The Forgotten Alamo: Beneath the Myth

The Alamo represents a pivotal yet profoundly misunderstood chapter in American history, serving as a battleground that encapsulates themes of sacrifice, struggle, and the complexities of national identity. In this discourse, we delve into the intricate narrative surrounding the Alamo, exploring not only its historical significance but also the myriad misconceptions that have emerged over time. We examine the motivations of the Texian settlers, the socio-political landscape of the era, and the consequences of their insurrection against Mexican authority. By scrutinizing the myths versus the realities of the Alamo, we aim to unearth the underlying truths that have shaped this enduring symbol of resistance. Join us as we unravel the layers of this historical enigma, illuminating the lessons it imparts for contemporary discourse on power, privilege, and the narratives we choose to uphold.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What do you remember about the Alamo?
I'm not talking about thatmovie from 2004 with Billy Bob Thornton
and Dennis Quaid.
But do you know what it means?
Do you know the story?
Do you know why Ozzy Osbournedecided to pee on it?
Well, me neither, but, youknow, the last one's anybody's guess
because Ozzy is one of thoseparts of the universe that is unexplainable
and unpredictable, and we lovethat about him.

(00:22):
If you do know anything aboutthe Alamo, you might be aware that
the tyrannical Mexican leaderSanta Anna was destroying the lives
of the innocent settlers of Texas.
And that the only salvationthat they had was to defend themselves
and their form and form theirown country.
They were, you know, to makethis standing defense against the
massive Mexican army untilreinforcements could relieve them.

(00:44):
I guess some of that is true,but it's not really the full story.
Today we're going to belooking at one of the most misunderstood
stories of American history, Atale that can best be described as
a modern myth of sortsbelonging in the history books.
Next to events such as the 300Spartans at Thermopylae or something
like Stalingrad, we'll lookinto how Texas came to be, who lived

(01:07):
there before, and why ussettlers were so obsessed with a
Spanish occupied region.
All that more on anotherepisode of the Remedial Scholar.
That's ancient history.
I feel I was denied criticalneed to know information belongs

(01:33):
to the museum room.
Stop skipping your immediate class.
Well, I did it again, folks.
I. I am your host, Levi, andthis is the Ramito Scholar.

(01:53):
And I really need to stopabandoning you.
I. I come on here, tell youabout all the cool ideas I have,
and then just vanish.
Not really fair to you.
If it makes you feel anybetter, I do beat myself up about
it.
So hopefully you guys miss me.
I missed you.
I'm sorry about the gapsbetween episodes.
I'm not gonna say I'm gonna doany better because I feel like that's

(02:16):
just gonna make me feel worseif I do happen to skip a week again.
So no hollow promises otherthan I'm doing my best.
I'm doing my best by myselfover here.
Okay.
I'm stressing out.
You're watching the video.
I got a big old zit on my lip.
I had, you know, this great idea.
Oh, I'm going to draw thisstuff for these episodes, and then
I forgot how long it takes meto draw stuff.

(02:38):
So I'm still going to drawcompanion pieces, but it's not going
to Be.
It's not going to be to thelevel of like if you're a friend
of mine, you might be used to.
It's going to be something funand whimsical and think like, like
an illust for like not achildren's book but you know, you
know what I mean?
It's not going to be crazy detailed.

(02:58):
It's going to be somethingneat that kind of encompasses the
story or maybe it's a maincharacter or something.
But you know, this is the, theidea itself really good in theory,
but in practice, not to giveyou my whole life story, but I work,
you know, a full time job,come home, go to the gym.
I guess I don't need to go tothe gym but you know, it makes me

(03:20):
hate myself less.
So I have to.
And then I get back from thegym and ideally in an ideal world
I would work on the episodesthat I need to, but lately I've just
not been doing that.
And that is my cross to bear.
But you know, I would work onthe episodes and then, you know,
however long it takes me toresearch and write throughout the

(03:42):
day, it leaves me very littletime to actually do anything else.
And I got to have some freetime to not go crazy.
So not really anything youneed to know, but just to kind of
let you behind the curtain, soto speak, a little bit.
Take a peek at the wizard.
Right.
So anyway, I'm doing my best.
I tried to ask my dog to helpme write episodes, but you can probably

(04:06):
guess how that turned out.
That's right.
He's got his own show and it'salready has more, more listeners
than Joe Rogan.
Not really.
I mean he probably would isRagnar is very talented that way.
But kidding aside, we have alot of ground to cover.
But before I get too far intoit, I want to remind everybod about
the links in the description.
You know, there's a, you know,a few in there that could be of use.

(04:30):
One being the merch.
I'm wearing my Nassau shirt.
It's spoof on NASA and that isfrom the Challenger episode.
That's honestly that might beone of my favorites just in terms
of like running the gamut oflike interesting and like uncovering
a lot of like mystery involvedand then also kind of like, well,

(04:51):
not kind of super sad.
Anyway, so there's merch andthat is a great way to help the show.
Like you're listening to thisfor free because I paid money to
put it on a like on a platformthat will put it to the streaming
services, so that helps withhosting fees.
And there's a few designs in there.

(05:12):
I've put in some, like, moreplain ones over the time.
There's that.
That Victorian logo one that,like, if you're still feeling the
Victorian spirit from hangingout with Jack the Ripper last time,
you can check that out.
That's probably one of myfavorite designs.
It's.
I don't know, it's super fun.

(05:32):
I need to get me one of those.
But anyway, that's one of the links.
There's also the friends ofthe show you can support.
You know, they're my friends.
I don't put those shows inthere for fun.
These are people that I knowthat I appreciate what they're doing,
and I want you to check them out.
So please go do that.
Um, and then there's links towherever you want to listen to the

(05:52):
show, but there's also linksfor, like, the social media pages
and accounts that you canfollow and, like, and subscribe and
do all that stuff.
So just trying to throw thatat you in case you want to engage
in some comments withconversations with some other history
buffs.
Yeah.
Anyway, onto the main event.
The Alamo.

(06:13):
The end.
No, remember it, though.
Remember all those superinteresting things.
You totally know about it andalways will remember.
Right.
But why?
Why do you need to.
Alamo is one of those thingsthat kind of hangs over every American's
head in a weird way.
Someone says Alamo, usuallythe word remember is waiting to be

(06:34):
attached to it.
I don't really even know whatinspired this episode other than
morbid curiosity.
Like, I wasn't like, I need todo the Alamo.
I, like many of you, may ormay not have very little understanding
of it, or.
I did.
Well, still do.
There's a lot of stuff to sortout when it comes to this story.

(06:56):
Weirdly enough, as a child notliving in Texas, growing up, the
Alamo really was, you know,it's kind of a little more than a
small note for some of ourhistory classes.
I don't think I've ever reallypaid that much attention to it outside
of the randomness that camewith Texas always being described
as, you know, once being itsown country.
And that always confused mebecause it felt like we never talked
about that any further than that.

(07:18):
And that's kind of aninteresting thing to talk about.
It's like, oh, okay, yeah, I guess.
Why wouldn't we move on?
So, you know, a few monthsago, I'm watching The Alamo from
2004, the movie I Mentionedand like, like you do.
And started looking things upas I'm watching it because I was
just curious and I was like,you know what?
I need to.

(07:38):
I need to do this.
Because it's even in thatmovie, like, they do a good job in
that movie of kind ofportraying things close to reality.
There's still some, you know,mythologizing going on, but for the
most part it's pretty good.
So anyway, this episode is theresult of that.
So thank Billy Bob.

