The Alamo Remembered:

Tejano Accounts and Perspectives

Iskander El Amri










History 2301
May 29, 2014
In this work, the author tried to bring back to life the stories of
the Tejanos who witnessed the fall of the Alamo. Most scholars
studying this historical event neglected the majority of the Tejano
sources thus overlooking a large part of the history of Texas and giving
the reader a picture with missing pieces. The author attempted to
collect Mexican Americans testimonies including conversation,
memoires and published articles to complete the missing pieces of the
history of the Alamo. The author interest with this subject comes from
his Tejano origins. In fact, Timothy Matovina is a professor of Theology
at Notre Dame university and the William and Anna Jean Cushwa
Director the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism. He
earned his B.A from Indiana University in 1978, and then he received
his masters of divinity from the university of Toronto in 1983 and finally
he received a PhD from the Catholic University of America in 1993.
Matovia is also a member of the American Academy of Religions,
Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians and the American Historical
Association. He also obtained various scholarly awards among them
the Virgilio Elizondo Award for distinguished achievement in theology
and the Julian Samora award for advancing the Latino community. The
author wrote several books about the Tejanos in Texas including:
Tejano Religion and Ethnicity: San Antonio, 1821-1860, University of
Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1995, Guadalupe and Her Faithful: Latino
Catholics in San Antonio, from Colonial Origins to the Present, Johns
Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 2005.

In this book, the author didnt pretend to interpret the history of the
Alamo but he provided eyewitness, oral and written accounts of Tejanos
during and after the fall of the fortress. Theses accounts reveled new realities
and even some controversial stories about the Alamo. Matovina revealed to
the world a part of the story of the Alamo that was silenced by time and by
many scholars. He dug deeply to provide the historians with documents with
great historical value. The writer provided historical support for each
document and he also verified the historical existence of the sources.
However, when in doubt, the author signaled it with question marks after the
cited sources. The accounts found in this book, demonstrate as said before
valuable information about the Alamo and the non-reveled contribution of the
Tejanos to this historical event. In fact most of the historical or dramatic works
shows the Anglos as the only protagonists during this event. However, this
book shows that the Tejanos fought along the first ranks of the defenders of
the Alamo among them Gregorio Esparza who fought valiantly as an Alamo
defender and died near the cannon that he tended (page 5). The book also
describes the atrocities that Tejanos lived during the war. The Mexican army
killed women and kids; they stole peoples food and clothes and treated the
habitants of San Antonio harshly. A big portion of the book contained
accounts of Tejanos describing the fall of the Alamo and the barbarian ferocity
of de Santa Anna during the war. The Alamo typically recalled as a place of
heroism and sacrifice, is now revealed to be a place of massacre and
inhumanity. Santa Anna used excessive force to suppress the defenders of
the fort; he killed all the soldiers, the ones who surrendered and even the sick
in their bad. He was ruthless as he ordered to burn all the corps of the
defender of the Alamo to terrorize the people and to suppress any movement
of revolt. However, his barbaric acts of war were the spark that ignited the will
of liberty and freedom in the hearts of Texans who continued the fight until
chasing all the Mexican troops from Texas and gaining their independence.
The book was finely organized in four section namely First reports,
Conversations with Local Tejanos, Unpublished Petitions and Depositions
and Published Accounts and in each chapter the materials were keenly
picked to convey hidden realities and to help historians explore the Alamo
from a different vantage point that was, before the publication of this book,
underestimated due racial bias. Most of the accounts in this book are
preceded by a short introductory paragraph that explains the context, the
source and the main characters of the account.
While some may argue that this book didnt provide any critical
interpretation of the fall of the Alamo I would suggest the opposite. From the
beginning the author stated that his purpose behind this book is to provide the
historical community with quality material to further explore the most famous
event in the history of Texas. He didnt pretend to offer any analysis or point of
view and he maintained his position of neutrality.
This book is a great resource for scholars and college student who want to
study profoundly the Alamo and learn more about the Tejanos contribution to
this important event in Texas history.