Remember the Alamo

Wherein Moominmama spends a week in the rain where she least expected to be damp: San Antonio, Texas...

My guess is that the above photo would surprise anyone who hasn't already been to San Antonio, Texas. Moominmama can't remember ever seeing images of the home of the Alamo that suggested anything besides dry and dusty, but the reality is that San Antonio is regularly quite humid thanks to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Among other things, San Antonio is home to this lovely Japanese Tea Garden, which opened in 1919 in a former limestone quarry in Brackenridge Park. This central park, at least 350 acres along the San Antonio River, is the crown jewel of the city and connects many of the city's major attractions.

In addition to hot and humid, San Antonio has been steadily overcast and on-and-off rainy this whole week, both at 90-degree temperatures and at 50-degree temperatures a few days later. The forecast gave Moominmama only a few windows of opportunity to get out and see the sights. 

It also forced Moominmama to move from a campsite where she was relying on her solar panels to an RV park where she could get an electrical hookup or risk draining her battery. 

This has not been the easiest week, but having spent so much time in isolated desert settings, visiting a thriving city like San Antonio had seemed like a good idea. For starters, I'd heard of the Alamo but knew little about it.

This is the church that was built as part of the Catholic mission, later turned into a fort by a Spanish garrison which reinforced the walls around its plaza, added cannon placements and barracks, such that the church forms just one corner of a fortified rectangle.

The Alamo, as we know it, is the location of an ugly massacre of independence-minded Texans in 1836, a battle that tossed down of the gauntlet for Texan independence from Mexico only 15 years after Mexico itself became independent from Spain. 

Included in the Alamo's fighters was the already-famous Davy Crockett who, having lost his Congressional seat in a re-election campaign, left Tennessee with friends and headed west, throwing in their lot with General William B. Travis, all of age 26, who died along with every other soldier at the Battle of the Alamo. Davy Crockett's body was found in front of this church. 

The soldiers of the Alamo are famed for their bravery in facing the Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Santa Anna said from the start as he besieged the Alamo that he would grant no quarter. And he didn't. Any soldiers who survived the battle were executed and burned on a pyre. 

The worst part of the battle would end up being inside a courtyard to the left of the church. Hand-to-hand combat, bayonets, pistols and muskets kicked up so much dust and smoke, no one could see. Allegedly the phrase "fog of war" originated as a result of the musket's use in battle. See here the demonstration of said muskets.

Apparently British drummer and rock star Phil Collins is a huge Alamo history buff and used his wealth over the years to collect items related to the Alamo, like muskets and Bowie knives. These he donated for a museum display that includes a detailed model so you can get a picture of how the day unfolded over the grounds of the Alamo.

With modern-day San Antonio built up around the church and other remains of the Alamo, only fragments of the plaza remain, and repairs and excavations are still ongoing.

Apart from the drawings and models, you see just bits and pieces, like the sacristy of the church, where women and children, and an enslaved man, Joe, sought safety during the battle and became the only survivors.

Two months after the Battle of the Alamo, other independence-minded Texans under General Sam Houston got their revenge on Santa Anna, capturing him at the Battle of San Jacinto and birthing the cry "Remember the Alamo!"

This decisive victory at San Jacinto led directly to Texan independence, glory days from which it appears the state has never recovered, though ironically, they sought incorporation into the United States shortly after they won their freedom. Texas would not become at U.S. state, however, for another decade.

But the years between were hard because the Texas Republic was large, with many scattered indigenous tribes, not yet well populated with settlers, and it continued to suffer from Comanche raids and Mexican incursions. The Republic's leaders had disagreements and debts but worked hard to attract settlers just to increase their numbers. They also embraced slavery as the means to gain wealth growing and selling cotton.

When it came time to vote on whether to annex Texas, slavery was a central issue: the southern U.S. states wanted to add another slave state to their numbers while northern states opposed (as did Mexico). It was a touchy situation, and Texas applications to join the union were rejected three times before passing in 1845.

What the U.S. got out of the annexation, and enjoys to this day, is a tremendously diverse city. Moominmama arrived in time for the annual San Antonio Fiesta, a citywide celebration of everything San Antonio has to offer, and particularly famous for its multiple parades. Activities stretch out over two weekends with seemingly every ethnic group and city organization offering one program or another. Moominmama touched down at a couple events, but the rain was a real downer!

I will leave before the Fiesta is over and hope they get better weather for their final weekend!

With what little wandering I did, I can see that San Antonio offers some fine examples of urban planning that date back to the early 1900s, like Brackenridge Park. Or take the popular Riverwalk, which started as a flood-control project in 1929. 

But you have to get into San Antonio's core to see the best of the city, which modern urban planning has now surrounded with flyover highways and commercial chains. 

Moominmama's pursuit of branch libraries turned out to be an ideal way to get into neighborhoods with modest homes for real families and escape the opposing poles of tourist trap and strip mall!

When I leave San Antonio tomorrow, I head north to the Texas/New Mexico border, where I look forward to hiking in the Guadalupe Mountains and visiting Carlsbad Caverns. As always, more to come!