* T H E * A L A M O *
The Alamo, a Spanish mission in San Antonio, Texas, was famous for the "last stand" of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and a number of other Anglo and Mexican settlers fighting for independence from Mexico. What Walt Disney doesn't tell you about the battle is that the burning issue here was slavery: the "freedom fighters" were taking a stand for their right to own slaves, following a decree of emancipation by the Mexican government.
The deadly battle took place in 1836, when the rebels, holed up in the fortified mission, were massacred by the beseiging troops of Mexican General Santa Ana. The slaughter provided a rallying cry, "Remember the Alamo!" for the ensuing, successful bid for Texas independence, and again during the Mexican War ten years later, in which the growing United States grabbed its present Southwest and California territory from Mexico.
The Alamo now serves as a shrine of Texas Anglo history: Curiously, the names of the Mexican defenders are absent from the plaques on the mission's wall. A detailed diorama of the battle has been installed inside the mission's vaulted stone halls. Located in the center of present-day San Antonio, it is also the center of a local tourist industry, being reproduced in a much-photographed theme park and film set just outside of town. Architecture buffs appreciate the Spanish rococo details of the mission's facade, and those of the several other original 18th-century missions located near the city.
With its refurbished River Walk and many fine eateries, downtown San Antonio is one of the most attractive cities in Texas, and among the most interesting to visit. Although if it's battleships you seek, you'll have to go to Houston and visit the World War I dreadnought named for the Lone Star State -- the USS Texas of 1913. It bears the distinction of being the only World War I vintage battleship left in the world.