Texas' iconic Alamo is now a political battlefield

AUSTIN – Texas is on the verge of refighting the Battle of the Alamo. And this time even though many of the combatants have conflicting agendas, all claim to be the true defenders of the Lone Star State’s most iconic shrine.

But unlike the 13-day siege that ended with the clash of cannons and long rifles that claimed the lives of all 189 defenders of the San Antonio mission on March 6, 1836, the 21st century version of the skirmish could play out over several months, or even years, on the treacherous battlefield of politics.

And a modern-day Texan with a name perhaps as familiar as Crockett or Bowie could emerge either a conquering hero or a political casualty.

The new battle’s roots trace to early 2015 when then-new Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush severed the state’s ties with the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which for more than a century acted as the Alamo’s steward.

Bush, a first-term Republican, has since launched an ambition project called “Reimagine the Alamo” that he promised would extend the life of the storied building that draws about 2 million visitors annually and reclaim the battle site from more than a century of urban development.

The website detailing features of the still-being-developed master plan for the Alamo shows photos with the mission being used as a backdrop for gaudy demonstrations, including a call for ending circumcision to a bearding man wearing only bikini underpants and swinging a rubber chicken while riding a stick pony. The plan also points out that the streets surrounding the Alamo, which were part of the battlefield, are lined with cheesy tourist traps.

The plan, which will cost an estimated $400 million of public and private money, calls for repairs to the Alamo mission and the long barrack, the only buildings from the compound in 1836 that still stand. It also calls for restoring the battlefield and replacing much of the nearby retail outlets with a museum that would feature “the world’s largest exhibit on the Texas Revolution.”

“It brings dignity to the Alamo,” Bush told the Senate Finance Committee in December as he described the Reimagine effort. “It honors the defenders and it’s going to dramatically tell the story of a world-renouned battle to millions of visitors around the world.”

But the rollout of some of the options in the project left many Alamo devotees not only unimpressed, but fighting mad. One of the early features that was widely panned was to build a plexiglass panel in Alamo Plaza to symbolize where the walls to the compound stood in 1836.

A leading critic of the concept, which has since been abandoned, was Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. In a letter dated Aug. 18, Wolff told Bush called the idea “inappropriate” and “historically inaccurate.”

“I was pleased to see … that this has been tabled and I hope it remains under the table,” Wolff wrote.

Another proposal that has rankled purists would including the dismantling and relocation of the imposing 60-foot Alamo Cenotaph, which was built over two years beginning in 1937 about 75 paces northeast of the mission. Some Alamo aficionados say it was built on one of the sites where it’s believed that bodies of the defenders were burned by Santa Anna’s forces.

A cenotaph is an empty tomb, and the one near the Alamo features likenesses of many of the most prominent defenders – such as David Crockett, Jim Bowie and William Travis – and the names of nearly all of those on the Texas side killed in the battle.

Bush said the structure is in dire need of repair and updating. The names of some Alamo defenders were not known at the time it was built and need to be added, he said. Complicating the issue is that the monument is on a parcel of land owned by the city of San Antonio.

The Alamo Master Plan suggests that a better place for the Cenotaph, also called “The Spirit of Sacrifice,” is on a different site of funeral pyres for the defenders. Bush told senators in December that no matter where the Cenotaph might be moved, it “will always stand.”

That assurance is cold comfort to Maggie Wright, a member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, who called the Cenotaph a sacred war memorial that should remain on the spot it was built.

“It would be like moving the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier,” Wright said.

But plans to restore the Alamo and the battlefield are not without supporters. San Antonio seventh-grade history teacher Lizette Gallardo said she frequently takes students on field trips to the site but has a difficult time illustrating its historical significance because of its surroundings.

“The master plan gives me hope that my future students will be able to visit the Alamo with a true experience of what the dimensions of this mission once was without commercial influence of what many would consider sacred ground,” Gallardo said at the Senate hearing in December.

Controversy over Bush’s plans for the Alamo sparked two little-known Republicans – retired teacher Rick Range and land surveyor Davey Edwards – to announce early challenges to the first-term incumbent’s re-election. Then last month, former Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson launched a bid to win back his old job.

Range’s campaign is almost exclusively focused on the Alamo. In fact, his slogan is “Save the Alamo” and he has spent a dozen years doing research for a book he plans to write on the Texas War for Independence. He predicted that the Reimagine project would turn the Alamo into “a modern-day tourist theme park.”

Edwards also uses the Alamo project as a central element of his campaign, promising to protect the shrine “using historical architecture and restoring remembrances of those who died for Texas sovereignty in the 1836 battle.”

Patterson, who was land commissioner for the 12 years before Bush was elected in 2014, is running a broader-based campaign based on his experience running the agency. But he has left little doubt that he, too, plans to use the Alamo project to draw voters to him. He said he is concerned that the Reimagine effort would homogenize the historic site with 21st century priorities trumping the stories of courage and heroism.

“What is needed, and what those responsible should be advocating for, is a restoration of the Alamo to as close to its original footprint and appearance as reasonable,” Patterson says in a post on his website, where the Alamo’s façade serves as its logo and features several photos of him at the mission.

Bush, at both the Senate hearing in December and at numerous public appearances in recent months, rejects any suggestion that he’d allow the Alamo’s place in Texas culture to be diminished or to allow its historical significance to be obscured.

“Being guardian of the Alamo is a sacred mission,” he said, adding that the master plan calls for the most comprehensive study of the building whose stone foundation was laid in 1744. The original mission was established in 1718.

On the Land Office’s Alamo project website, a page is devoted to defending the master plan and to discrediting what Bush and others have called misinformation about the effort, including suggestions that the United Nations would play a role in managing the Alamo or that the grounds would be turned into a theme park.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said Bush is exhibiting political courage by daring to examine renovations to the revered site that is clearly in need of upkeep. But, he added, if doubts about Bush’s stewardship of the Alamo take root, especially among the increasingly conservative Republican base, there could be trouble on March 6, which is the both the date of the GOP primary and the 182nd anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo.

“This is an issue that can catch fire, especially with Republican voters,” Rottinghaus said. “It’s a hot spur.”

It could also show whether the Bush name has lost luster as the old-guard GOP has faded, Rottinghaus said.

“That name has always been golden in Texas, especially in the Republican Party,” said Rottinhaus, noting that Bush’s grandfather’s name (George H.W. Bush) was on the winning ticket in Texas in four presidential elections and that his uncle (George W. Bush) twice carried Texas in presidential elections after twice winning races for governor.

“But we’re seeing a much different Republican Party today,” he added.