Knowing Who Really Fought at the Alamo

Re “Remember the Alamo -- but the Right Way” (Commentary, April 9) by Dagoberto Gilb: The Alamo’s defenders were not simply a bunch of gringo invaders but, for the most part, were Mexican citizens -- Americans who had taken Mexican citizenship under a Mexican government program to encourage the settlement and development of Texas -- as well as a meaningful number of Texans of Mexican descent. Indeed, by 1835 there were more American settlers in Texas than there were Mexicans.

Regardless of their ethnic heritage, however, the people of Texas were in rebellion against the dictatorial Mexican government of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Elected as a champion of federalism -- a government that respected the rights of the individual Mexican states -- Santa Anna had torn up the Mexican Constitution and created a powerful central government that would impose its will by force.

In short, the Texas rebellion was a popular uprising, not a coup. Whatever legitimacy Santa Anna may have enjoyed among Texans of any ethnicity he soon sacrificed by his brutal and ruthless conduct, not only at the Alamo but at Goliad, where he ordered the massacre of 300 unarmed Texas prisoners.

Santa Anna’s subsequent defeat at the Battle of San Jacinto by Sam Houston’s outnumbered army (1,600 to 740 men), the loss of Texas and the creation of the Texas Republic were thus a fate which Santa Anna’s conduct richly merited. Finally, Gilb denounces “Manifest Destiny,” yet he only wants to chastise the American variety, not the Mexican version. After all, Texas, the land in question, wasn’t given to Mexico by God, it was taken from the people who lived there by settlement and force.

Harold J. Sweet

Professor of History

University of La Verne

*

As we remember the Alamo based on Hollywood’s version, I appreciated the historical facts that Gilb shared -- not only because I am a proud American of Mexican descent but because as a Vietnam-era veteran whose daughter just served in Iraq, I’m now trying to digest the truth of why we invaded. Maybe Hollywood will set the facts straight on that one too.

Arthur Gomez

Rosemead