Analysis: Remembering the Alamo
Published April 14, 2004
"And Mexican Americans in general throughout the Southwest, in Texas and in California in particular, will also experience oppression. Segregation, for example, and of every stripe: segregated movie houses, segregated schools, segregated swimming pools. You name it. If you've ever seen Giant, you know what I'm talking about. In fact, a lot of people don't know this, but the first successful case for desegregation in schools wasn't Brown vs. Board of Education, but Roberto Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District. This happened down in San Diego in 1931. True story.
Part of what one should remember about the Alamo is the independence of Texas became the bedrock for forms of racial oppression that would spread to the rest of the South after the Civil War ended. Texas, experienced with subjugating a non-enslaved people before it entered the Union, provided the blueprint.
When they see "The Alamo," audiences are unlikely to understand that through the gates of a ruined mission comes a legacy of "white" America asserting cultural superiority over the "losers" from Texas' war of independence. Or that the Alamo is in many ways like Kosovo: the site of a battle where the eventual victor took a serious defeat, a losing engagement that's been fetishized to justify treating another people as a historic threat, not to be fully trusted.
They won't see how in our ever-evolving country, there's little place for reverence toward a symbol that says more about our shortcomings than our virtues.
Villalon's thoughtful discussion of what the Alamo means to American history may be me objectionable to some Anglos, those who hate to see the lies they base their lives on challenged. That applies even moreso to the opinion of a man in the San Antonio who decided to be more direct. He defaced a billboard advertising the movie to read, "F--- 'The Alamo.'" The message was quickly papered over. But, the legacy of the Alamo can't be. It is lived every day.
Reasonably related
*Mr. Cranky says 'F' "The Alamo" and Texas, too.
*Texan and "The Alamo" co-star Dennis Quaid grew up with the myth.
Note: This entry also appeared at Silver Rights.
- Analysis: Remembering the Alamo
- Published: April 14, 2004
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- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Culture: Media
- Writer: Mac Diva
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A person capable of analytical thinking would note that the current Mexico would not exist if it had not lost the parts of itself that form much of the Southwestern United States. Therefore, it is indeed possible that Mexico might have developed into a more economically successful country, providing a higher standard of living to its inhabitants, if history were different.
"Part of what one should remember about the Alamo is the independence of Texas became the bedrock for forms of racial oppression that would spread to the rest of the South after the Civil War ended."
Read history much? I mean -- through something other than the lens of a helpless victim of oppression?
The above statement is SO WRONG that it makes the entire 'essay' suspect. As a matter of fact, there is so much prejudiced bullshit in this piece that it would take hours to negate it.
I'll pass, since most are familiar with the pose of MacDiva, the eternally helpless, hapless victim.
BTW: I'm sure that millions of educated, middle and upper class Tejanos would resent your portrayal of them as oppressed weaklings in need of your fawning protective sympathy. They'll soon be a majority in Texas; in general, they're an honorable, tough, industrious people who value family, god, education, and nation. They're proud to be Texans as well as Americans. Land of Opportunity and all that.
Hispanics in Texas are generally a happy lot; Hell, they vitually RUN two of the largest cities in the country, and like millions of others in this nation, they've suffered from a horrible economy, but they 'bucked up' a long time ago. Took advantage of their skills, brains, and talents. Worked hard. And for the most part, they refuse to be seen as some helpless whiny victims. (MacDiva could use a few lessons in that regard.)
But don't any of this get in the way of your ongoing online pose of the bloodless "martyr."
It would be a mistake to lump California and Texas together with respect to the treatment of hispanics. One should also be somewhat skeptical of any characterization of the plight of Mexicans in Texas from the point of view of a Californian; they are two different states with very different cultures.
As a native Californian, I know first hand how hispanics are regarded there. I've also talked to hispanics from Texas who found it harder to be taken seriously as anything other than housekeepers or landscapers in California. I've even been to the Alamo and seen that the hispanic tourists there are no less reverential than the white tourists.
In 1994, while Pete Wilson was campaigning to deny schooling and medical care to "illegal immigrants" (which to all intents and purposes means Mexicans), George W. Bush was promising to "educate all our children". That both these men were successful says something about the respective cultures of the two states.
