Newly rediscovered letter's from Santa Anna sends the story of the Alamo on its head.

[Drkmcnamara]

So me and one of my colleagues were discussing about this new find that was made not to long ago about a forgotten correspondence between a Mexican scouting party and Santa Anna. He is looking to go into academia studying Texas history during the revolutionary war, his hope is to help give the role of the hispanic Tejanos in the revolution it's due in the history books.

So this letter Santa Anna recieved from his scouts indicated that they killed a Texan blockade runner and that they suspected that Davy Crockett was one of the dead. Santa Anna was rather intrigued with Davy Crockett however and he even played around with the idea of sparing his life instead of just killing him oike he would the rest of the rebels. Santa Anna immediately went out to the site of the skirmish and in his long forgotten correspondence confirmed that Davy Crockett was indeed one of the dead. (Or so Santa Anna thought, we must leave room for a possible case of mistaken identity)

That all took place just a few days before the Battle of the Alamo took place. This means all of the stories us Texans had about the Alamo and how much of a hero Davy Crockett allegedly was in the battle has in part been quite an embellishment. If this letter is legit then it would mean we would have to discount quite a bit of what happened at the Alamo. I have lived in Texas most of my life so I have come to be quite familiar with the local history, especially the Alamo since I live in San Antonio.

In all a very intresting find, I am not suprised to find that when we really look deep into the Battle of the Alamo the more you begin to really question the popular narrative surrounding the event. History in general has always been whitewashed, reinterpreted, romanticized and what have you. The way Texans have choosen to interpret their own path is a clear example of the old adage that history is written and remembered by the victors. In this case the victors were the US settlers that went to Texas and their descents.

My collegue is very passionate about wanting to bring a more accurate portrait of the past in Texas history where the non-white Texans would also get their just recognition. In a way he is fighting against racism, ignorance, myths and about a topic that is so close to home. He is a nut about the battle of the Alamo. I like him a lot.

I got a lot of examples of how racist and even condescending some of the popular narratives of my many historical events in Texas are toward Latinos. For me it is just so great that I like him, is also undertaking in myvown fight to clear the wests ignorance about China. I feel good knowing that my work might have some great impact in the world.

If only my colleague was gay, I would date him in a heartbeat. We are both just two nerdy, jovial friends really. It is like finding a long lost twin.

So any thoughts? Want some stories about some the outrageous things Texan politicians have said through out the years?

I have one, this one is one of my personal favorites, it is by Governor Mirian "Ma" Ferguson, the first female governor of Texas in the 20's. She got appointed governor after her husband "Pa" Ferguson got impeached on a corruption charge (Thats what happens whenever any politician tries to take away the UT systems considerable autonomy in runnings it's affairs, it is why the UT system has continued to remain quite liberal in it's own policies such as discrimination ordinances). I do ramble when I talk about historical stuff but yes. Here is what the lovely Mrs.Ferguson said when asked why she signed the bill forbidding the Spanish language from being spoken in public schools, "What those people need is to learn how speaks the Lord's language and that is English." LOL it would be funny if it did not actually happen but it did so yea. I am back!

[Drkmcnamara]

So who thinks History nerds are sexy? ROFL. Seriously that whole conversation about Santa Anna and Davy Crockett with my friend is my idea of a casual conversation. I can see why a lot of people would have trouble relating to me and that me being who I am with my idea of a good conversation just intimidates a lot of people. Do you all think that might be the case of why I am finding it hard to make friends?

[southbiochem]

So who thinks History nerds are sexy? ROFL. Seriously that whole conversation about Santa Anna and Davy Crockett with my friend is my idea of a casual conversation. I can see why a lot of people would have trouble relating to me and that me being who I am with my idea of a good conversation just intimidates a lot of people. Do you all think that might be the case of why I am finding it hard to make friends?

Well, someone better find us sexy otherwise we're screwed

No really, you just gotta find people who appreciate your intellect.

Here is what the lovely Mrs.Ferguson said when asked why she signed the bill forbidding the Spanish language from being spoken in public schools, "What those people need is to learn how speaks the Lord's language and that is English."

If anything it should be Aramaic, that's the language JC spoke, no?





This is not really a recent thing (the whole racism towards Latinos in those parts of US)

It started in the XVI century with UK protestants and Italians spreading the "Black Legend" portraying Spain as a tyranical colonial power, responsible of numerous atrocities.

By that time Spain was Europe's main Power and soon a heavy rivalry emerged bewteen them and England and other protestant powers against Catholic colonial Spain.

This was both true and an exaggeration at the same time

(True, because as any colonial power Spain repressed and plundered the colonies, but it's also an exaggeration. The funny thing is that later on UK and France were bigger slave traders and exploitators of their colonies than Spain ever was)

But anyway, the rivarly went on as England colonized North America which led to direct competition for hegemony in the continent.

Now, while the Black Legend ceased to exist ifor European Protestants, as soon as Spain decreased its hegemony over Europe in the XVII century, some of it passed on to puritans in British colonies.

Given Spain's control of the modern South West USA, the Caribbean and Florida, some elites in independent US, came to loathe Spain's dominace just as much as England had, but this time it was on the likes of a republic hating a monarchy.

This loathing soon was tranfered from Spain to independent México.

Adding to the lack of capabilities of México to populate the vast territory it had inherited, came the tought of Manifest Destiny, which as I understand was the thinking within the US government of some God given right for the US to expand towards the Pacific coast. Unfortunately, México was in the way.

Oh well, you see anti-Latin sentiment has had a deep root in the US, and it's markedly present in those particular places once under Mexican administration, precisely because they were a matter of contemption bewteen the US and México.

Now, setting aside US views on the matter versus Spain and México back then, we need to add that Señor Antonio López de Santa Ana was not exactly a sweetheart.

The view in the US of the anti-democratic general nature of Spains colonies and later México was not unfounded.

It is most obvious that after independence, former Spanish colonies were struggling economically and politically to achieve stability and the overall Spanish pyramidal social structure was by no means left behind.

This was an evident cause as to why most of Latin American countries soon fell to military leaders. The rare cases (such as my own country) where civilian governments thrieved, still were in the beggining, of an authoritarian nature.

So, Santa Anna's actions in El Alamo, may have been exaggerated perhaps, by the later victors of the Texan Revolution and more so after Mexican-American War, but they remain a fact. The overly centralized Mexican goverment would of course fight by any means any type of secessionist attidue, but at the same time it didn't had the means to avoid US settlers to come (and as I understand at some point enouraged it to help populate land they coudln't).

This meant that once former Mexican territories passed to the US an Americanization process must certainly have taken place to encourage the integration of the new territories. This of course meant hostile attitudes towards the Latin American past and by extension to Latin American people. Some of these attitudes have survived to this day.

[Drkmcnamara]

Why hello I think I have me a new friend in you Biochem, very impressive commentary. I will respond to it later when I have more time to type