The Alamo: Fact or Fiction

The movie I watched was, “The Alamo”, that was filmed in 1960, starring John Wayne as David Crockett. In the video the Battle of the Alamo lasted for about thirteen days, that was a truthful depiction according to historians the battle did last for thirteen days. There were one hundred and eighty-five men who fought and defended the Alamo, that too was an actual depiction shown to us in the movie. In the movie it shows that General Sam Houston didn’t like Colonel William B. Travis, but trusted him with the Republic of Texas. In actual facts I didn’t find anything on the conflict. The video also showed us another conflict between characters, it showed that Colonel William B. Travis and Colonel Jim Bowie weren’t the best of friends either, but I could not find anything on this conflict on the web or in the books. The movie doesn’t agree with what Dr. Winders told us about the position of the Alamo, the movie shows us the Alamo out in a rural area, when it was actually close to the town of San Antonio right across a bridge coming from the city. The movie, “The Alamo” was filmed a few miles from the actual location of the Alamo, it was filmed in Texas. The movie shows that Jim Bowie lived in Texas, when in actual fact he came from Kentucky to help General Sam Houston, or the to help defend the Alamo. The movie also showed that David Crockett and the Tennessee Volunteers came down to Texas to hunt and get drunk, but Davy Crockett, had a girl write a letter to himself, and pretended like General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna wrote it to him asking him to “get out of Texas they were not welcome and it is not there fight”, this just made the Tennessee Volunteers mad and made them agree to stay and fight, but in the books and on the web historians said he came down here to fight from the get go, and the Tennessee Volunteers came down here knowing what was going on and came down here to fight too.
In my opinion, I don’t think the movie, “The Alamo“, presented a balanced view of events, from what I heard from Dr. Winders on our tour at Alamo. He told us that Davy Crockett survived the battle, but was executed after he was caught by the Mexican Army (between five thousand to seven thousand troops). In the movie it shows the Mexican Army coming over the walls of the Alamo in the daylight hours, when they actually according to historians they came over the walls before daylight. So movie kind of strays off the actual facts from historians about this fateful thirteen confrontation for Texas to become a free Republic. This Battle held Santa Anna and his troops off long enough for General Sam Houston to pull his troops together and get them ready, and a few weeks later Sam Houston’s army beat the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto for our freedom from a tyrant.
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Rediscovering The Alamo

Some of the important insights I have gained from our tour and lecture from Dr. Winders, on our tour of the Alamo on September 22, 2007 was that there were two theories on the Battle of the Alamo. One was that General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna decides to overthrow the Mexican Government and invades Texas. Santa Anna killed or executed all of the defenders of the Alamo, along with the heros were Davy Crockett, William B. Travis, and James Bowie. These were people of mixed cultures and they came from different parts of the world and United States. They also had some local Tejanos on the list of defenders.
General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna arrived in San Antonio on February 23, 1836, the Texians, and the Tejanos banded together to defend the Alamo. Willam B. Travis was the commander of the Alamo, he sent couriers out to send for help. On the eight day thirty-two volunteers from Gonzales arrived at the Alamo. On the final assualt came on March 6, 1836 before daybreak. The Mexican Army scaled the walls of the Alamo and took over, killing every defender that fought, it was said Davy Crockett survived, but was executed by Santa Anna and the Mexican Army. It helps me better understand what happened at the Alamo, and how we gained independence from Mexico. It also gave a better depiction then any of the movies on the Alamo.

Espada Dam

We all know about Mission San Francisco De Espada. We know it’s history and some other facts about the mission. Just a little over a mile up the road is the Espada Dam. The Espada Dam was constructed in 1745, it was used to divert water from the San Antonio River and the San Pedro Creek to the missions grounds and also to the surrounding fields at the missions through the acequia systems, also know as the irrigation ditches. This was used to irrigate the fields around the missions, and brings water to the mission grounds. The dam was used this way so the missionaries wouldn’t have to manually transport water from the river to the fields at the missions and to the mission grounds. This dam shows that just because they didn’t have the technology we have today, that it was still possible to construct something we still use to this very day. This is just a example of what they were able to do construct out of rock and mud. It looked like they used some kind of sediment rock like limestone or something similar to that kind of rock, and for the cement and filling they used what looked like mud, that they put between each layer of rock that they put down.
The Espada Dam is still used today at this day and time when technology is the way it is. You would think that the Espada Dam would have been replaced by a dam of today’s technology. Today the Espada Dam is used to irrigate the fields around the river and around Mission Espada. So it is basically used the same as it was when it was used in the missionary times. The dam itself doesn’t look in to terrible of condition, it still looks like it could withstand the pressure of the flowing San Antonio River. On the bank by the Espada Dam is a plaque, giving the history and what the dam was used for and when it was built and what it was built of.
This was a exciting project to work on, I learned a great deal about the Missions of San Antonio, and about the Espada Dam. I learned what the missions were truly used for and how the Spanish missionaries turned the Native Americans into civilized human beings. I also learned a great deal about the Espada Dam, and what it was used for and the history behind the Espada Dam.

San Francisco De Espada

I learned that Mission Espada’s roots lie in East Texas, where Spain founded the Mission San Francisco de los Texas in 1690. Mission San Francisco De Espada was established along the San Antonio River Banks on March 5, 1731. The word Espada means “sword”. Mission Espada is the furthest mission south of the other missions, so more than likely it was one of the first missions to be established by the Spairnards. Mission Espada is one of the missions with the acequias or in other words irrigation ditches. I learned that the door of the church has a broken arch, the mystery to the door it is said that one of the stone mason’s fled from the mission grounds one night before he could finish putting the stones up in the door arch, so that is why the door is like it is where it looks like it has a broken arch and it is not as wide as it should be. If the door arch was completed it would have been a little bit wider than what it is. The Mission was built on the banks of the San Antonio River and the water was brought in by the acequias systems, or the irrigation ditches. This looked really neat, because I would have never thought of that if I was there in that time period. The visit to the mission helped me understand that life back in that time period was not easy. The acequias is what amazed me the most.