Citizens Conservation Committee Wants The Alamo Site To Tell A Broader Story

The group has developed a plan that would extend and unify the way the Alamo and its grounds are commemorated.

By Michael MarksMay 13, 2019 7:08 am

Texans are raised with the age-old maxim, “remember the Alamo.” But officials are currently having conversations about how to facilitate that remembrance in the Alamo’s and its place in its home city of San Antonio.

Roberto Treviño, a San Antonio city councilman, is one of the chairs for the Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee. The group has proposed a new compromise plan for preserving the grounds surrounding the Alamo.

One of the goals of the compromise plan is to broaden the story told by the Alamo. The overarching goal of the Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee, Treviño says, is to tell a broad and complete story while making sure the integrity of the process is upheld.

“Let’s let our institutional experts, historians, archaeologists – the professionals who truly understand the history – allow us to tell a broader story, not one that has been politicized or charged with something else, that then pushes a mythology,” Treviño says. “I think everyone can agree the John Wayne movie was entertaining, but it’s a mythology.”

The problem with the Alamo today is that it’s not a unified site, Treviño says.

“We’ve driving at trying to tell something more thoughtfully, more compelling… a compelling story that is much richer than simply the battle,” Treviño says. “There’s a reason why things led up to the battle, there’s things that happen after the battle, there’s so much history that’s connected to the site itself. There’s the indigenous era, there’s the mission era, of course there’s the battle, and then the modern San Antonio and what that means to how the world was shaped and how the United States was impacted by this area.”

The committee’s goal with the compromise plan is to tell a story that acknowledges all of these different parts.

“We’ve really got to tell the story that’s our very own – this is our story, this is the story of San Antonio, this is the story of Texas,” Treviño says.

Written by Brooke Reaves.