Texans have done a far better job not only of treating Mexicans as equals, but of assimilating Mexican culture into their mainstream. Texans of all races take pride in their hispanic heritage (as a quick glance through ZZ Top's catalogue would demonstrate). Whereas Hollywood film-makers deem it necessary to edit Mexicans out of all those location shots from L.A.
It shames me to see how racist my state is when compared to Texas. I can't speak for the entire history of Texas, but it's clear they have gone in the right direction.
Some good points Shark, but I believe Mac Diva makes some good points too. It is pretty clear MD is not familiar with life in Texas, and this post reeks of an outsider looking in. However, her ideas about the "Myth" of the Alamo are on target.
It's an excellent post and thought-provoking, though she is taking a stance that started becoming the norm many years ago. She's thrown a few of the infamous Mac Diva spices in for good measure, but she's not far from the truth - but it's a truth that does not exist in today's Texas, as anyone who lives here (as you and I do Shark) know full well.....
JR, excellent points. Racism does exist, but Texans in general are pretty cool about Hispanics and their culture. Granted, they still suffer from huge educational and job discrepancies, but in a lot of cases, I think that's more a result of language problems than race related. Second, third, fourth generations and beyond are doing incredibly well -- especially in the cities.
btw: Valerio Longoria Rocks!
Chris: "...She's thrown a few of the infamous Mac Diva spices in for good measure, but she's not far from the truth - but it's a truth that does not exist in today's Texas"
True. Her assertions applied in the 19th century, but in general, NOT TODAY.
re: "It's an excellent post and thought-provoking..."
Feh. She's too narrow-minded for her own good. Any "writer" who can't separate out socio-political-historical CRAP to understand and appreciate the mythological, heroic, dramatic, and narrative appeal of a story like the Alamo doesn't deserve the title "writer".
But alas; her lack of an imagination is its own punishment.
It's a story above all else.
Shark,
I think the revised ways we are beginning to look at The Alamo make it a far more interesting story than say, the simplistic one shoved down our throats as kids by John Wayne and Daughters of The Texas Revolution (did I get that name right?).....To me, the human side is far more interesting than the myth. It is a great story that will never die, but I have seen a movement to include the Hispanic/Tejano side of the story, which to me is equally fascinating and adding an even more tragic tone to the story....
I have been too damn busy to see the recent film, though read it was excellent, which I am glad to hear.
I've been to San Antonio quite a bit of late, and can fully attest, there are just as many idiots there as in Oregon, California and New York. In fact, idiots painting idiotic graffit are everywhere....and they say everything from "Fuck the Alamo" to "Fuck John Wayne" to "Fuck MLK." To give any of it validity is akin to giving posters in here validity who do nothing but write endless scatalogical profanity......It is a rage having nothing at all to do with The Alamo, John Wayne or MLK.....
First, let me redirect the credit for 'Remembering the Alamo,' to the person it belongs to -- Oscar Villalon. His observations are the core of the entry.
Second, I believe it is useful to read all of Villalon's article to gain more insight into what he is saying. For reasons of length, I omitted most of the piece. Regrettably, among the material not included is the history of the Texas Rangers, who killed more Tejanos in several decades in Texas than the Ku Klux Klan killed nationally.
I was aware of Texas history as a blueprint for segregation fairly early because of my long interest in civil rights issues. Faced with a large population of people they considered inferiors who were not enslaved, Texans becames mother (f-----s) of invention. They created methodologies of Anglo control that were copied by the rest of the South after 1865. Separate but unequal had been the rule in Texas for decades before then -- and still is to a great degree. The latter is easily proven by looking out at school funding, education completion, employment and income data for nonwhite Texans. Furthermore, even in so-called liberal cities like Austin, extreme residential segregation is still the norm.
Texas' legacy in civil rights law is important. It started early. Slaveowners there withheld news of the Union's victory so they could hold the freedmen in bondage longer. Some slaveowners departed for Brazil, supposed to be freedmen in tow, and extended those people's slavery for the rest of their lives. Texas also had an important role in fighting school desegregation, most famously noted in Sweat v. Painter (1950), the case in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that segregation in higher education was illegal. (Note that like Alvarez, Sweat came before Brown.) Some of the very same people who fought to keep higher education segregated returned to oppose affirmative action in Hopwood v. University of Texas (1996) years later. The drumbeat of inequality in Texas may not have been as noted as it has been in say, Mississippi, but it has been an important part of state, regional and national history.
