Posted on 04/24/2004 9:40:11 PM PDT by weegee
For all of her secret life as the wife of a soldier in Santa Anna's army, Patty Tristan has tried to adhere to one policy.
No camping in the mud.
There was no such luck this weekend, when Tristan and more than 200 other people gathered at San Jacinto Battleground State Historical Park to recreate the 1836 victory that gave Texas its independence from Mexico.
The battle re-enactment was cancelled after a thunderstorm Saturday morning was capped by a lightning strike to the 570-foot tall monument in the middle of the park.
Lightning, static electricity and 100 pounds of black powder seemed like a lethal combination. Still, organizers of the San Jacinto Day Festival estimated about 2,000 people showed up to mingle with Tristan and other members of a quirky subculture that has turned history into a living art.
Saturday, everything was historically correct, 1830s-style. Deerskin pants, flat-brimmed hats, tin cups. But it was a different story Friday evening, as members of living history organizations from all over the state set up camp: Jeans and sneakers. Ice chests. Cell phones. Air mattresses.
No one wanted a historically authentic back ache.
"We strive to be as accurate as we can, realizing we don't live in 1836," said Randy Donahoo, a retired Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission officer from Bryan. "We're not tough enough."
So the camps featured canvas tents and wooden-pegged tables and chairs, items that were used in the 1800s but are far more luxurious than the paltry possessions owned by the Texan and Mexican forces in 1836.
"A Texian soldier, he was lucky if he had a blanket," said Donahoo, 55, who was to have portrayed the Texan artillery commander in the re-enactment. "The soldados, they were in terrible shape."
There are lots of reasons why these people braved the weather to camp in a mosquito-infested park along the Ship Channel, but Pasadena attorney David Pomeroy offered one that is as good as any. "We're crazy," he said.
Tristan and her husband, Tony, who live in Sugar Land, joined the movement 23 years ago.
Neither was particularly interested in history. "History in school was so boring, and you just tried to get through it," said Patty Tristan, who homeschools the couple's 13-year-old daughter, Alicia.
Traveling to historical re-enactments keeps their family close -- Alicia and 22-year-old Michael have grown up on the circuit, and Michael now joins his father on the Mexican army cannon crew. Patty and Alicia Tristan portray family members who followed the Mexican soldiers to battle.
The family occasionally portrays Tejanos, but most of the time, they are Mexicans, a role that hasn't always been popular with re-enactors.
"There's a lot of guys that will spit in your eye if you say, 'Do you want to be a Mexican soldier?' because they're Texan to the bone," said Jerry Tubbs, a draftsman from Spring Branch who was in charge of the planned re-enactment.
Tubbs grew up in Louisiana, reliving the adventures he saw on Walt Disney's Davy Crockett. Fast forward to 1980, when he had moved to Houston and saw a PBS program on living history groups.
Within a few months, he had joined the Texas Army, one of several groups which participate in historical re-enactments in the state. The Tristans were among his first recruits.
In the years since, the prejudice against portraying Mexican troops has faded. History hasn't changed, but people's understanding of it has, and more people now realize that the battle wasn't good vs. evil, right vs. wrong.
"People are finally taking the time to study the facts," said Tubbs, 53. "To understand we're not the bad guys at all."
That has helped to bring people to the soldados camp.
"Word also got around that we party pretty hard," said Charlie Yates of Austin, systems administrator for the state Supreme Court.
Another plus? Being a Mexican soldier is easy, as long as you die early.
Even then, there are rules. Never die on a hill of fire ants, Yates said. Never die in the sun. Especially never die face-up in the sun.
That wasn't a problem Saturday, when a downpour began around dawn, swamping the camps where many people had stayed overnight.
That made the uniforms authentically muddy, as were the tents and other props, all of which represent a hefty investment for the re-enactors.
It's cheaper to be a Texan -- perhaps a $1,000 investment, compared with as much as $2,500 to portray a Mexican soldier, thanks to the elaborate uniforms and reproduction firearms, Tubbs said.
Most of the Mexican uniforms are handmade, including the tall shakos, or hats, and jackets trimmed in gold braid. Other items, from canvas tents to shoes, can be purchased from companies that specialize in supplying living history groups.
You can even shop on e-Bay, proof the movement has hit the big time.
But for many people, scrounging through garage sales and thrift shops is part of the fun. The Tristans buy some things, Patty Tristan said, "but there's more of a connection to it if you make your own."
The whole experience is a way of making history their own, of ensuring that the past isn't forgotten.
"Someone's got to tell the story," Tubbs said. "People come up and talk to you, touch your uniform or the weight of the sword.
"It's not like reading a book."
Oh it is. It is an all day event if you take it all in. We should do it as a FReeper get together again.
Remind me next year ;-)
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