Remember The Alamo

Today we went into San Antonio proper and had a look at the famous site of the battle of The Alamo. I'd been there back in '98, but only for a very brief time, so it was a welcome opportunity to reacquaint myself with this particular part of American history.

Briefly, the battle was between the Mexican central government under general Santa Anna (all of Texas was Mexican at the time) and the American (and some Mexican!) settlers under the command of James Bowie (pronounced ˈbuːiː) and William Travis. Also killed was legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett. The Americans got wiped out, and the slaughter became a rallying cry for the Texans and a part of American popular culture - Remember The Alamo!

The struggle was initially more an internal fight between centralists and federalists within the relatively young nation of Mexico (independent from Spain in 1821), and it was basically the intransigence of the Mexican government that led to independence and later statehood for Texas.

Additionally, Mexico was giving land to American settlers for pennies while the US government had started to demand $100 of them, so there was massive immigration going on too, which made the area "more American than Mexican" in the warning words of a Mexican. There's all sorts of lessons here pertaining not just to the US today but also to Norway if you want to get into it... anyway, the mission is well worth a visit. In fact, the whole downtown area of San Antonio is real pretty and well worth spending some time in.

All pics here.

The church building. The few survivors (largely women and children) were sheltering here.


The gift shop. Effin huge.


Memorial.


Another memorial.


I had no idea Bowie & Crockett were into funny handshakes.