(07:59):
That's right.
Let's get into it.
Of course it would, you know,would not be natural if we did not
set up some context for the situation.
How on earth did the peoplewhose names paint half of modern
day Texas find themselvesentrenched against the Mexican military?
Talking about people like thatwas his name Austin something?

(08:20):
Stephen F. Austin.
You know, those kinds ofpeople, these, these like founding
fathers of Texas, right?
What were they fighting about?
I want you to take a secondand really think about the Alamo.
Like what.
What do you actually know?
What do you remember besidesthe Alamo?
You know, do you have a goodidea of who was involved or why they

(08:43):
were there?
If so, then you do rememberthe Alamo.
I'm willing to bet not many ofyou do know, though.
Many of my Texas listeners areprobably thinking about 7th grade
history class when theylearned about it.
That's right.
I got the inside scoop.
I know what's happening.
They might feel like they havea good grasp on things, but there's
a lot to be know about thestory and even less that is actually

(09:05):
shared in schools in Texas.
We're going to talk about thatlater on, but just keep it in mind.
The Alamo has played a role inmany arguments revolving around authentic
and genuine history versusmyth making.
Make no mistake, this is astory of incredible moments.
And people in this story didfight to the bitter end for what
they believe was right.

(09:26):
But there's just so muchneeded context to be had.
This says, and that's, youknow, that's where I come in.
That's my.
My gift to you.
As I researched this, it kindof continued to just blow my mind.
How much has been left out inthe telling of the fight for Texas's
independence and they're beingtheir own country and all that.
Sure, you know, that has beenin the back of my head for a long

(09:48):
time, but what does that mean?
Texas wanted to become independent.
From who?
Who are the people who wanted this?
Well, it's a little complicated.
So we're.
What we're going to do todayis follow along the history of Texas
up to the point of the Alamo,stopping off to meet some of the
key players during and after,then lead into the battle itself,
which actually lasted lesstime than this episode's probably

(10:10):
going to take.
So kind of crazy.
After the battle, we are goingto learn about the building of the
myth and how it was used toinspire troops in the Mexican American
War.
Then we look into the history,how the history was shaped and how
it was used to preserve thismyth and how that has affected things

(10:30):
for us now, essentially.
So sounds like it's going tobe a lot, but, you know, it's going
to be interesting.
I think so.
I know I say that every time,but it's true.
Texas was founded when acactus blossom sprouted and landed
right in the heart of.
No, that's not true.
But I do want some Texas roadhouse.
Now.
Texas shares a similar path tomodern times as Florida does, if

(10:53):
you remember that in theSeminole wars episode.
If not, you're just joining meon this journey.
Well, fear not.
Papa's got you covered.
Texas, like the rest of NorthAmerica, was inhabited by indigenous
people possibly as long as30,000 years ago or more.
This went on for a long timeuntil the Spanish made their way
across the Atlantic andseveral different conquistadors traveled

(11:14):
into mainland America.
They first entered what wouldeventually be Texas in 1528, and
by the mid-1700s, Spain.
They had 30 differentexpeditions that had gone into the
Texas region alone.
Spain made their claim on the region.
But you may also remember,remember from the seminal episode,
that Spain claiming a regiondoes not necessarily equate to them

(11:36):
owning it by any means.
Spain had begun to dwindle ininfluence by the 18th century, still,
you know, formidable, butconstantly fighting.
England made them unable topolice the regions that they claimed.
Right.
Florida became this wild west,land of, well, not west, but you
know what I mean, as a wildland outside of a few colonies.

(11:57):
And Texas had a similar feelto it.
In 1718, Spain had built a fewforts, military posts, Catholic missions
across the state, Places likeGoliad, El Paso, Nacogdoches, which
is my favorite to say in SanAntonio, being the most prominent
of them.
They did not come easy.
The Spanish had struggledintensely with the native populations

(12:19):
there from the crown down.
Spain was in a hurry to quellthe fighting against their rule in
the New World.
They were also competing withFrance along with England, albeit,
you know, the French were alittle more concerned with England
than they were with Spain.
In one expedition in 1689, theSpanish had found a Frenchman who
had deserted his countrymenand was now living amongst the Coaons.

(12:43):
Yeah, say that five times fast.
It's a tribe in the Rio Grande area.
This Frenchman was able toshow the Spanish where Fort St. Louis
was.
St. Louis, which had beendestroyed by another tribe.
Once word got back to MexicoCity, the Spanish very excited to
learn the French had been kindof driven out, so to speak.
Spain began to make deals withthe tribes in the area and establish

(13:06):
missions in the region tofurther explore spreading Christianity
to the tribes.
Some of the tribes that theyhad talked to, you know, is positive
conversations about conversionwere the Caddo people and the Hassani
or Hassanite.
Hassanite.
I don't know.
Yeah.
The latter were referred to.
Referred to as the Teos by theSpanish, which would eventually lead

(13:29):
to the name of the state today.
Right.
In 1690, Spanish soldiers andmissionaries burnt down the old French
fort and built a new one inEast Texas.
Mission San Francisco de losTeos was built in May of that year.
And it was not really a homefor many who made the journey, though
three of the 110 soldiers whohad accompanied the missionaries

(13:52):
were allowed to stay when itwas finished.
So, hey, thanks for protectingus all the way here.
See you.
Don't let the door hit you onthe way out.
In 1691, Spain appointedGeneral Domingo Tehran de los Rios
as the first governor of Texas.
Under his appointment, sevennew missions were built.
But he found that San Franmission was struggling at the hands

(14:14):
of the indigenous people.
You know, kind of kept, like,barging in and taking their cattle
and horses and stuff.
Eventually, Tehran would leaveTexas, and many of the mission missionaries
left with him, feeling asthough it was a fruitless endeavor.
But what they left behindwould thrash the indigenous population
in their absence.
They left smallpox when theyleft, which, you know, as you may

(14:37):
or may not be aware, kind oframpage through the native population
who had zero immunity.
This is something we arefamiliar with, and one of the most
unfortunate aspects ofcolonial expansion into the new world.
Now, it's a.
A thing that the indigenouspeople couldn't even defend themselves
against.
Like, bad enough conquest, right?
Like, you're.

(14:57):
You're conquesting andsubjugating these people.
The new rules.
But, like, the silver liningthere is they at least got to fight,
right?
They.
They had at least had anopportunity to win.
But with smallpox, that's nobody.
Nobody gets an opportunity towin against smallpox.
Everybody knows that.
Anyway, this created.

(15:19):
Oh, sorry, hold on.
Yeah.
This created more animositybetween indigenous people and the
missionaries who remained inthe region.
The Caddo people had to informthe missionaries that they should
leave or they would be killed.
And so they did.
They burned their mission andleft back to Mexico.
So Spain failed their firstcolonizing efforts in Texas, in the

(15:40):
Texas region.
And it'd be a few decadesbefore they decided to try again.
So this let the French enterSpain the region in the meantime,
while Spain told Francethey're not allowed to trade in the
region, but as we know, theydid not have the infrastructure to
prevent any such trading.
Spain was also grappling withthe War of Spanish Succession, deciding

(16:01):
which successor of Charles the Second.
There's a lot of S's in thatwould be taking the throne because
of their allegiances in mind.
It's not super important, butjust briefly, there's two factions
of the successors that could.
The successors could be tiedto one being tied to France and the
other being England, Austriaand some others.

