Dennis Weaver

Professor Ornelas

Humanities 1301

01 October 2007

The Alamo on Broadway

The movie, “The Alamo”, is an entertaining old westerner, which like most movies of its time is rife with inaccuracy. From beginning to end the movie runs an exiting course. Anglo settlers, Mexican forces, and Tejanos are all poorly and unequally represented in this movie.

Anglo settlers are presented as the backbone of the resistance. All the work that was done to fortify the Alamo mission (in this movie) was done by Anglos, but history shows us that Tejanos were also there. Anglos are also portrayed as an irresistible force that sweeps in and takes all the Tejano women by storm. The men continually call them “mamacita”, and parade them around the dance floor. In this film they speak only of the Anglos who wanted a republic, but they fall short of naming any Tejanos (like Navarro) who also wanted independence. They are only referred to as “others”. Anglo men are also shown to be much stronger than the average Tejano for hire, when Davy Crocket and Jim Bowie beat up about six of them. The Anglos were merely stronger.

Mexican forces are described as ruthless and blood thirsty. They are being led by a tyrant who is named General Santa Anna. This man was known for his brutality. Santa Anna’s army is shown marching through the Texas plains in massive numbers. The lines of troops seem to go on forever. As they enter into San Antonio all the residents run for cover, and anyone of them that didn’t make it was captured. In the film they also show a Tejano being striped of his shirt by the Mexican army because they needed a white flag. Another curiosity is that they depict the Mexican army as one that all Tejanos feared, but in all reality some actually supported Santa Anna. In the end of the film the Mexican army finishes its extermination of the small rebel force which inhabited the Alamo.

In the opening scene of the 1960’s Alamo movie, there is a short text that is presented for the audience to read. This text explains how all the residents of Texas were Mexican citizens, and also how they had come from all parts of the United States and the world. The native Tejanos were never even mentioned in this quote. It was as if they never existed. A couple scenes later into the movie there is a building in the back ground as General Houston rides in with his men. The title on this building is “El Texan” instead of “El Tejano”. How is someone going to tell the difference between Texan and Tejano?

Another interesting fact is that when Sam Houston enters the headquarters he addresses a man who seems to be a “Tejano”, but quickly turns to discuss the important business with his fellow Anglos. After a moment he jesters to the Tejano and calls him a good friend, but hurriedly alternates back to his original audience. There is no input from them, but later on Seguin is brought into the story. He too is dismissed in a rude way, and then Travis’ actions are justified. The Tejano women are later portrayed as bar wenches who wait around for a good “Tennessee Man” to come and dance with them. Eventually, the men are also portrayed as buyable, when a merchant simply hires six Tejanos to assault Davy Crocket. Lastly, while the battle of the Alamo raged on, the Tejanos simply hid.

Even with all the inaccuracies, this film is quite entertaining and enjoyable. If ever I want to learn about the Alamo, I would prefer the library over this production. I guess all we can really say is that it was still just a movie. -631 words