Alamo we hardly knew ye

History is a fascinating subject, because it entails so much morals and lessons about humanity. Being born and raised here in San Antonio, Texas, one of the first things we are taught is the story of the Alamo. Names like Crockett, Travis, Bowie, and Houston are all like distant family members. Distant because we heard of them, but don’t really know them. In this city you will find schools, shrines, and streets named after these men. Hollywood of course will try to recreate any historical event in history and the Alamo was no exception. I recently viewed the 1960 film The Alamo starring John Wayne. In this film the men of the Alamo were represented as men of valor, drunks, but noble and brave none the less, the film however had a large number of inaccuracies.

From my readings, viewing of films and internet sites I was able to get a clear understanding of what happened. In the film the Anglo settlers were depicted pretty accurately in the sense they fought and died bravely. Travis shown to be a snob, but there is no proof that he acted like that. Bowie was in fact quite ill from dysentery or typhoid fever and wasn’t all that active as the movie portrays him to be. In the movie Bowie has a slave named Jethro, but history says his name was Sam. In the movie Travis was shot in the torso, but Sam the slave says he was shot in the head. In the film John Bonham tells the men that Fannin and his men were murdered with no help arriving. This doesn’t happen until about a month later after the Alamo has fallen. The Mexican forces were portrayed accurately and not out of character. The Tejanos in the film were non existent. The only Tejanos were the women in the bar and they were seen a whores. In history there was Tejano fighters in the Alamo and in the town of San Antonio. All in all we don’t know 100 percent of what happened or who died first, but we know that close to 200 men lost their life defending the Alamo.

The Alamo. Dir. John Wayne. Perf. John Wayne, Richard Wildmark, Laurence Harvey. DVD. MGM, 1960.

"The Alamo (1960 Film)." Wikipedia. 4 Oct. 2007 .

Tijernia, Andres. "Under the Mexican Flag." Tejano Journey os (1996): 33-47.

Remember the Alamo. DVD. Dir. Joseph Tovares. PBS Home Video, 2004, 54 min.