(16:23):
Not seen as only as a like aSpanish or Spain only issue.
Right.
Depending on who joined upwith who, it could completely shift
the power balance in Europe.
Spain shell of its former selfby this time, but still like I mentioned
up top formidable, especiallyif they join the right side.
This could really turn thetide against whoever they were opposed

(16:46):
to.
Ultimately, the Bourbon housewon out and Philip V was crowned
and thus France and Spainbecame somewhat friendly.
This would not last as 1718brought the war of the Quadruple
alliance, which got to tellyou, that's a fun name.
It really doesn't mean muchlike it's okay.
It's a war of four sets ofalliances, right?

(17:09):
Or maybe two, I don't know.
But like, I don't know.
It's a fun thing to say.
Anyway, I'll move on.
This war was Spain fightingall three of the nations that I just
mentioned.
So, you know, the alliancedidn't last super long.
In this war, which was mostlyfocused on who could control Italy,
the opposing forces took theopportunity to strike at some of

(17:30):
Spain's settlements across the pond.
Frenchmen in 1719 chased outmissionaries by warning them of incoming
invaders which had them fleeto San Antonio.
In response, Spain hadassembled a 500 soldier strong army
to invade Louisiana.
But when the fighting inEurope stopped, Philip V told them
to turn around, find a way torecapture East Texas instead.

(17:53):
In 1721, we have the firstcapital of Texas being founded, which
is actually technically nearmodern day Roebling, Louisiana, which,
I mean they do share a border.
So it's not crazy, but it'sweird to think of a capital of the
Texas region.
Being not really inside of itthat much.
Yeah.
So with this foothold, moremissions began to sprout up forts

(18:15):
in the region.
But despite this, the fundingtowards the missions of New Spain
had dwindled down in 1729.
This caused troops to beremoved from the region, from the
forts and the missions and thesettlements and such.
Spanish crown was insistentthat settlers would be more than
willing to defend their lands.
Right.
Is you want to live here,you're going to protect it.

(18:39):
Which I mean, makes sense whenit's already in your own boundaries,
but when you already didn'thave a solid hold of it, you're basically
making these farmers into amilitia national guard situation,
which is, you know.
Yeah, the cost of troops wastoo much.

(19:01):
So, you know, that was, thatwas the alternative.
This was kind of an oversightas the lands that would be called
Texas were not super enticingto new settlers.
Also, like you're going to cutthe budget and take soldiers out
of this land and settlers willdefend it.
We don't have a lot ofsettlers bad, bad news.
The environment was harsh, thesoil kind of unforgiving, depending

(19:22):
on what you're trying to plant.
Tribes in the area also superunpredictable and very anti settlement
weird.
And if they weren't, they'reat the very least very pro stealing
livestock.
So you know that to deal withthe Spanish government tried alternate,
alternate tactics to settlethe region, Even bringing in people
from the Canary Islands tosettle and farm.

(19:43):
But then this caused a riftwith the people who had already been
settling there because thegovernment decided that these people
from the Canary Islands wereactually nobles.
And so the people that werealready there are like, they just
got here.
Why are, why are they makingall the decisions?
We've been working the lands.
Eventually things would ironthemselves out as the locals and

(20:04):
imports began to intermingleand intermarry.
You know, I'm saying they'redoing it.
So still the colonies struggled.
Similar to the Americancolonies of Britain.
Spain forced unrealisticexpectations and unnecessary restrictions
on the people in New Spain.
One example is the high importfees for people in Texas because

(20:28):
of the fact that Spaindiscouraged, for whatever reason,
manufacturing in theircolonies and then had like weird
trade route stipulations.
Most of the ports in Texaswere non commercial.
Goods had to be transported tothe region via Mexico City after
they had been brought from Veracruz.
So this is like this veryconfusing route that they had to

(20:50):
do.
And then because of this, itmade everything more expensive.
This prompted many settlers totrade with the French, which, you
know, makes sense because itwas a lot cheaper.
In 1746, the governor at thetime heard rumors of such trading
and sent soldiers to find theFrench trading posts.
Captured five Frenchmen builtthe fort near where they were encamped,

(21:13):
I guess, which was an effortto dissuade any further encroachments.
In 1762, France and Spainsigned a treaty which ceded the land
west of the Mississippi riverto Spain.
And now Spain finally feelslike their efforts in North America
can be pursued without intervention.
This is all, you know, falloutfrom the Seven Years War.

(21:34):
And Spain lost some land toEngland at the time as well, you
know, including Manila in the Philippines.
And Havana.
Right, Havana.
Havana, whatever.
I don't know why I made it allHavana because it's in Britain now.
Still Spain excited to assesstheir new lands, they sent a man

(21:55):
named Marquis of Ruby to checkthe forts, outposts, settlements,
missions, and report back.
He started in early 1766 andthen returned two years later.
And he was not pumped.
He felt that basically onlySan Antonio and La Baya la Bahia,
I don't know, were qualityenough to remain on the rest of them.

(22:18):
They needed close the rest ofthe missions and bring people to
those places.
Shortly after, after SanAntonio became the new capital, okay,
Spain was relieved with thelack of European incursions to the
land.
But, you know, when one doorcloses, another opens.
The tribes of the region nowoccupied by Spain hadn't really changed

(22:39):
much.
You know, the passing of oneflag to another over an outpost you
don't visit is kind of ahardly, hardly a reason to change
your life up.
The Apache were the moreactive against the settlements, having
raided San Antonio many timesover the years.
Not always unprovoked either.
One instance in 1745 was aresponse to some military campaigns.

(23:00):
Then, with the Comanche comingsouth and causing the Apache to panic,
they decided to side with the Spanish.
This wasn't as beneficial asthe Spanish would believe, only causing
the Comanche and tribesaligned with them to attack the Spanish
for then helping their enemies.
So kind of lose, lose situation.

(23:20):
The raids were not decimating,but they, you know, strained the
region more than thegovernment would have liked.
Another curveball to New Spainwas the second treaty of Paris in
1783, which saw the ending ofthe American Revolution, ratified
some borders which the newlyformed United States had requested.
The new western edge of thecountry was placed alongside the
Mississippi river and peoplethey were stoked.

(23:44):
In the first year alone,50,000Americans traveled across the
Appalachian Mountains to homestead.
This number dwarfed the amountof settlers currently in the Texas
region, which was around 3,500 colonists.
So this influx of settlers tothe north had strained the Spanish
ports.
Many preferred to travel downthe Mississippi to trade rather than

(24:05):
hike through the mountains.
Spain closed ports toforeigners from 1784 until 1795 and
threatened Americans witharrest should they go to Texas.
One story I found is a mannamed Philip Nolan.
He was arrested several timescrossing the border into Texas to
capture wild horses and thentrade with the natives.
He was eventually killed in abattle with the Spanish, which the

(24:28):
Spanish had aimed at capturinghim out of fear that he was a spy.
Ooh, mysterious.
Americans had figured out aloophole to the trading, as they
were primarily trading withtribes in the region, right.
Kind of like a middlemanaction, often trading guns and ammo
for livestock.
The Comanche were one of thetribes to engage in international
trades, so to speak.

(24:48):
A drought actually hadprevented their herds from growing
naturally.
So they used a little creativeproblem solving and raided San Antonio
to meet their trade demands.
Basically par for the coursefor the region until the end of the
18th century.
In 1799, Spain gave Louisianaback to France in exchange for promise

(25:11):
of a kingdom in Italy.
Not exactly sure why Spainmade this deal.
You may remember that theFrench Revolution kind of still going
on at this point, you know.
And, you know, after, shortlyafter that, our buddy Napoleon sold
Lou Louisiana to the UnitedStates to help fund his trounce the
monarchy campaigns.
Thomas Jefferson understoodLouisiana as being as far west as

(25:34):
the Rocky Mountains, all ofthe Mississippi and Missouri rivers
and their tributaries south tothe Rio Grande, which all of the
Mississippi and its tributaries.
That's basically the whole country.
I mean, have you looked at that?
It's crazy.
Spain disagreed.
They did not think it includedTexas and only believe that it reached
Nacogdoches if it did.

