"Relocate the Alamo Cenotaph?" Topic

Plans for the Cenotaph have not been finalized. There have been discussions over possibly relocating it outside where the Alamo's south gate once stood, moving it to the location of one of the funeral pyres outside of Alamo plaza, or keeping it at its current location.

The city, which owns the Cenotaph, will make the final decision.

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I dunno. I have a weird feeling that permanent protesters are going to show up to turn even this into something else, and just in time for their favorite media to get there too. All of it officially "spontaneous" of course.

Dan

Well, now I know what a Cenotaph is.

They still can't agree on a final plan for the Alamo development… so it will take a while. I suspect the Cenotaph will go back up, unlike the Travis Park statues.

Hmmm, I wonder how the DRT (Daughters of the Republic of Texas) feel about this. They were the ones, I'm led to believe, who initially strove to preserve the Alamo.

Jim

Hell, I'd fly there from Hew Jersey to protest that move!

It should not be moved and any development should be around it. I also agree with CC's comment.

> I dunno. I have a weird feeling that permanent protesters are going to show

It appears they already have shown up.

I found the comment that they were going to 'tell a more complete story' to be the most interesting.

That could be a way to slip in some revisionist, politically correct version of the history.

Of course, the actual history is that a bunch of foreigners moved to that territory at the invitation of that country's government and then decided they didn't like the way they were being governed and revolted.

Insofar as the cenotaph, the other locations seem to have some merit – they just wouldn't be front and center.

Even from the vidoe the rehabilitation seems overdue.

I agree with Dan and Goragrad. I think repair, refurbishment, are fine, but changing it up from what people want is different.

On a similar note, the John Wayne Alamo is having the props sold off. Great photos for a sad day.

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Mike Bunkermeister Creek
bunkermeister.blogspot.com

The sjw's probably can't wait to get their hands on "telling a more complete story". It will windup being another case of "white male privilege".

I think you can tell a more complete story without it turning into revisionist history. I think Tejano contributions are underplayed at the Alamo—given the ethnic breakdown of the city I do think that more of that story should be told. The plan is ambitious. A main road running in front of the Alamo will need to shut down to try to show the Alamo's footprint at the time… which puts it right up against some of the big hotels across the street.

Good point by goragrad, But don't forget that those foreigners were bringing slavery into the territorules, which was outlawed by Mexico. Thus we find the defenders of the Alamo were actually fighting for slavery.

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The Alamo has to be one of the strangest monuments in the U.S. It is a church, most famous for a battle, sitting in the middle of downtown San Antonio. On one side of the plaza is the chapel, which may be one of the most-revered, and certainly the most photographed building in Texas. Across the plaza are t-shirt shops, bars, and a Ripley's Believe It or Not that rival any tourist traps on any beach in the Americas. The Alamo itself is part museum, part quiet gardens, and part souvenir shop. Recently, they have done a better job separating the museum and the shop, but you can still see museum artifacts right next to a bin of key chains and coonskin caps. Every improvement comes at a price, the quiet arcade in front is now a line to get you picture taken so that they can sell it to you in the gift shop. In the summer, the plaza out front smells of urine and spilled ice cream cones. The cenotaph (an empty tomb -- there's one at Whitehall for you Brits) sits off by itself a bit, and does not get nearly the attention as the Alamo grounds.

To complicate matters, the Alamo became a point of civic pride for the Anglo community, and is the biggest tourist attraction in Texas. San Antonio, however, is about 64% Hispanic or Latino. While many of those people see the advantages that the Alamo brings to the city, they don't buy the Anglo mythology that surrounds the Alamo. A few hundred yards away, on the Riverwalk, there is sign where a giant cypress tree supposedly stood where Mexican troops shot at Texicans sneaking to the river for water.

There seems to be a genuine effort, that started a few years ago, to clean up the area, and vastly improve the museum aspect. That is long-past due, and I hope they do a good job with it. I've always lived in Texas, I go to San Antonio almost every summer for a seminar, and I can tell you that the Alamo is like a magnet. Every year I notice something (usually good) that I didn't notice before.

Good point about the Tejanos that I didn't include – a considerable number of them were also fed up with the corruption and other failings of the existing government and joined the revolution.

There were also a number of the immigrants who actually went to Texas with the intent to eventually make it a part of the United States.

A complex mix of motivations and people…

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Here is some further info on the master plan. My office is one block up and one block over from the Alamo. Part of the deal with the cenotaph is there are a number of names that can be added that were not known before. I had an employee who had an ancestor that was at the Alamo and has a mispelled name on the monument. The Alamo—for lack of a better word—needs modernizing.

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The photos shows one of the potential looks that has been proposed.