Some 50 non-Texas born individuals have registered for Thursday’s baptism to become Texan during the 42nd Annual Texas Independence Day and General Sam Houston Birthday Celebration. Liz Patton will be
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(AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
A few days back a paragraph in the media caught my eye. It came in the context of the now “reset” project to revamp Alamo Plaza to make it less of a circus and more of a reverent space befitting the battle and sacrifice that took place there.
The
San Antonio Express-Newsstory deals with the current state of play, and includes this claim from local activist and university professor Mario Salas. I should note, he’s not a history professor.
Mario Salas, a member of the county’s historical commission who has taught African American studies, said most people don’t know that Santa Anna had an all-Black regiment here in 1836 because that part of the story has been marginalized.
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This past week, Texas State Historical Association chief historian Walter Buenger made two controversial assertions regarding the Alamo in a story published by
Although the battle has become a symbol of patriotism and freedom for many Texans and Americans, like the Confederate monuments erected after the Civil War, the myth of the Alamo has been used to “commemorate whiteness,” according to Walter L Buenger, Texas State Historical Association chair.
The battle itself was relatively insignificant tactically speaking, but it gained recognition decades later in the 1890s as backlash to African Americans gaining more political power and Mexican immigration increasing, Buenger said. In 1915, “Birth of a Nation” director D.W. Griffith produced “Martyrs of the Alamo,” which solidified the myth further by pitting white virtuous Texans against racist caricatures of Mexicans on screen.