(25:55):
Spain did feel that there's.
There's pressure, right?
As westward expansion by theUnited States and their settlers.
And in response decided tosend thousands of colonists to Texas
to provide population supportfor their buffer zone.
They had canceled.
They had to cancel this,however, due to insufficient funds.
Embarrassing.
Spain did increase the trooppresence in the region, but only

(26:16):
after the United States haddone so as well.
King Charles IV had orderedofficial borders to be figured out.
Charlie died before this couldbe done.
And his replacement, Ferdinandvii, was kicked to the curb the same
year by our boy Napoleon.
Napoleon put his cousin incharge, Joseph and Joseph Bonaparte,
as the king of Spain.
But power would switch back toFerdinand eventually.

(26:39):
Before he had returned though,a constitutional government had formed.
But when firds came Back hewas not willing to accept.
Eventually he would, though by1820 and you might be sitting there
thinking all of that turnoverand change in hands of power.
Who is watching the children?
Has anybody checked the children?
That was unnecessarily creepy.

(27:01):
Good question.
I'm glad you asked.
Nobody really knew.
You know, this would kind of.
This would give perfectconditions for the Mexican War of
Independence to take place.
Riots occurred in 1808 overfood scarcity, not directly leading
to the revolution, but kind ofstoking the embers of what will be

(27:22):
right.
First major revolutionarymoments came In September of 1808,
when a coup d' etat saw theViceroy of New Spain overthrown.
The group leading this coupwas the Peninsular Spaniards, People
of Spanish blood, but theywere born on American soil.
Non Spanish blood.
People living in the region fell.
This was not the move.

(27:43):
One man, Miguel Hidalgo, isbest known for this moment.
He had inspired thousands tostand up against the government,
even though he had no realframe of goals.
He's just, I don't like thegovernment and I want to fight him.
And that was kind of it.
And he just.
I don't know, he hoped thatsomebody else was going to come up
and create something better,but he's like, I'm not.

(28:07):
I'm not the guy.
I'm.
I'm the guy that knocks thoseguys down.
And then the other guy comesin and sets everything up.
But the evidence for a needfor change can be found in the fact
that Hidalgo had amassed sucha following without having any real
distinct plan.
I think people wanted thingsto be different.
Hidalgo made a few errors forthe most part, but people are like,

(28:31):
yeah, love this guy.
And he did end up gettingcaptured and then executed.
And then also his head, withthree other people were hung on walls
of a building.
But, you know, the inspirationwas there.
Ignacio Lopez Real takes overleadership after Hidalgo's capture
and execution.
He organizes the Suprema JuntaGubernita Uber Nativa de America.

(28:54):
Yeah, Bueno.
A group that aims to lead theinsurgency against Spanish rule.
Meanwhile, Jose Maria MoralesMorelos emerges as a key leader,
using guerrilla tactics tofight royalist troops under Felix
Maria Calais.
Man, I am not happy.
I failed Spanish class in highschool because this is.

(29:16):
I'm not doing so hot on these pronunciations.
Despite being besieged atCualta, he manages to take cities
like Oaxaca, which expandedhis insurgent control into the southern
regions in 1813.
Morelos.
Morello.
Morelos.
Yeah.
Morelos convenes the Congress of.

(29:38):
Oh, boy.
Chip on.
Chingo.
Yeah.
Where they just they declaredindependence from Spain and enshrined
Catholicism as the region ofthe region.
Religion of the region.
There we go.
Nailed it.
Can't even speak regular words.
Now.
The solemn act of independenceis signed recognizing Mexico's sovereignty
after Morelos death.

(29:59):
Vincent Vicente VicenteGuerrero leads insurgents into Mexico.
Southern Mexico usingguerrilla warfare.
And then it ends up being kindof a stalemated against royalist
forces until the arrival ofAcostin de eter.
Eater.
Bide.
Yeah, this guy.
Either, either, either.

(30:21):
Bide initiates contact withGuerrero, proposing a plan of.
A plan to achieve.
There's another word that Ididn't want to butcher.
Achieve independence whileguaranteeing equality and Catholic
religion.
They form an alliance.
And this kind of this, thisalliance leads to the creation of
the army of the three Gourantes.

(30:43):
The plan of this guy.
This or not this guy, thistreaty is to recognize Mexican independence
under Iturbet or iterabide's leadership.
On September 27, 1821, thearmy of the Three Gorantes enters
Mexico City and that markstheir independence.

(31:03):
Iterbide was declared Emperorof Mexico in May 1822, but later
faced opposition leading tohis abdication.
The United States was actuallythe first to recognize this new country
on their independence.
My guess is probably tooquickly gain their trade value, right?
Like yeah, you're, you're.
You're a country.

(31:24):
Trade with us.
Buy our stuff.
The First Mexican Republic wasestablished in 1824.
But you know, it had a longway to go before it was sovereign.
Meanwhile, more Americans arestarting to head westward.
One notable example is that ofMoses Austin.
Father Stephen F. Austin.
These are the guys I wastalking about.

(31:44):
Family of entrepreneurs.
Mo why am I doing that?
Voice Moses Austin started asa dry goods store owner owner before
shifting into lead mining inVirginia and then in Missouri.
His success in Missouri wasonly short lived.
After having built a mansion,founded a bank.
But then The Panic of 1819caused his business cost his businesses

(32:07):
to crumble.
And soon he was without anyideas or money.
And he wasn't the only one.
Many Southerners found theireyes fixated on virtually the untouched
lands of Texas as a possibility.
The post 1819 panic left manyAmericans ruined and seeking a fresh
start.
Texas was seen as anattractive destination due to its

(32:28):
cheap land potential forcotton cultivation.
However, the core attractionof the region was not just the land,
but also the opportunity to,you know, hey, we're going to grow
cotton.
You know what you need to grow cotton?
Well, apparently you need slaves.
Settlers made it very clearthat they would only come to Texas
if Slavery was allowed.

(32:48):
Stephen F. Austin stated,quote, nothing is wanted but money.
And this is his words, theNegroes are necessary to make it
all right.
So he's pretty not cool.
And you know, this isbasically because so many southerners
had no idea how to do workwithout slaves.
Like they are just incompetentat performing tasks.

(33:12):
They're lazily leaning onslave labor because they have no
idea how to grow crops withoutit, which is, you know, just a sad
institution to grow up in.
Right.
Like you can't evenconceptualize how to plant stuff
without slaves.
Like you don't know how to runa business.
Like you can't pay people whatwas going on.

(33:34):
So that, that's kind of their mentality.
Texas had ideal cotton, idealconditions for cotton.
Long growing seasons, richbottomlands, proximity to markets
like New Orleans.
Estate was also filled withwhat the settlers saw as virgin cotton
land.
You know, it's not really beenused to grow anything, although it

(33:55):
was already home to, you know,the native people and Tejano populations.
Land grants were generous,making Texas more accessible than
any other states in the southas well.
Mexico's distant and weakenforcement of laws, especially anti
slavery laws and religrequirements, made Texas pretty attractive.
Settlers knew they couldignore these laws with pretty much

(34:16):
little consequences.
Austin assured colonists thatthe anti slavery rules would not
be enforced, which is a thingthat he was kind of working on the
government with.
Some would.
Some came to speculate on theland expecting it, expecting it would
eventually become part of theUnited States.
Others viewed Mexicangovernance as weak or illegitimate

(34:36):
and assumed Texas was ripe forAmericanization or annexation.
Many settlers arrived withlittle regard for Mexican law, culture,
institutions they refused toassimilate, clung to the English
Protestantism and US style governance.
This cultural and legaldisconnect was one of the main tensions
that would start fracturingthis relationship.

