Why Can’t We Just Forget the Alamo?

The Experiment

The Atlantic and WNYC Studios

President, Policy, Documentary, Joe, Law, Wnyc, American, Presidency, Supreme, Society & Culture, Congress, The, Racism, Court, State, History, Biden, Government, Race

4.5 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The epic, oft-told origin story of Texas centers on the Lone Star State’s most infamous battle: the Battle of the Alamo, where American heroes such as Davy Crockett fought to the death against the Mexican army to secure Texas’s independence. The only problem, according to the writer and journalist Bryan Burrough, is that this founding legend isn’t all true. In June, Burrough and two other Texan writers set out to debunk the myth of the Alamo, only to find themselves in an unexpected battle with Texans still trying to protect their state’s revered origin story.

“The Anglo power structure here, which still dominates politics and the media,” Burrough says, “can clearly see that if the myth melts away, other things could begin to melt away as well.”

This week on The Experiment: how a history book ignited a ferocious debate over Texas’s founding legend, and how this battle climbed the ranks all the way up to the Texas GOP.

This episode’s guest is Bryan Burrough, a co-author of Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth.

A transcript of this episode is available.

Be part of The Experiment. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at [email protected].

This episode was produced by Gabrielle Berbey and Julia Longoria. Editing by Katherine Wells. Fact-check by William Brennan. Sound design by David Herman.

Music by Parish Council (“Marmalade Day,” “Leaving the TV on at Night,” and “Mopping”) and Keyboard (“The World Eating”), provided by Tasty Morsels. Additional music by Joe Plourde, Sam Spence (“Overland” and “River Crossing”), and Antonín Dvořák (“Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88, B. 163: I. Allegro con brio”). Additional audio from @ThisIsTexasFF; This Is Texas Freedom Force; KXAN; Walt Disney Productions, via Mabay Aleya and The Shadow; and Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Wow, I can't believe it. We're gonna trip to the Alamo. You can't come to San Antonio, Texas and not visit the world famous Alamo.
0:12.0	The Alamo is a symbol for courage, even in the face of certain death, as it was the cry remember the Alamo that inspired the Texas crew in their travel.
0:21.0	I'm gonna show you that William Pan Travis was here, or the others that died in this shape of trauma here, they will give us a rebel yell of love.
0:45.0	Something happens at the Alamo Monument every day.
0:49.0	Journalist Brian Burrow is a Texan who writes books about Texas history. And he says people pay tribute to that history all the time at the Alamo Monument in San Antonio, Texas.
1:02.0	It's like Mecca. Everybody in Texas goes to the Alamo. Generally multiple times. This is the Jerusalem of Texas. You know, this is a secular, holy place, detectives.
1:14.0	It's holy because in 1836 the story goes that it was the site of an epic battle to make Texas independent from Mexico.
1:27.0	The story for going on 200 years has always been that, you know, Jim Bowie and Davey Crockett all went down to Texas to fight this dastardly Mexican dictator Santa Ana.
1:38.0	Of course, everybody was surrounded and killed Texans lost at the Alamo. But that battle was said to be a turning point. Those men who died there were martyrs because after that, Texas was finally able to defeat Mexico.
1:55.0	Texan colonists were fighting for liberty. They were fighting against oppression. And they chose to give up their lives at the Alamo so that we could have what has become the modern American state of Texas.
2:09.0	That's why some Texans still repeat the famous battle cry. Remember the Alamo to honor the martyrs who died there. And Texans are fiercely protected of this history.
2:23.0	I'm 80 miles north and if I rallied down to the Alamo Plaza every time there was a protest that threatened to turn angry, it's all I would do.
2:34.0	And so this past June when Brian heard about a protest at the Alamo, he didn't think much of it at first.
2:44.0	And then the protest at the Alamo Plaza was a little bit more than the protest at the Alamo Plaza.
2:54.0	But this time there was a bit of a clash between two different groups.
2:58.0	Protesters from the Latino Civil Rights Group, Lulac showed up and argued with these camo clad militia types.
3:05.0	Right here because Lulac wants to honor the Mexico soldiers who died in the fight in the 1836 battle of the Alamo.
3:13.0	A Latino Civil Rights Group had suggested that Mexican soldiers who died at the Alamo might also be honored there, along with the Texans who died.
3:23.0	Now if you're a Texan, you're probably going that's a bunch of bullshit. You don't honor tyrants in Texas.
3:31.0	On one side, protesters from the This is Texas Freedom Force carried large automatic rifles.
3:38.0	And on the other side, Latino protesters were armed with a book.
3:45.0	It's called Forget the Alamo, the rise and fall of an American myth.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Atlantic and WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Atlantic and WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.