Victor Cantu, owner of Moses Rose’s, reaches eminent domain deal with the city for the Alamo Museum, The Whitewash Campaign at the Alamo
The General Land Office, the City of San Antonio, and Alamo Trust Board recently announced an agreement with the business property owner, Vincent Cantu, on E. Houston, the “Moses Rose’s Hideout ” on purchase of his building in order to create space for the proposed Alamo Museum. In March, the city presented Cantu with an offer of $4 million along with relocation expenses for the property. This was an increase from the Alamo Trust’s initial offer of $2 million in July 2020. Cantu responded by countering with an asking price of $6 million, adding an additional $4 million for the loss of his business. The agreement stipulates that Cantu must vacate the property by August 15 to ensure the project remains on track.
However, what story will be told remains to be seen since there are organized schemes to hide and whitewash the truth about the Alamo defenders and their relationship to slavery. According to the Texas Land Commissioner, “…the Alamo stands as a symbol of bravery and utmost sacrifice. I have always been committed to preserving and protecting the Shrine of Texas Liberty for future generations.” This mechanical habitual repetition of fiction is an indication of the extreme ignorance as it relates to the fictionalized story of the Alamo which stinks of white supremacy. Is it a shrine to liberty or a shrine to slavery? The truth is in the primary source documents.
Let’s get real. No common ground has been found between the purveyors of fictionalized history and what the Alamo really stood for. Historical documents prove beyond all doubt that slavery was central to the war with Mexico. In fact, the Texas settlers who came to this area were intent on making Texas a “slave country.” All of the Alamo defenders were pro-slavery men and William Travis was perhaps the one who stood to gain the most wealth by defending the institution of slavery by filing law suits to return runaway enslaved people to owners in Louisiana. Also, James Bowie was a slave smuggler and slave owner. Let us not forget what Stephen F. Austin said in 1832, “Nothing is wanted but money . . . negroes are necessary to make it.”
The agents of the slavery dream were Sam Houston, David Crockett, James Bowie, William Travis, Lorenzo de Zavala, Stephen F. Austin, and the rest. Initially, they were scheming to use the 1824 Mexican constitution to provide a ghost of an excuse. Later, they stopped pretending they were supporting democracy as it edged closer to a white supremacist war. Mexico abolished slavery in 1829 and when this happened it became a threat to slave owning greedy Texas settlers as Austin screamed in the quote above. Documents reveal that Crockett said on several occasions that he did not want to die “hemmed up’ inside the Alamo. If this account by Susanna Dickinson is to be believed, then it stands to reason that the details of those that ran from walls of the Alamo are of great importance. Dr. Phillip Tucker scrubbed the historical documents which revealed numerous accounts that some sixty-two Alamo combatants ran from the walls of the Alamo with another group of fifty or so, and a smaller contingent it seems apparently followed Crockett’s “call.” Those that reported the escapees were completely ignored for decades for one simple reason—racism. Want to call this run bravery?
Slavery has been left out of the Alamo story on purpose to create a racialized fictional story. This is not opinion, but fact! Accounts that were truthful were purposefully ignored in adhering to racist slave owner pronouncements. Let us not ignore the commentary of Sam Houston in 1835, “The vigor of the descendants of the sturdy north will never mix with the phlegm of the indolent Mexicans . . . . no matter how long,” nor this white supremacist quote by Stephen F. Austin in 1835, when he described the people of Mexico as a “Mongrel Spanish-Indian and negro race, against civilization and the Anglo-American race.” The whitewash will continue on purpose or out of extreme ignorance.