(35:00):
After Mexico's 1824 federalconstitution, Texas was not populous
enough to become its own state.
So it was combined with whichwas form.
The state itself was.

(35:22):
Yeah.
With the capital in Satillo.
Mexican liberal lawmakers wereinfluenced by enlightenment anti
slavery ideals.
They were tasked with writinga state constitution.
Article 13 banned slaveryoutright, which made the Anglo settlers
panic leaders, includingStephen F. Austin and his allies

(35:46):
who mobilized quickly to blockor amend it.
And I think, you know, it'simportant to note why Mexico was
so anti slavery.
This is a group of people whowere largely mixed race, right?
I mean there's a lot ofSpanish people, but at this point
Mexico is made up of a varietyof different types of people.

(36:08):
So Very much in the.
In the realm of, hey, justbecause they're not white doesn't
mean their property basicallyis essentially like they.
They had no desire to see that happen.
Settlers argued that Texaswould be.
It would wither away withoutslavery and saw it as a direct threat

(36:29):
to the colony's survival.
Issue wasn't just about laws,also about immigration, economics,
revolt, since they feared it.
If slavery was ban, settlerswould leave, immigration would stop,
and the fragile economy would collapse.
And the letter from SanAntonio leaders to set Saltillo called
Article 13 a death blow anddemanded that the vote on it be postponed

(36:53):
until Texas representativescould be heard.
Jose Antonio Navarro, aprominent Tejana lawyer and ally
of Austin, led the legalopposition, arguing that Texas would
perish without slavery.
The compromise reached out,allowed settlers six more months
to bring in slaves and keptcommercial slave trade banned.
And children of enslavedpeople would be freed at the age

(37:14):
of 14, which was widely ignored.
This compromise quieted thepanic, but didn't really resolve
the issues as Austin saw it.
Not just, not just as a law,but, you know, this.
This could lead to poverty fora long time as.
As well as fearing slaverevolts and public unrest if suddenly

(37:34):
emancipated.
The period following theimplementation of the law of April
6, 1830, saw significantchanges in Texas as settlers increasingly
felt the weight of restrictivepolicies imposed by Mexico.
The law aimed to limitmigration from the United States
and restrict slavery, whichonly exacerbated tensions among these

(37:56):
white settlers.
1829, a compromise of acompromise allowed the six more months,
right?
And then also there's a weirdthing on the back end where the Anglo
people, the white guys arelike, I got it.
We're not going to have slaves.
We're going to sign them tocontracts and they're just going

(38:17):
to work for us until thecontract expires.
And the contract would be like80 years or something crazy.
So Stephen F. Austin, he'skind of becoming more and more the,
like, center point of thewhite people opposing this.
And as that, he.
He kind of grows his faction alittle bit.

(38:38):
By 1832, Austin was leadingthe first Texas conventions where
settlers demanded reforms,including repeal of immigration bans
and the separation of Texasfrom Coahuilia Hoya to form its own
state.
This movement gained momentumin 1833.
Delegates drafted aconstitution and sent Austin to Mexico

(38:59):
City to present their demands.
He spent months navigatingbureaucratic red tape and political
infighting, trying to broker adeal that would allow Texas more
autonomy while maintainingloyalty to Mexico.
But his patience wearing thinby the Time he wrote a private letter
back to Texas in late 1833.
He advised that if separationcouldn't be achieved legally, Texas

(39:21):
should proceed to form theirown state government.
It's a pragmatic but illegalstance that kind of sealed the fate
of him and many others.
His letter was intercepted,leading to his arrest and imprisonment
in early 1834.
Austin's incarceration markeda turning point, transforming him
into, from a moderate voice ofcompromise into a radical figure

(39:44):
convinced that reconciliationwith Mexico was now impossible.
His imprisonment alsoradicalized the settlers.
The, the white settlersmostly, but also there's some, some
Tejanos that were like, Imean, let's try it out.
The situation in Mexico wasgrowing increasingly authoritarian
as President Antonio Lopez deSanta Ana shifted to centralism,

(40:06):
abolishing the 1824Constitution and dissolving state
legislator legislatures.
This move by Santa Anaalienated many Mexicans, including
federalists in other stateslike Zacatecas.
Zakas.
Yep, okay, nailed it.
Who rebelled against his crackdowns.
The timing of Austin's releasein mid-1835 could not have been worse.

(40:29):
As he returned to Texasconvinced that peace was no longer
achievable, he aligned himselfwith a growing faction of people
who were advocating for armedresistance or independence.
And the arrival of newsettlers during this period only
kind of exacerbated tensions.
Many were economic refugeesfrom the United States.
Refugees in the sense thatthey were fleeing debt, legal trouble,

(40:51):
personal scandals.
Many of them young, single,heavily armed, often very much ready
to like, just fight anybodyfor any reason.
Some had military experience,either from militias or skirmishes
with Native Americans, makingthem, you know, not nothing.
Among these settlers wereslaveholders, slave traders who saw
Texas as part of the Cotton kingdom.

(41:13):
Right.
King Cotton.
Despite Mexican bans onslavery, they engaged in legal trade,
smuggling enslaved individualsinto Texas, exploiting land speculation
schemes.
Others were mere opportunists,drawn to the promise of profit from
war or chaos rather than anyideological commitment to liberty.
Individuals like WilliamBarrett Travis, a failed lawyer fleeing

(41:36):
personal scandals in Alabama,merged as a key figure here.
Known for his hot headedbehavior and inflammatory rhetoric,
Travis was already involved inorganizing militias and agitating
against the Mexicanauthorities before the war began.
We also have Jim Bowie.
Famous, famous Jim Bowie.
He is land speculator and also fraudster.

(41:59):
He very good at scamming people.
He also had a reputation as aviolent knife fighter.
His Bowie knife, very famous,symbolic, gigantic knife, basically
a sword.
You know, these are, these arethe kinds of guys that are, he's
like, you know what, time forme to go.
He's the life of lying topeople about land that I'm selling

(42:23):
them and smuggling slaves.
It's time for me to move on.
He was too running out of opportunities.
In the United States we alsohave people like Davy Crockett, former
U.S. congressman.
We learned a little bit abouthim in the red, the.
Well he fought in the RedStick wars, part of the Seminole
wars episode.

(42:44):
He was kind of trying toreinvent Texas.
Sam Houston kind of inspiredhim like hey, come to Texas, check
it out.
Basically things are basically done.
We're ready to go.
There's not really going to beanything crazy going on.
He was lied to, swindled intothis situation.
These men, these, these menrepresented the harsh reality of

(43:07):
the frontier life.
They're fighters, gamblers,risk takers who saw Texas as an opportunity
for profit or redemption or both.
The combination of economicstruggles, political radicalization
and available troublesomearrival of troublesome individuals
really set the stage for this rebellion.
The idea of taking Texas byforce had already been embedded in

(43:27):
their behavior and worldviewway before the first shots were ever
fired.
Now the Mexican government hadtried to appease the Anglo settlers
by making occasionalconcessions like the compromise on
slavery in 1829.
But these efforts were metwith frustration because you know
you give a mouse a cookie andit's just going to keep going right.

