20. The Alamo’s “History” is Rife with Inaccuracies
The foundational mythology of Texas is big on Remember the Alamo! The event is part and parcel of a dramatic tale of freedom-loving American Anglos, oppressed by Mexican authorities in Texas. So they did what true blue Americans should: grabbed their guns. In the heroic siege and Battle of the Alamo in 1836, they fought to the last man. Although they lost, their sacrifice was worth it: they bought time for Sam Houston to build an army that avenged them, and secured Texan independence.
The 1960 hagiographic movie, The Alamo, probably brought the legend of the heroic American Thermopylae to its apogee. With John Wayne as Davy Crockett, Richard Widmarck as Jim Bowie, and Laurence Harvey as William B. Travis, the movie hit and polished all the heroic highlights. Unfortunately, there is way more fiction than fact in the Alamo account. Be that account the John Wayne version or the less – but only relatively less so – dramatic version taught generations of school children. As seen below, much of that narrative is inaccurate.
