What to do with the Alamo has consternated San Antonio’s business community for 150 years, but the last time the rancor got this bad was in the summer of 1908.
Preservationist Adina De Zavala wanted to restore the Alamo compound to how it looked during the 1836 battle. Clara Driscoll, her rival for control of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, wanted the chapel to stand alone as the centerpiece of a gracious park.
Their feuding chased away a wealthy out-of-state hotel developer courted by the Chamber of Commerce.
“By (focusing on the Alamo) we are advertising San Antonio not as a modern and enterprising city … but are associating her with a name that carries with it the idea that San Antonio is still a Mexican village,” said L.J. Hart, a member of the Business Men’s Club, according to the San Antonio Daily Express.
“Let’s let the people abroad forget the Alamo,” he proclaimed.
TOMLINSON’S TAKE: Ending racism would add trillions to US economy
In recent years, a commission of San Antonio citizens, business people and politicians crafted a deal with Land Commissioner George P. Bush to renovate Alamo Plaza into a world-class attraction to boost tourism. They agreed to tell the Alamo’s whole story, not just regurgitate hoary myths, and plesged to raise $450 million for their ambitious renovation.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, fearful Bush will overshadow him in 2022, blew up that deal, criticized San Antonio’s leaders and demanded allegiance to legends created by racists. If the city caves into Patrick’s bullying and agree to his plans, San Antonio risks ending up with an embarrassing monument to white supremacy instead of an inclusive experience that would attract tourists from far and wide.
I came across Hart’s quote while writing a new book about the Alamo with Bryan Burrough and Jason Stanford. The book, which will come out next year, is titled “Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth,” not because we deny the former Spanish mission’s importance, but because it’s time to forget the fiction and tell the truth.
In a recent op-ed, Patrick proved he did not take 7th grade Texas History while growing up in Maryland. He ignored Stephen F. Austin’s letters explaining that the Mexican parliament’s plan to ban slavery is what sparked the Anglo revolt. Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was going to give the Anglos everything else they wanted.
Patrick betrays his ignorance when he invokes Lorenzo de Zavala, Texas’s first vice president, and freedom fighter Juan Seguin to prove the Anglo’s egalitarianism.
De Zavala, a famous Mexican politician and opposition leader, resigned the vice presidency in frustration when he realized he was nothing more than a token to help the Anglos recruit Tejanos. De Zavala was tired of the Anglo’s racism and preparing to return to Mexico when he died from a fever.
After achieving independence, Anglo leaders betrayed Seguin and began ethnically-cleansing Tejano lands. Frustrated by racism and fleeing certain death, Seguin joined the Mexican army and fought the white Texans alongside Santa Anna to avenge Tejanos before and during the Mexican-American War.
If Patrick took a Texas history class today, he would learn that John Wayne’s “The Alamo” and Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett miniseries are mostly fiction. He would know there was no line in the sand. Buck Travis offered to surrender the Alamo, but Santa Anna refused his preconditions.
Patrick instead maligns the patriotism of San Antonians whose goal is not to erase history, but to celebrate all of the Alamo’s 300 years. They refuse to focus on the myths about 13 days in 1836 created to cover up a military blunder.
TOMLINSON’S TAKE: Texas’ future looks very different from its past
The Texas revolt and its signature battle were as much about slavery as they were about defending liberty. That sentence, which I first wrote in a column 18 months ago, enrages Texans whose identities are bound up in the half-truths passed down by their ancestors. To them, I say, may the truth set you free.
Young Texans, Chicanos and those of us who want to learn from past mistakes demand the truth. A new generation of Texans, who are majority Hispanic, are tired of listening to lies created to justify making Texas an empire to slavery.
Patrick is trying to entice Texans into his camp by promising to raise the money needed to renovate the Alamo at the Legislature, but only if the city agrees to perpetuate the myths he favors. But if he builds his world-class attraction only to promote white supremacist lies, expect to see #BoycottSanAntonio to trend on social media. The rest of America is putting this nonsense behind them, even if Patrick is not.
Hart’s comments were spot on in 1908, and they are today too. San Antonio is a growing, innovative metropolis that should not rely on the Alamo for its identity. We should forget the lies spread at the Alamo. Better to leave the plaza alone than build something that will attract ridicule.
Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy.
twitter.com/cltomlinson
chris.tomlinson@chron.com
The Link LonkOctober 21, 2020 at 12:00PM
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Forget-the-Alamo-s-myths-do-not-risk-San-15662577.php
Forget the Alamo’s myths, do not risk San Antonio’s reputation - Houston Chronicle
https://news.google.com/search?q=forget&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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