A small museum about a block from the Alamo provides a view of history that’s little known to the public, including tales of the women who played an important role in San Antonio’s early beginnings before the famous 1836 siege and battle for Texas independence.

“There’s demand for the real story. And quite honestly, that story has not been told,” said Laurence Seiterle, whose company leases space to the newly opened Hispanic Heritage Center of Texas.

Located right off the steady foot traffic of Houston Street, the new museum seeks to highlight stories of early Native Americans, Tejanos, Canary Islanders and others who founded settlements across the South Texas frontier.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in Texas who has what we have in a museum,” Erika Arredondo-Haskins, executive director, said during a tour of the one-room center — a “work in progress” that she hopes to enlarge.

The center, founded in 2008 to provide lectures, programs and traveling exhibits on the early history of Texas, has spent years working with local and state universities to develop new research. It has been open to the public in its current space since September.

More Information Hispanic Heritage Center Location: 110 Broadway, just north of Houston Street Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; noon to 4 p.m. Sunday; open until 7 p.m. every third Tuesday of the month Admission: $5 for adults; $4 military, students and seniors age 65 and over; free for members and children 5 and under To learn more: 210-892-0136 or www.hhctx.org

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The Alamo’s estimated 1.6 million visitors annually see the original church facade of the Mission San Antonio Valero and hear tales of the 1835-36 Texas revolution, but do not get an appreciation for the 1722 presidio, once located across the river, near today’s City Hall, and its role in history, Arredondo-Haskins said.

“They see the (Alamo) structure, but I don’t think they come to know the meaning behind it,” she said. “You can’t separate the mission, the soldier and the presidio.”

The center’s showpiece is a figure of a Spanish presidio soldier, with an authentic lance and sword, and a display of what one might have carried — powder horns, a shot bag, knife, scabbard, flintlock pistol, and a shield, or adarga, made of thick layers of rawhide to deflect arrows.

The center’s “Las Damas de Tejas: Notable Women of Texas” display tells of little-known Tejanas such as María Gertrudis Pérez Cassiano, who married the Spanish governor in 1814, and is regarded as the first “first lady” of Texas. Being well educated and from a prominent family, she was skilled in diplomacy and land management.

Arredondo-Haskins said she hopes to expand the center, now in a 900-square-foot, street-level property at the historic Moore Building, and open satellite locations in Corpus Christi, Brownsville and other Texas cities. Many have heard of Tejanos such as Col. Juan Seguin, a veteran of the Texas Revolution, but not of women of the frontier whose wills and family papers are in archives and written in Spanish.

“We don’t know about these women because nobody’s translated these documents,” she said.

Seiterle, principal with Zurich International Properties, which owns the Moore building and allows the museum to have receptions in the Moore’s spacious atrium, said the center contributes to a synergy that businesses near the Alamo are trying to harness, with a focus on authentic local history.

With a movement afoot to widen the scope of the Alamo narrative, many are hopeful that will change. The city and state have committed to spend up to about $42 million on upgrades recommended in an Alamo area master plan, set for completion in less than a year, that will include interpretation of San Antonio’s roots as a frontier village.

“These people did the hard part of settling the area, fighting disease and Native Americans, while adjusting to a land far different than where they had just left,” said Mari Tamez, a Canary Island descendant whose ancestors established a civil government here in 1731.

Tamez said she joined the center as a member because she supports its mission of providing “a more in-depth look at what life was like during the colonial period.”

Membership, with prices ranging from $25 to $5,000 annually, along with an annual golf tournament in July, will help the center grow, said Arredondo-Haskins. The nonprofit received a $500,000 state grant in 2013 and has secured a few private grants, but will need more funding by the time it holds its grand opening, set tentatively for March, she said.

“It’s a lot of work, but I feel that we’ve made strides,” she added.

shuddleston@express-news.net

Twitter: @shuddlestonSA