I caught a few minutes of one of those game shows on which the 'difficult' questions are so easy one wonders what the point is supposed to be while waiting for the news last night. The contestant was asked what team Jackie Robinson played for before joining the Dodgers. She was an Anglo woman in her 30s or 40s from Texas. After at least three minutes of babbling about nothing relevant, she said she did not know. All of the teams suggested as answers (yes, they gave the answer) were in United States -- except the Montreal Royals. That kind of ignorance of even relatively recent American history is what makes the comments like the ones above possible. The historical record is clear that Texas has a long history of discrimination against its citizens of color. Anglo Texans issuing rote denials of that history do not change it, they just prove Villalon's point.
JR, the focus is on Texas in Villalon's article because "The Alamo" was the impetus for him writing it. You are correct that plenty can be said about California's history of bigotry. But, that is not Villalon's focus. I believe he does a fine job of supporting his thesis: Texas' independence began official subjugation of Mexican-Americans by Anglos there.
One of my favorite books about minority life in California is Lisa See's On Gold Mountain. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it for your reading list.
I caught a few minutes of one of those game shows on which the 'difficult' questions are so easy one wonders what the point is supposed to be while waiting for the news last night. The contestant was asked what team Jackie Robinson played for before joining the Dodgers. She was an Anglo woman in her 30s or 40s from Texas.
MD, this is akin to quoting spray painters of graffitti.....it's about as relevant as a TV game show.....You know as well as I do that person does not symbolize all Texans anymore than spray painters do. We put a magnifying glass to the United States and one can find similar injustices and racial inequality.....no state is immune, and in fact few countries are. Your search for Utopia will always be in vain. There is a horrible history of racial inequality all across this land. Even in your rather backwards state, it is populated with the kind of people who would run and hide in hidden compounds to avoid people of other races......
Shark is right, as are others, Texas is one of the better examples of racial equality in the entire United States. If anything, your state is one of the worst examples.....poke sharp sticks at us all you want, but it has more to do with your peculiar vendettas than anything even remotely to do with reality.....
When you start quoting game show contestants and graffiti artists, you are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Yes, we all know Lonesome Dove was a romantic portrait of the Texas Rangers, having little to do with the brutality of actual Texas Rangers. But it was beautiful writing, breathtaking, epic.......as most of McMurtry's work is. Read some of his essays, my favorite being In a Shallow Grave.......Once again I must repeat myself - you are mining revisionist ideas that became the norm many years ago........You're just repeating what others before you have already done.....Tis' nothing new.
PS....Will someone please tell Spike Lee to get off his complaining ass and finally make that bio on Jackie Robinson he has always been claiming to do?
"There's no basement at the Alamo."
In a Narrow Grave....my apologies.
Re: Jackie Robinson -
"I caught a few minutes of one of those game shows on which the 'difficult' questions are so easy one wonders what the point is supposed to be while waiting for the news last night."
Huh?
"While waiting for the news last night, I caught a few minutes of one of those game shows on which the 'difficult' questions are so easy one wonders what the point is supposed to be" ---WORKS MUCH BETTER.
"The contestant was asked what team Jackie Robinson played for before joining the Dodgers. She was an Anglo woman in her 30s or 40s from Texas. After at least three minutes of babbling about nothing relevant, she said she did not know."
This anecdote about a Texas female not knowing some obscure piece of BASEBALL history is proof of the historical ignorance of an entire state?
MacDiva stoops to a sad, pathetic tactic. And what else is new?
Glad to see SHE'S NOT PREJUDICED!
Here's a survey I'd like to see:
How many young urban blacks EVEN know who Jackie Robinson is?
BTW: In contemporary America, lack of knowledge of history crosses all racial/socio-economic lines, but admitting that would sorta take the air out of MacDiva's 'poor poor pitiful me -- those ignorant racist whites don't even know what team Jackie Robinson played for prior to joining the Dodgers' routine.
Oh Woe Is Me, the injustices are many!
Just as I expected, there is no refutation of anything substantive either Villalon or I said. None of it can be refuted. Those 5000 Tejanos dead at the hands of the Texas Rangers are reality. The popular image of Sam Houston is myth. Any statistical analysis of Texans today makes it clear that history still has a strong impact on just about every aspect of life in the state.