(43:48):
The settlers self centeredattitudes and demand for greater
autonomy couldn't be satisfiedby any temporary fixes or symbolic
gestures.
And the dynamic of thisappeasement followed by the rebellion
was, was a recurring themethroughout the period.
While Mexico attempted tomaintain control through concessions,

(44:09):
the settlers mindset remainedfocused on their own goals.
Prioritizing American styleindependence over collaboration with
Mexico.
You're doing it wrong.
You guys don't know whatyou're doing.
We have a better plan.
You guys specifically, youguys don't know how to do it.
Take that as you will.
Combination of these factors,Mexican appeasement attempts and

(44:32):
the settlers unyielding selfinterest it does, it's gonna make
things a little tough now.
By early 1836 tensions inTexas had fully boiled over.
Over.
The Texians had expelledGeneral Cos from San Antonio, a Mexican
general and just, just a fewmonths prior.

(44:53):
And many believe naively thatMexico wouldn't come back or at least
anytime soon.
Winter had set in.
Most of the volunteers hadgone home and a sense of fragile
confidence hung over the region.
But what few anticipated wasthe sheer determination of Santa
Ana.
He launched a punishing winter campaign.

(45:13):
Crossing more than 600 milesof brutal terrain.
Reassert control over therogue province.
He lost hundreds of men todesertion, disease, and cold along
the way.
But by February 23, he stoodat the gates of San antonio with
nearly 2,000 soldiers preparedto make a brutal example of the Texas.
Inside the Alamo, a formerSpanish mission turned makeshift

(45:35):
fort, were fewer than 200 men,volunteers, irregular irregulars,
adventurers, and idealistslike people like William Barrett
Travis that I mentioned before.
James Bowie, Davy Crockett.
These are the famous people, right?
And unfortunate for David Crockett.
Apparently, he.

(45:55):
He also went by David.
Davey is like a Persona.
Anyway, he had kind of justshowed up, and when he showed up,
he's like, all right, cool.
Let's start settling stuff.
And they're like, hey,Mexico's on their way.
And he's like, I thought.
I didn't think we were fighting.
Unfortunate timing for him,but they didn't know how fast he

(46:17):
would be.
They knew he would be coming,but they kind of figured he would
not be doing it in the middleof winter.
Yeah.
The decision to defend theAlamo was kind of flawed from the
beginning.
Strategically, the compound didn't.
It wasn't a good fort.
It was, you know, way too farinto hostile territory, too far west

(46:41):
to be easily reinforced, andits walls, old, crumbling, never
designed for military warfare.
Right.
It was very little protectionagainst the type of siege equipment
that Santa Ana was going to be using.
Sam Houston himself hadordered Travis to destroy the fort,
fall back to a more defensibleposition further east, and that order

(47:01):
was ignored.
Whether out of overconfidence,pride, or desperation, the Texians,
they dug in.
They believed that holding theAlamo would stall Santa Anna, perhaps
deter him.
In truth, it was only servedto gather his wrath.
The siege began on February23rd and would stretch for, you know,
13 tense, miserable days.

(47:22):
Santa Anna demanded surrender.
Travis replied with a cannonblast, you know, like a normal guy
does.
From that moment, the standoffwas sealed.
Mexico was like, all right,you don't want to surrender.
We're not going to let you.
So not good for them.
The artillery from the Mexicanarmy battered the compound pretty
much every day.

(47:42):
Supplies were tight, morale low.
Men tried to slip out in thenight, hoping to escape what they
suspected was a death sentence.
Others clung to hope,believing that reinforcements from
Goliad or Houston's commandwould arrive soon.
None did.
Bowie.
Bowie.
Jim Bowie, he is bedridden.
He's sick.
He can't do anything.
He's literally laying in abed, unable to focus on anything

(48:04):
other than been dying.
Basically, Crockett, he.
You know, he Kind of he'sdoing his best to inspire hope.
Right.
One interesting note from themovie from 2004 is There's a scene
where him and Jim Bowie aretalking about the myths about them.
Right.

(48:24):
They're sharing legends withone another.
And Billy Bob Thornton asCrockett is kind of like, you know,
these, these men, they expectthose stories to be real and we have
to do our best to live up tothat expectation.
And essentially it's like amorale play.
Right.
Like we have to show them ormake them believe that that's true

(48:46):
because if we don't, they'regoing to lose hope and we're all
going to die, essentially.
Yeah.
Anyway, the end came in thepre dawn hours of March 6th when
Santa Ana launched a fullscale assault fault on all four walls.
Fully surrounded of the fort,Mexican soldiers rushed forward in
columns, taking heavy losses.

(49:06):
At first the cannon shotreally kind of messing them up as,
as it would do.
But ultimately they scaled thenorth wall and then began breaching
the compound.
What followed was a brief andbloody battle.
Slaughter Texians they fought desperately.
Rifles, pistols, bayonets,hitting people with empty muskets.

(49:28):
You know, fell back from thewalls room by room, fighting hand
to hand in the courtyards.
Travis was killed pretty early.
You know, the, the reports arethat he was shot in the head and
then fell down.
But there's also like some,some misunderstanding of how that
happened.

(49:48):
I don't know.
Bowie, he was cut down.
He was ran up upon withbayonets in his bed.
Some stories say that he shotand slashed his way as they were
killing him.
Others say he was too sick andprobably was too sick to defend himself.
Crockett, his fate kind of a mystery.

(50:10):
Part of the legend really ofthe Alamo.
There's, you know, there's astory that he, you know, fought to
the bitter end.
He's got two rifles shootingat people.
He's swinging the rifles untilthe bitter end.
And there' like a pile of deadMexican soldiers underneath him.
But then there's also like aMexican general who said that he

(50:31):
was.
He surrendered and then SantaAna executed him.
So who knows?
By the time the actualmourning began, it was over.
The every defender from theAlamo was dead.
Estimates range from 180 to250 men.
Santa Ana, determined to erasethe rebellion at its root, ordered

(50:53):
the bodies to be burned in Mass.
P.S.
he spared only a few women,children and the enslaved individuals
to tell the story.
Ironically, his attempt toprevent martyrdom only actually ended
up fueling it.
This remember the Alamo Warcry would be because of these survivors
that would tell the story.
Right.
And.
And that's, you know, that's what.

(51:14):
What came after the Alamobattle is more enduring than the
invisible event itself.
Right?
The Alamo.
In death, it was crafted intoa legend, molded over time into a
symbol of noble sacrificethat, you know, the story includes
some of the most enduring andquestionable tales in American folklore.
The Line in the sand by Travisis one of the big ones.

(51:36):
Nobody really knows if that'strue, but Travis apparently gathered
people and drew a line in thesand with a sword and told anybody
that anyone willing to stayand die should cross the line.
And apparently everybodyexcept for one, did.
But, you know, there's no wayto prove that that actually happened.
Yeah, and the guy who didn'tleft, and he's the one that told

(51:57):
that story, but also told itlike 50 years after it happened.
So the first known version ofthis story, it didn't even appear
until 1871, which is.
Okay, not 50 years, 30 years.
And it was actually told bythe son in law of a woman who survived.

(52:18):
So not even the guy.
There's also romantic notionsof Travis's final speech.
You know, he had this give meliberty or give me death kind of
thing.
Right.
Delivered right before dawn.
And again, no evidence, nosurvivors among the fighting men
to recall such a moment.
And, yeah, Crockett, again, his.

