Forget the Alamo

The folks over at Vanity Fair, known as experts in geopolitical military history I assume (having never read the fish wrapper myself), have a story about how everything we and Texans know of the Battle of the Alamo is wrong. You see, they say [emphasis original] “DAVY CROCKETT SURRENDERED?! JIM BOWIE, A SLAVE TRADER?! SAM HOUSTON, A COKE ADDICT?!”

From Vanity Fair;

[Alamo] Revisionists tend to think the entire Texas Revolt was a bit more about protecting slavery from Mexico’s abolitionist government than it was about opposing Santa Anna’s supposed tyranny. In the oral traditions of the Mexican American community, in fact, mothers and fathers, for decades, have passed down their view that the Alamo was a symbol of Anglo oppression. Indeed, to scores of Tejanos interviewed by the authors, white racism toward the Latino “other” was hard-wired into to Alamo narrative. As San Antonio art historian Ruben Cordova puts it, “Davy Crockett’s [death], it’s sort of like a Chicano version of the Jewish Christ killers. If you’re looking at the Alamo as a kind of state religion, this is the original sin. We killed Davy Crockett.”

The article frequently laments “Anglo oppression” as so;

struggle to overcome centuries of Anglo oppression and discrimination

history of Anglo oppression

Anglos created myths that, he argued, served only to justify violence, imperialism, and the subjugation of Mexican Americans

It’s worth pointing out that at no point in world history was Mexico ever a British (i.e. Anglo) territory. The closest you’ll get is Honduras and Belize. The Europeans who “oppressed” native Mexicans would have been Spaniards. The Spanish conquered and colonized Mexico just a few decades after Columbus first sailed to the West Indies.

The whole article is as well thought out as you’d expect from the deep-thinking Vanity Fair.  The defenders of the Alamo were literally slaughtered by the Mexicans under Santa Anna. Those who are said to have surrendered were summarily executed at his orders. Their memories are now being sullied. I’d say it’s unbelievable if it wasn’t so believable these days. Everything is a monument to slavery when you’re wearing social justice colored glasses.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Dumbass Bullshit, Historical, Media