Originally (1724) a Spanish mission, subsequently a barrack, a hospital, a fortress, a general store and since 1905 a shrine and museum
I love irony. I bring this up because I was clearing out a file (An aside: traveling in a motorhome demands at least a nod towards neatness and organization. You can’t accumulate a lot of “stuff.” Usually we operate under the rule “a place for everything and everything — mostly — in its place.” I needed a file folder and that required clearing out an old one…life in 300 square feet of space) Anyway, in this old folder I found a copy of a bit of American/Mexican border history from a visit to the museum at the Alamo.
My 5th great-grandmother was an early settler of Texas (she arrived after the battle) so I tend to accumulate these bits from our family’s past. This one is particularly ironic given all the talk today about protecting our borders and keeping out the “illegals.” Directly from the of the Museum at the Alamo:
A New Population: Spanish officials, concerned about Texas’ sparse population had decided to invite colonists from the United States to settle in Texas before Mexico declared her independence. The new Mexican government adopted the colonization plan as its own, hoping the colonists would contribute to the region’s economic prosperity. The first colonists, led by Stephen F. Austin, arrived in 1821. By 1828 there were so many immigrants from the United States in Texas that in some areas they outnumbered the Mexican population by 10 to 1. Manuel de Mier y Terán, a Mexican official sent to Texas that year, reported in alarm that Texas was becoming more American than Mexican and would be lost if the flow of settlers from the United States was not stopped. In 1830 the Mexican government, in response to Mier y Terán’s warning, closed Texas to further immigration from the United States. It also established several new forts in Texas to strengthen its presence, prohibited the importation of slaves and opened custom houses to collect taxes and stop illegal trade with the United States.
There was an additional quote at the bottom of the display from Mier y Terán in 1828 that “They (the American Colonists) all go about with their constitution in their pocket demanding their rights.”
Does any one else see the irony in this bit of history?
Red Road Diaries 