(52:40):
His epic finale, you know,different movies.
John Wayne played him.
There's also this him playingthe fiddle in the firelight before
charging into this last stand.
And, you know, he might havebeen captured, he might have fought.
It might have been both.
I don't know.
The movie in 2004 actuallymakes it both.
Like, he charges and then hegets captured and then.

(53:02):
Then they execute him.
And he's like, I'm a screamer,which quite frankly is pretty badass
line.
But like I said, one of theofficers, the Mexican officers, wrote
in his journal that Crockettand several others found alive and
then begged for mercy and thenwere executed.
But, you know, these myths,they didn't.
They didn't come out by accident.

(53:23):
You know, they were all kindof concocted to kind of help paint
a picture of, A, theviciousness of the Mexican army,
and B, the resilience of thesepeople defending Texas.
Right.
They're defending them.
We gotta.
We gotta make it right by them.
Because the war is.
It was this thing that wasactually kind of about land, power,

(53:47):
slavery, but now it was aboutthe Alamo.
Right, but the Alamo was thisweird thing in Reality, it's a miscalculation.
A poorly defended outpost justheld in defiance of better judgment.
And.
But yet it's still, still partof this story, right?
And, and part of the story isthat the Texians, they were, you

(54:08):
know, trying to fight againsttyranny, but they're not.
They're land hungry, mostlyAmericans who violated Mexican law
over and over and over.
Not Sam Houston.
Stephen F. Austin, over andover and over declared that he was
going to gonna, you know,throw overthrow the government.
Like, yeah, I mean, they kindof had to respond.

(54:29):
It's not saying that whatSanta Anna did is great, but I mean,
realistically, like, that'skind of what happens.
So it's kind of funny because,you know, Santa Anna, he was trying
to send a message with the Alamo.
He said, I'm gonna kill allthese guys.
And then that message actuallygets spun around on him.
This is kind of of one ofhistory's ironic move moments, you

(54:53):
know, and, and Santa Anadidn't really even care about the
outpost itself.
He wasn't going to use it.
It was.
He's just moving on.
He's like, all right, well, wegot to get rid of these guys and
then keep going.
So in the days after the Alamofell, the Texian leadership wasted
no time turning tragedy into strategy.
While the Mexican army burnedbodies and prepared to march east,

(55:13):
Sam Houston and his Alamo guysare already spinning the story into
something way bigger,something that would, you know, be
the, the war cry that they needed.
The, remember the Alamovengeance cry, right?
The massacre of every singleone of these defenders, valiant defenders,
heroic defenders who tried tofight the good fight against tyranny,

(55:35):
right?
This narrative weapon thatHouston wielded, he actually learned
from Andrew Jackson this, thisvalue of myth, you know, simplifying
a messy situation into a fightbetween good and evil.
You know, the Texian rebellionhad really been about a thousand
things, but they boil it downto one thing, and good and bad.

(55:56):
So that what mattered nowwasn't just all the things that they
were fighting for is it wasthe Alamo.
So six weeks after the Alamofell, the symbol inspired the men
in the Battle of San Jacinto.
On April 21, 1836, Houston'sarmy launched a surprise attack on
Santa Anna's encampment,catching the Mexican forces off guard

(56:18):
and overwhelming them in amatter of minutes.
The Texians shouting, rememberthe Alamo.
As they charged.
And then pretty much within 20minutes, they had killed or captured
hundreds.
Santa Anna himself caught thenext day disguised as a lowly soldier
trying to flee.
What a trickster.
The rage over the Alamo haddone more to energize, or more than

(56:40):
just energize the troops,though, because it completely flipped
the script of what Santa Annawas trying to do is super big, right?
And with Santa Anna's capture,the war essentially over.
We captured your guy.
Texas now declared itselfindependent, but now independence
was not enough.
The new republic, weak, broke,and surrounded.
What it really needed withHouston and many others had always

(57:03):
wanted was annexation, right,by the United States.
And that's, you know, know,the Alamo myth kind of goes in overdrive
here.
It became the story that theysold to the American public.
We fought, we lost all thesepeople to defend you guys.
Essentially.
No longer was Texas a rogueprovince full of slaveholding, defying

(57:25):
their host country.
It was land of liberty,freedom fighters, right?
We're standing up against tyranny.
Let us in.
Andrew Jackson, president atthe time, time, he liked Texas joining
the Union, but also did notlike the fact that it might make
Mexico want to fight them,which it would.

(57:45):
He delayed.
But the American public,especially in the south, had already
been won over by the imageryof the Alamo.
This story captured the heartsof so many people.
They're like, guys, did it work?
We're proud of you boys.
Private support poured acrossthe border in form of men, guns,
money.
This, the story really fed.
Fed this people, right?

(58:06):
And, you know, the Texians,they revolted.
The story itself, the peoplebeing happy about it, they didn't
ask why the Texians hadrevolted in the first place or who
really benefited from thisland grab or what role slavery played.
And then they probablywouldn't have cared anyway.
But it.
It was just a good story, andstories like that have consequences.

(58:27):
And in 1845, nearly a decadeafter the Alamo, the United States
did annex Texas and Mexico.
Very not happy.
Were now totally aboutfighting the United States.
Like Andrew Jackson predictedthat war would end with the United
States seizing half ofMexico's territory, stretching the
American flag all the way tothe Pacific.

(58:48):
Now, like, through Californiaand everything.
The Alamo had helped lightthat fuse.
It had become more, you know,than just this.
This story.
It was like weird donationprogram almost.
They're like, you guys want to help?
Remember the Alamo pitch in,which is crazy, but part of the.

(59:09):
Part of the part.
Part of the part.
Part of the rougher part.
I don't know if I phrase thatright, is that in the myth building,
a lot of the truce did get lost.
And maybe because they didn'tWant them to.
You know, you got a lot of, alot of facts omitted.
And one of the biggest things,the forgotten pieces is the Tejanos

(59:31):
who fought and died for thecause and they just never were brought
up again.
Like people didn't want to saythat non white people fought against
Mexico.
They, they just wanted to.
I don't know, it's.
It's a weird thing.
After Texas joined the UnitedStates, the Alamo quickly became
sacred.
Lore, war, right?

(59:52):
Classrooms, school books, allof the things were taught.
They were like, you gotta.
This is, this is what we're teaching.
This is what happened.
You know, this bravefrontiersman defied against this
cruel dictator.
And the Tejano allies who hadrisked everything for the Texian
cause were kind of written outof it.

(01:00:12):
The role of slavery rule, ofthe economic engine behind the rebellion,
barely mentioned broadercontext of why Mexico had grown weary
of these people in Tex.
Not, not part of it.
The story became a clearmorality play tailor made for children
and citizenship ceremonies.
Politicians found it super useful.

(01:00:33):
Throughout the 19th century,Texas leaders regularly invoked the
battle to stir patriotic fervor.
Oh, you're not going to votefor me?
Guess you forgot the Alamo,which is crazy and wild that people
don't still do stuff like that.
Confederate ideologies, you know.
And Southern nationalistseventually co opted the Alamo as

(01:00:57):
part of the Lost Cause narrative.
Way to romanticize nobledoomed rebellion and tie it into
white supremacy and states rights.
Right.
In that way the Alamo stoppedbeing just a Texas story and now
it's a Southern story and morebroadly an American one.
The cultural machine picked itup from there.
19th century saw a flood ofhistorical fiction and newspaper

(01:01:19):
embellishments thattransformed the Alamo into something
closer than to legend, than history.
Right.
Writers and journalistsdressed it up with dramatic flair,
filling the unknowns with thekind of heroics that would make up
for good reading, make forgood reason.
Reading Davy Crockett inparticular morphed into a larger
than life figure.
Part of.
Like he already was during his lifetime.

