San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Alamo story falls short for some
Outline seen lacking on Native Americans, Black people
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-squarefoot 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.
Patrick Gallagher, the project’s program manager, soothed their concerns. He said the presentation was just the start of a five-year development process, including two to three years in concept and design work. The number of subject matter specialists on the project will likely grow from about 20 to 50 as the team creates a content “script” for the Alamo that will span 700 pages or more, Gallagher said.
As part of the museum, plans for a 4,000-squarefoot civil rights exhibit in the area of a lunch counter in the 1921 Woolworth Building will likely begin in early 2022, he said. Gallagher assured the panel the project would offer diverse perspectives and encourage visitors to reach their own conclusions about the Alamo’s history and legacy.
“We’ll find more voices than I think you’ll be comfortable with. Because oftentimes, those voices are going to be in conflict,” he said. “This is not going to be a pretty story at times. This is going to be a complicated story.”
It was the first time since Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s “reset” of the project in March that tension has surfaced publicly on the diverse 30member citizens panel.
Part of the letdown among some members was that the committee held a series of thought-provoking content discussions over the summer that touched on controversial topics, including slavery and the location of cemeteries in Alamo Plaza.
Patricia Mejia, Southeast Side representative on the citizens panel and one of nine members who have served since it was formed in 2014, recalled another member once whispering in her ear: “I know exactly who’s writing this story, and none of these sessions matter.”
“It’s kind of painful. … But today kind of reminded me that that actually could’ve been true,” said Mejia, who did not name the other member.
Still, Sue Ann Pemberton, the only tri-chair to have served since 2014, said the draft narrative plan presented to the panel was “not fully fleshed out” but appears true to the vision and guiding principles that some group members helped painstakingly craft that year.
Bruce Winders, the Alamo’s former on-site historian for 23 years who is now a consultant on the project, told the group the project has to “get young people connected to history again” and leave visitors wanting to return to the Alamo with a story that goes beyond the traditional telling of the 13day siege and battle.
“The days of saying, ‘This is the one viewpoint’ — those days are gone,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to look at it from different perspectives.”
Viagran said she’s working on scheduling a committee meeting this fall to maintain trust with the panel, whose work is “absolutely important to the project.”
“I’m really proud of this group for sticking with it and for continuing to invest and have the difficult conversations,” she said after the meeting.
“I would hope that people who are in this process are going to believe in the work and to do the work,” she said. “We’re here to do the messy, uncomfortable and, hopefully, very productive and prosperous work.”
The committee will probably meet again in “listening groups” by late November to talk about the content presentations and how they relate to the guiding principles and narrative plan, Viagran said. Shortly after Nirenberg appointed her in March to replace thenCouncilman Roberto Treviño on the two Alamo committees, members of the citizens panel said they’d been left out of key decisions and updates on the project.
“None of us want to go back that way,” Viagran said.