Posted on 04/22/2004 10:52:58 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Few Bee County residents were as anxious to see the release of the new Disney movie “The Alamo” as members of the local Benavides family.
The reason was the Benavideses wanted to see how their ancestor, Gregorio Esparza, was portrayed in the motion picture. For them, Esparza has been a link to the past that many family members did not understand until a few years ago.
George Benavides, who grew up here before moving to Austin, had heard his grandmother tell the stories of having an ancestor who fought and died at the Alamo. However, he had assumed his great-great-great-great-grandfather fought in Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna’s army.
Finally, the bits and pieces of information his grandmother had told him all those years began to come together and he realized that Esparza had fought alongside the defenders of the famous shrine to Texas independence.
Today, a customer at the Benavides family’s restaurant in Beeville, Mi Familia, can find a painting depicting Esparza as a bold cannoneer protecting the walls of the Alamo. The painting is a copy of one that adorns the wall of the Alamo just inside the front door and to the right. Also, there are certificates recognizing the family members as offspring of a number of people who were in the Alamo that fateful day, including Esparza’s wife and four children, who survived the battle.
One of the ironies of the story is that Esparza was found dead inside the walls of the fortress by his brother, Francisco, who fought with Santa Anna’s army. Francisco then located Esparza’s wife, Ana Salazar Esparza; sons Enrique, 8, Francisco, 6 and Manuel, 4, and her baby daughter, Maria de Jesus. They later asked permission to bury the fallen hero in a San Antonio cemetery and Esparza was the only Alamo defender to be given a Christian burial immediately after the battle.
Although George Benavides’ grandmother, Margarita Sotelo Rosales, knew much of the story about Esparza and his sacrifice, other family members paid little attention to her stories until George began to realize the importance of his connection to a hero of the Alamo. Since learning the truth, Benavides has joined the Alamo Defenders’ Descendants Association and was even president of the organization several years ago. After finding out more about his ancestor’s link to the famous battle, Benavides became even more interested in Texas history and he has even been an extra in one historical motion picture about the fight for Texas independence, “Two for Texas.”
“I’m happy and pleasantly surprised that they showed a little bit more of Gregorio Esparza,” Benavides said this week. “Of course, you always want more.”
Actually it was Enrique Esparza, Gregorio’s oldest son, who was responsible for historians paying closer attention to the role Tejanos played in the battle of the Alamo. Benavides said that when a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News was questioned by a custodian about a story he was writing for the Nov. 12, 1907, issue of the newspaper, he was told it was about the battle of the Alamo. The custodian told the reporter he should interview Enrique Esparza because he had been there and had survived the battle. Enrique was eight years old at the time he and his family moved inside the walls of the Alamo to prepare to defend it. He was able to relate what happened to some of the heroes, like Jim Bowie, who died in the battle. His story not only told of the role Tejanos played in defending the Alamo, it explained that a number of people, most of whom were family members of the defenders, actually survived the battle. The Esparzas were the larger of two families in the Alamo at the time of the battle. Susana Dickinson, wife of one of the defenders, showed up in Gonzales two days after the battle with two slaves who also had been spared.
Benavides said he waited anxiously for the Disney movie to come out and explained that the Ron Howard version may have been better. However, Howard left the project after Disney officials said they wanted to spend less than the $125 million he wanted to invest in the film. When he left, he took some of the project’s biggest stars with him.
However, Benavides is glad that the organizers of the project opted to base the film on the diary of Enrique de la Peña, an officer in Santa Anna’s army at the time. Details in his account were later backed up by stories told by soldiers in the army of Texas.
Although the character of Gregorio Esparza, who was 34 when he died, does not have a large speaking part in the new motion picture, his character and members of the Esparza family are seen frequently throughout the film. At one point toward the end of the battle, the character of Enrique Esparza, Gregorio’s 8-year-old son, makes eye contact with Davy Crockett and a small band of Alamo defenders just seconds before the last of the defenders fell from the onslaught of Santa Anna’s soldiers.
People who know the Benavides family should see the film. It will make one proud to know them.
Nora Benavides stands next to a copy of a painting that adorns one wall of the Alamo where her great-great-great grandfather, Gregorio Esparza, was killed. In the painting, Esparza is the man standing in the foreground and reaching for another cannon ball to fire at the attacking Mexican Army.The painting, and three certificates acknowledging the Benavides relationship to Esparza, are on display in the families Mi Familia Restaurant in Beeville.
I haven't seen the recent Alamo...movie, but the originial doesn't puff up Travis, Bowie, or Crockett, in my opinion.
Crockett comes out the best, but it definitely showed Travis, and Bowie, warts & all....very human people, but heros all the same.
Having just visited the Alamo at Christmas, even though it is tucked in the middle of town...
..there's still a sense of reverence about it....
.and especially so when one goes inside.
Very worth a visit!
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