Can the same thing be said about other states? Definitely. However, Villalon was writing about the Alamo. To expect a newspaper column to cover the entire history of racial discrimination in America is ludicrous.
Eric Olsen peeks and runs. Of course there is no basement in the Alamo. But, why not fabricate one since fabrication is how myths are made? If there can be "happy" Tejanos, why not a basement? If the old stereotype 'our darkies are happy' can be trotted out by retrograde racists today, they might as well claim a basement in the Alamo, as well. The two claims would be equally false. Villalon said a lot in one short sentence.
I also can't help but wonder why Olsen failed to notice that Shark has broken 'the rules' in every comment he has made on this thread. . . . Oh! Silly me! The so-called rules are only supposed to apply to some people, perhaps even only one person. True, they read as if penned by someone who would flunk out of law school first year, hasn't the faintest grasp of what real writers do and may have been high on meth while making the mess, but an effort could be made to enforce them fairly. Could be . . . but will not be.
Addendum. I do appreciate the confirmation of ignorance about the Jackie Robinson anecdote. The respondents prove they miss the point just as surely as the ninny on the television show did. Though I would expect any person mininally aware of even popular history to recognize the name, that was not necessary. A picture of Robinson was flashed. The year he joined the American major leagues was announced. That alone should tell an intelligent person which team he would have had to have played for before joining the Dodgers. A person who knows American history knows the Robinson anecdote is an emblem, a shortcut to the big picture of segregation. Any fool who blathers about the anecdote being about someone not knowing baseball, does not know America.
The last two mayors of my city were black and female.....would you like to run Mac Diva?
The graduating class in my high school was 40 percent white, 40 percent black and 20 percent Hispanic - give or take a few points here and there.....Now I am not saying, to quote you...."our darkies are happy,"....but in Texas everyone has a chance. We are on the border here Angry One, so there's a different dynamic than many of our states. I have been on the border many times, and I can say first-hand that there are changes still needed. It is not a perfect world, but it is better than what it used to be.....I am the minority when I go south, and I have yet to see an anglo Texas Ranger lynching a Tejano.....I have been embraced when there.....and I make no judgements of any culture....
Your comment on Austin, where I once lived for 10 years, was accurate.....though such divisions can be found in most cities in the US....
How we interpret the Alamo battle changes each generation. For the most part, it is changing for the better. Was Santa Anna a 'thing' or 'Barbariac?'.......no, he was human like the rest of us. We must always look at all sides, and your post does that in thought-provoking fashion. I learn everyday, just as I hope the rest of us do.......
PS Gods and Generals was just horrible! I'm glad I am not alone in that opinion......
I did like Gettysburg however.....
'Accurate One' would be, well, accurate. But, a person of color of intelligence must be erased or discredited in some way by so much many white Americans. So, we get 'Angry One' instead. Meanwhile, the same person falls all over himself agreeing with someone whose every comment about race sounds as if it is being made at a meeting of the White Citizens Council around 1966. Telling.
hmmmmm....well Mac Diva, one has to bend over backwards and then twist around as if they were playing Twister to come to that conclusion. But if that is the target you are shooting for, how can I keep you from firing? I think you are accurate in some ways, in others, leaning a bit too far and about to lose one's balance.....I love the Twister analogy here because I just loved that game as a child!
Anyway, one can put as much power into Shark as one wishes to put there. I truthfully think that you lean so far in some areas that some, not all, of your posts are not entirely accurate.....everything you write has some validity......but not everything is 100 percent correct....you are well schooled and support your claims with great investigation. You're not the only one with a newspaper background.....
I have never taken sides against you, and I never will no matter how much you rake me with thy claws.....But some of Shark's stuff is valid. He's from an older generation than you and I, but I like some of his stuff......and some of his stuff I don't......But I have learned some good things from his best work....just as I have learned from you.
I disagree with some of your post, not all...only some....you make a good point...but some is directed at someone else, and I think it wasted spirit....and you have a great spirit.....utilize it in your fantastic posts.....rise above the bullshit....
(I know I am going to get branded for this)
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Would the descendents of Texan Mestizos be better off in the current Mexico or the current USA?