Remembering the Alamo: Memory, Modernity, and the Master Symbol

This study examines the American mythology surrounding the Alamo and its influence on cultural identity, historical memory, and ethnic relations. Over nearly two centuries, the Mexican victory over an outnumbered band of Alamo defenders has been transformed into an American victory for the love of liberty. Through a metamorphosis of memory and mythology, the Alamo became a master symbol in Texan and American culture. In Remembering the Alamo, Richard Flores examines how this transformation helped to shape social, economic, and political relations between Anglo and Mexican Texans from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Flores looks at how heritage society members and political leaders sought to define the Alamo, and how their attempts reflected struggles within Texas society over the place and status of Anglos and Mexicans. Flores also explores how Alamo movies and the transformation of Davy Crockett into a hero-martyr have advanced deeply racialized, ambiguous, and even invented understandings of the past.