How Should We Remember the Alamo?

In this podcast, Jack Wallace and Henry Houghton reexamine the nationalist ideologies that have influenced state histories of Texas landmarks such as the Alamo. In contrast to the heroic portrait of Davy Crockett as a martyr to American liberty, some historic documents suggest that he and other Texans stationed at the Alamo likely surrendered to and were executed by the Mexican army in 1836. Jack and Henry explore the potential significance of this contradiction. They argue Crockett's surrender would have undermined the core notion of frontier justice that undergirds many local histories of Texas patriotism. The propaganda surrounding frontier patriots requires them to be seen as unyielding in their pursuit of American ideals, in both life and death. To show any of them having weakness would be to reveal the weakness of the nation itself. The Alamo is a cultural powerhouse of architectural imagery that maintains an iron grip on popular conceptions of Texas’ past, present, and potential future. Daring to reimagine the historic moment of Crockett's passing is a radical step in rewriting the rhetorical narrative of our nation; one that struggles with the settler colonial foundations of Texan land holdings.