"Remember the Alamo!" reverberates through Texas history and culture, but what exactly is being remembered? 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. Why did the historical battle of 1836 undergo this metamorphosis in memory and mythology to become such a potent master symbol in Texan and American culture? In this probing book, Richard Flores seeks to answer that question by examining how the Alamo's transformation into an American cultural icon helped to shape social, economic, and political relations between Anglo and Mexican Texans from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. In the first part of the book, he looks at how the attempts of heritage society members and political leaders to define the Alamo as a place have reflected struggles within Texas society over the place and status of Anglos and Mexicans. In the second part, he explores how Alamo movies and the transformation of Davy Crockett into an Alamo hero/martyr have advanced deeply racialised, ambiguous, and even invented understandings of the past.
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Editorial Reviews
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"Drawing on a broad range of theorists in various fields (geography, social history, semiotics, cultural studies, and anthropology), Flores provides a compelling and quite forceful analysis of various historically produced forms of documenting, recalling, and interpreting the Alamo." Olga Najera-Ramirez, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Review
Drawing on a broad range of theorists in various fields (geography, social history, semiotics, cultural studies, and anthropology), Flores provides a compelling and quite forceful analysis of various historically produced forms of documenting, recalling, and interpreting the Alamo. (Olga Nájera-Ramírez, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Helps balance the Texas rah-rah,
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This review is from: Remembering the Alamo: Memory, Modernity, and the Master Symbol (History, Culture, and Society Series) (Paperback)
Richard Flores has produced a book that should give interested readers cause to pause and engage in some reflection. The syntax is a bit dense, as seems the case with postmodernist writing in general. But once you get past the jargon, he's put together a strong case for how the "sacred space" of the Alamo has been both created and reinforced. As might be expected, the Hispanic population comes out on the short end of the stick. There's a good deal more here than simply postmodernist political correctness. Flores has done his homework, doesn't seek to hide his own biases under the misleading rubic "objective" (there's no such thing in history and anthropology anyway), and provides abundant references to material for interested readers to explore on their own. A provocative and interesting piece of work. It requires paying attention to the detail, but doing so is well worth the effort. Readers who've bought the whole Anglos-wrested-Texas-from-them-Mexicans-in-the-name-of-freedom malarky should steer clear of Flores's book: it'll only get them het up. But students of myth and memory will be amply rewarded.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scholarly and fascinating,
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This review is from: Remembering the Alamo: Memory, Modernity, and the Master Symbol (History, Culture, and Society Series) (Paperback)
This is U.of Texas anthropology professor Richard R. Flores's brilliant analysis of the symbolically manufactured cultural resonance of the Alamo across nearly two centuries: first, within 19th century San Antonio's transformation (with much turbulence) from a Mexican villa to an American city, and then later in folklore, film, and television. A fascinating read, especially for those curious Texans who cherish their state's rich Hispanic heritage, and are not afraid to question the quasi-sacred symbolism they were taught in school.
Fav. Quote: "Public history should open the door to curiosity about the past, not render it conclusive and known."
2 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Caution: PostModern Literary Criticism!,
By Texan (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Remembering the Alamo: Memory, Modernity, and the Master Symbol (History, Culture, and Society Series) (Paperback)
Filled with PoMo jargon, gag. There are some interesting FACTUAL segments regarding the development of downtown San Antonio...although the author's politically correct contention that Anglos set out to deliberately wipe out all vestiges of Hispanic culture is patently absurd.Grab much more than a pinch of salt, and some galoshes to wade through the LitCrit verbiage, for there are a few points of interest. But check it out from the library if possible.
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