How should we remember the Alamo? New perspectives desired in $400 million renovation

The first look at an outline of the Alamo’s history that will guide a $400 million makeover disappointed several people involved with the project. The planned 100,000-square-foot museum and renovated plaza will tell the 300-year history of the mission and battle site, and members of the Alamo Citizens’ Advisory Committee have repeatedly said they’d like to include different cultural perspectives. Consultants discussed Mission San Antonio de Valero’s evolution into a village barrio, fort, U.S. Army depot and center of a community plaza before the Alamo was partially restored as a historic site. But their presentation last week fell short of the committee’s expectations.

Two of the committee tri-chairs — Aaronetta Pierce and former City Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran — said they expected more about Native Americans and the freed and enslaved Black people in early Texas. “On behalf of the 4 million African Americans who live in Texas today, it is inconceivable to think that we cannot be included in the beginning, ground-foundational discussion of the story of the battle,” Pierce said. Although there were “honorable men that fought with duty, honor and bravery” for independence from Mexico, Pierce said, the role of early Black Texans and slavery, which was instituted after the Texas Revolution, should have been referenced in the presentation. Viagran, also vice chair of the Alamo Management Committee, which is guiding the public-private project, expected to hear more about historical diversity, too. “At the very beginning, even if it’s high level, even if it’s draft form, that is a gaping hole,” Viagran said.