The Alamo Remembered: Tejano Accounts and Perspectives

Iskander El Amri

History 2301May 29, 2014In this work, the author tried to bring back to life the stories of the Tejanos who witnessed the fall of the Alamo. Most scholars studying this historical event neglected the majority of the Tejano sources thus overlooking a large part of the history of Texas and giving the reader a picture with missing pieces. The author attempted to collect Mexican Americans testimonies including conversation, memoires and published articles to complete the missing pieces of the history of the Alamo. The author interest with this subject comes from his Tejano origins. In fact, Timothy Matovina is a professor of Theology at Notre Dame university and the William and Anna Jean Cushwa Director the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism. He earned his B.A from Indiana University in 1978, and then he received his masters of divinity from the university of Toronto in 1983 and finally he received a PhD from the Catholic University of America in 1993. Matovia is also a member of the American Academy of Religions, Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians and the American Historical Association. He also obtained various scholarly awards among them the Virgilio Elizondo Award for distinguished achievement in theology and the Julian Samora award for advancing the Latino community. The author wrote several books about the Tejanos in Texas including: Tejano Religion and Ethnicity: San Antonio, 1821-1860,University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1995, Guadalupe and Her Faithful: Latino Catholics in San Antonio, from Colonial Origins to the Present,Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 2005.

In this book, the author didnt pretend to interpret the history of the Alamo but he provided eyewitness, oral and written accounts of Tejanos during and after the fall of the fortress. Theses accounts reveled new realities and even some controversial stories about the Alamo. Matovina revealed to the world a part of the story of the Alamo that was silenced by time and by many scholars. He dug deeply to provide the historians with documents with great historical value. The writer provided historical support for each document and he also verified the historical existence of the sources. However, when in doubt, the author signaled it with question marks after the cited sources. The accounts found in this book, demonstrate as said before valuable information about the Alamo and the non-reveled contribution of the Tejanos to this historical event. In fact most of the historical or dramatic works shows the Anglos as the only protagonists during this event. However, this book shows that the Tejanos fought along the first ranks of the defenders of the Alamo among them Gregorio Esparza who fought valiantly as an Alamo defender and died near the cannon that he tended (page 5). The book also describes the atrocities that Tejanos lived during the war. The Mexican army killed women and kids; they stole peoples food and clothes and treated the habitants of San Antonio harshly. A big portion of the book contained accounts of Tejanos describing the fall of the Alamo and the barbarian ferocity of de Santa Anna during the war. The Alamo typically recalled as a place of heroism and sacrifice, is now revealed to be a place of massacre and inhumanity. Santa Anna used excessive force to suppress the defenders of the fort; he killed all the soldiers, the ones who surrendered and even the sick in their bad. He was ruthless as he ordered to burn all the corps of the defender of the Alamo to terrorize the people and to suppress any movement of revolt. However, his barbaric acts of war were the spark that ignited the will of liberty and freedom in the hearts of Texans who continued the fight until chasing all the Mexican troops from Texas and gaining their independence. The book was finely organized in four section namely First reports, Conversations with Local Tejanos, Unpublished Petitions and Depositions and Published Accounts and in each chapter the materials were keenly picked to convey hidden realities and to help historians explore the Alamo from a different vantage point that was, before the publication of this book, underestimated due racial bias. Most of the accounts in this book are preceded by a short introductory paragraph that explains the context, the source and the main characters of the account.While some may argue that this book didnt provide any critical interpretation of the fall of the Alamo I would suggest the opposite. From the beginning the author stated that his purpose behind this book is to provide the historical community with quality material to further explore the most famous event in the history of Texas. He didnt pretend to offer any analysis or point of view and he maintained his position of neutrality.This book is a great resource for scholars and college student who want to study profoundly the Alamo and learn more about the Tejanos contribution to this important event in Texas history.