(01:01:41):
He's basically a demigod atthis point, portrayed as.
He's this rugged AmericanMoses gunslinging Odysseus, just
swinging on these people,climbing a stack of bodies.
By the end of the century,almost nothing that people believed
about the Alamo had any realbasis in fact.
It was no longer a battle, itwas a brand.

(01:02:01):
And the myth grew for them.
And then the Tejano figureslike Juan Seguin, who had actually
fought for independence werepushed to the margins or cast in
ambiguous roles.
Survivors like Joe WilliamTravis's enslaved servant, whose
first hand account was one ofthe most detailed and valuable, were
forgotten cotton, you know,because he's a slave, or was motivations

(01:02:23):
of the rebellion, particularlythe drive to protect and expand slavery,
less and less mentioned.
And it's very deliberate inthat way.
And by the end of the 19thcentury, the Alamo myth was now basically
gospel as a cornerstone ofTexas identity.
Cultural touchstone for theAmerican frontier myth, key pillar
of post war Southern nationalism.

(01:02:44):
The real Alamo, the broken,neglected ruins, ironically stood
largely forgotten.
Which is hilarious to like,not, not great that like people are
forgetting the actualbuilding, you know, but it's just
very like people are using itas this political tool.
And then the actual Alamonobody cares about.

(01:03:05):
It's very ironic, right?
I think part of it ended upbeing a grocery store for a little
bit, like just very, very much.
Nobody cared about this building.
Each generation, you know,added their own layers to this, this
thing and into the 19thcentury or 20th century, I guess.
And it kind of the, the mythitself kind of shapes how the nation

(01:03:28):
sees itself a little bit today.
You see it in our sense of exceptionalism.
The idea that Americans, evenwhen flawed, destined to triumph
for our cause, is justinherently just.
The myth of the Alamo helpedreinforce that belief by turning
an illegal rebellion intosacred struggle for liberty.
And noble sacrifice wasplanted, you know, this echo through

(01:03:49):
the Civil War, both worldgranted, World War II, we were on
the good side that time, butthen you get Vietnam, Iraq, you know,
all these things.
We're the good guys, wepromise changes, how we talk about
failures, losses, valor, right.
And this, this kind of thing,you know, they would kind of repeat

(01:04:09):
this, the same idea, likeduring the, in the sorry blanket,
the annexation of Hawaii, forinstance, Cold War interventions
and like I said, the Middleeast, you know, all the, these, these
things, they're, they're kindof tied to this idea or the ideals
of the Alamo.
And you know, weirdly enough,as time moves on and people learn

(01:04:29):
more things, some cracks beganto form in this polished marble of
that legend.
A new generation ofhistorians, educators, writers started
looking at the story a littlecloser, started to make, track down
original letters and firsthandaccounts, the Mexican records, overlooked
testimonies from survivors.
And you know, and a lot ofthese things they're finding didn't

(01:04:54):
line up with the, the story.
And so this is revision.
Revisionism is Alamorevisionism, which, you know, revised
rewriting.
A lot of politicians and diehard people are like, why are you
trying to change everything?
And it's like, yeah, we'rejust trying to make a little more
accurate dog.

(01:05:14):
It's.
And it's something that kindof continues, right?
We have things like that stillgoing on.
We have things aboutConfederate statues going on.
What's in the curriculum, theschool curriculum.
Part of this story, the TexasAlamo story, it is pitched in Texas
curriculum that the people atAlamo were heroes.

(01:05:36):
That, that.
That's.
That's what they are.
You can't say that they're notheroes, which is crazy.
And meanwhile, you have, like,you have all of these things where
you're.
You're trying to.
I don't know, you're decidewhat this story means for other people
instead of just saying the truth.
And over the 19th century,20th century, like I said that that

(01:05:57):
building nobody cared about.
And there was basically.
So there's a.
A faction of people called theDaughters of.
I don't even know what it'scalled for Texas.
There's.
It's like the Daughters of theConfederacy, but for, like, Texas.
And they were in charge of theAlamo for a long time, and they were

(01:06:17):
not.
Not like, gonna let anybody doanything to preserve it.
They wanted to turn it into apark, a pub, like a park.
And they had a gift shop.
And they, like, is this wholething that they're trying to market
off of this.
This story that's supposed tobe like this heroic, inspiring event.
And they're like, we don'ttake care of it and we don't really

(01:06:39):
care about it, and we're notgoing to tell you the real story.
Like, even the.
The Tejanos, the nosy, nonAnglo people that fought at the Alamo,
like, they have a plaque now,but that's kind of it.
It's like they just smoothover a lot of these facts.
And I don't know, it's.
It's kind of weird.
And I think the story, it's,you know, the Alamo.

(01:07:00):
Remember the Alamo.
Like, the ultimate irony isthat nobody seems to know what the
heck happened.
Like, you have to go and readbooks to figure it out and stuff,
instead of just being like,hey, Texas, what happened?
So that's kind of crazy.
The reality of it is that, youknow, these myths.
These myths endure becausewe're comfortable.

(01:07:22):
You know, they tell us what wewant to believe about ourselves.
They offer simple answers.
But the truth is.
Is messy and, you know, itdoesn't always feel good.
It complicates things.
It makes us ask harderquestions about power, privilege,
morality, whatever.
We're willing to ignore, tokeep the story tidy.
And yet if we want to grow asa country, we have to kind of face

(01:07:44):
that truth.
We have a lot of skeletons inour closet.
We don't have to erase things,you know, but maybe try and understand
it better.
The Alamo, when you strip awaythe legend becomes, I don't think
smaller.
It becomes more human.
It's flawed.
It's real, though.
Like we don't need it to be a myth.
We can and let it be a realstory, you know, I think that's the

(01:08:06):
more interesting thing.
Like, yeah, well, maybe wecould learn from that.
What should they have done differently?
Maybe.
Yeah.
So that's what we got today.
The story Alamo.
The people who kept the mythalive, the economic interests, Southerners
basically being kicked out ofthe south focus their sights on the
seemingly untamed andunclaimed Texas landscape.

(01:08:28):
They found it was notunclaimed, but untamed.
And the fight to take thisland for themselves spanned decades.
Culminated in the MexicanAmerican War and ultimately the short
lived state or country ofTexas, I guess, being annexed by
the United States.
The story of heroes inspiredthe soldiers to fight off Santa Ana
and then sold.

(01:08:48):
And the stories they toldcontinued to provide a basis for
not only the history of Texas,but the attitude of the American
people in general.
The erasure of the Tejanos andthe other non anglo people in these
myths that make, you know, thewhite man the savior once again in.
Although, you know, it wouldnever have been in the position they
were in had they justrespected the rights of the people

(01:09:11):
with darker complexions than them.
So no.
But I hope you all learnedsomething today.
I hope that you take thisinformation and apply it to things
you might be curious about.
The stories that create themyths of the things around us, you
know, they're darker than whatwe would like to be, but you know,
that's important nonetheless.
History always constantlyunraveling, usually dark and clouded

(01:09:34):
by the lies of people whowrite it.
But it's our job to decidewhat we live, what we leave as myths
or illuminate the truths.
Right?
So thank you for joining me onthis adventure through the tangled
web of a brief history ofTexas and the Alamo.
Thank you to the friends ofthe show whose links again are in
the description.
Wherever you're listening,thank you.

(01:09:55):
Those of you who have reviewedthe show, bought merch, I appreciate
you all with that as always,keep questioning the past, the future.
Will they?
Thank you.
See you next time.