[RightWhale]

As far as Santa Anna was concerned, he didn't give a fig about Texas territory. It was a wag-the-dog action for him, a distraction from his fiscal mismanagment of the state coffers. There were so few people in Texas at the time that they couldn't have created a traffic jam if they all met at a single street intersection at one time.

[Texaggie79]

Texas Ping

[hispanarepublicana]

The other night, we were eating at this Mexican food place called "The Alamo." It's a small, family run dive. They had only one person working in the kitchen, and it took them 45 minutes to get our order out to us. At about minute number 40, in our famished state, we decided all those Texans died must have died at the Alamo not from an attack, but from starvation--the Mexicans were supposed to bring the food and never did.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Santa Ana said "We would have had more than 6000 troops there, but we only had 3 cars."

[Constitution Day]

I just got through reading that, and was going to post it.

I'm glad you did.

[DownWithGreenspan]

What was the Mexicans' version of the Alamo attack?

For the answer to that question, just wait until the ultra-commie pinkos at Disney (Walt's probably up to about 10,000 RPM these days) film and release their upcoming movie on the subject. I can't imagine it would be anything other than 100% anti-American, prospective director Ronnie Howard's platitudes notwithstanding.

DWG

[manx]

I don't see this as being any less slanted the american version. I think there were many reasons texans wanted indepenence. And I don't see how it isn't heroic for people to fight and dying facing greater odds in a hopeless battle. These details don't seem to conflict that much with what I was taught about the alamo. Besides the fact that I didn't know the mexicans screwed up that much.

[3AngelaD]

Battle of San Jacinto. So there.

[P7M13]

Ping

t

[tracer]

"We won."

[Destructor]

Bull! The defenders of the Alamo stood against overwhelming odds knowing that they were fighting a hopeless battle. The very act of standing their ground under those circumstances was an act of heroism.

[DonQ]

There are a number of facts that most people don't know. The mission at the Alamo was virtually indefensible and part of this could be blamed on the Texicans who were trying to defend it. One wall had been seriously breached days by a cannon ball days before the actual assault; the defenders patched it by hammering boards together - with the ends sticking up and outward, essentially providing the Mexicans with a stepladder into the mission.

More important is the fact that Sam Houston had, days earlier, ordered the mission evacuated, the men there to join his own army further north; by defying his order the men of the Alamo were staging a sort of mutiny.

Although it is very common, north of the Rio Grande, to regard Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana as a deep dyed villain, but to Mexicans he is their George Washington. It was Santa Ana who played a vital role in ousting the Spanish and later Maximillan from Mexico. He was president, or generalissimo, of Mexico a number of times. In fact, it was Santa Anna who triggered the Texas War for Independence by abolishing slavery ... the defenders of the Alamo were defending the institution of slavery.

Despite the ugliness of the Siege of the Alamo, the US govt allowed Santa Ana to stay in the US in his two or three exiles between presidencies. One of his last US sojourns was on Staten Island, NY. He brought with him from Mexico a bitter root that he enjoyed chewing. He called it chickle ... his secretary, a man named Adams, used it to invent chewing gum.