By Steve Walker
The first
time I remember visiting the Alamo was in 1956 when my family moved here from Dallas . As a 10-year-old
5th grader recently enrolled at St. Gregory’s Catholic School in Balcones
Heights, we had been here a whole week when it happened. We were ecstatic when
my parents took my then 4 younger brothers and me to see the historic shrine.
My fifth younger brother was privileged to be born in San Antonio In 1959.
Since my
fellow classmates had already learned about the Alamo
since 3rd grade I had a lot of catching up to do. Unfortunately we
moved again in 1960 up north and I didn’t get the opportunity to take a course
in high school on Texas History.
Texas History reminds us of the famous Battle
of the Alamo that was fought in 1836 from
February 23rd to March 6th. Texas
students in particular are taught in school that it was a pivotal event in the
Texas Revolution.
March 2nd
we celebrated the official State Holiday for Texas Independence. On that day the Texas Declaration of
Independence document was signed by 59 people. Settlers officially broke from Mexico creating the Republic of Texas .
The Battle of the Alamo
was a significant part of that history which led to the signing of that
document.
It now appears
we have a modern day siege on the Alamo with a
controversy between the state and local officials over the possible transfer of
the oversight of the national shrine to the state. Local control would be forfeited
and the up keep of the symbol of Texas
pride would be under the jurisdiction of the state. That is fodder for another column
for another day.
The Alamo began as the San Antonio de Valero, a Spanish Mission, in the early 1700’s, one of the first in
Historically in 19th-century
The Alamo is now "the most popular tourist site in
Most Americans, however, are more familiar with the myths and legends spread by many of the movie and television adaptations including the 1950s Disney miniseries Davy Crockett and actor John Wayne’s 1960 film “The Alamo.” I saw John Wayne’s movie in
In the early nineties when I taught in Harlandale ISD a number of the elementary teachers took their students on a field trip to visit the
I would point out in terms of ethnicity among the Texian defenders, 13 were native-born Texians, with 11 of these 13 being of Mexican descent. The rest of the Alamo defenders consisted of 41 men born in Europe, two Jews, two blacks, and the remainder were Americans from states other than
Today the
And as
always, what I write is “Just a Thought.”
Steve
Walker is a Vietnam Veteran and former Justice of the Peace and Journalist.
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