Anglos in the movement for Texas independence and how this has been underplayed in popular versions of history. Sam Bowie, for one, was very involved in slave trading.

Notice though, how they concentrate on the John Wayne movie and fail to give any mention to the 2004 one with Billy Bob Thornton. In which Juan Seguin and the Tejanos do figure significantly. Also, while the authors imply cowardice Crockett in surrendering, at least one account by a Mexican officer stated that he was captured (contrary to Santa Ana's orders) and subsequently executed. This is how it is portrayed in the Billy Bob Thornton film.

I can't find anything definite about Crockett's positions on slavery - he himself served as an indentured servant for four years as a youth, though, and was only in Texas because his opposition in Congress to Cherokee removal cost him re-election famously stating:

“I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done. But if not, they might go to hell, and I would go to Texas.”

History should be revisited and re-examined but alway considered in the context of people's experiences and values in those times and places.

Kind of naive (if not racist) of liberals to assume that Latinos are automatically going to fall in line with some woke ideology - Trump's growth in support among Latino's should be testament to that.

So should this (Don't Mess With MacAllen):

Republican Wins Mayoral Race in 85% Latino Texas Town Where Hillary Clinton Won by 40 Points

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