A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Thousands of people visit San Antonio every year to see the historic Alamo. Now, for the first time, you can tour the famed battle site in Spanish. Here's Texas Public Radio's Marian Navarro.
VALERIA MEDINA: (Speaking Spanish).
MARIAN NAVARRO, BYLINE: Tour guide Valeria Medina stands a few yards in front of the Alamo Church, a Spanish-style withered limestone structure on the Alamo grounds. She speaks to a small group of four tourists through a microphone and headsets. Medina is one of two individuals who lead the tours launched last month - the first time a guided tour of the Alamo's history is being offered on a regular basis entirely in Spanish. Tom Castanos is director of interpretation at the Alamo, which is property of the state and operated by the nonprofit Alamo Trust. He says the move was long overdue.
TOM CASTANOS: Some of these things, they're not only morally a part of the story, but now that they're being heard in the traditional language, I think they resonate more with certain members of the audience that have come to hear this story.
NAVARRO: Tourist Nuna Aguilera agrees. The Alamo was the first stop in San Antonio for her and her husband while they visited from Los Angeles.
NUNA AGUILERA: (Through interpreter) Hearing it in Spanish, for me, is more significant because I'm hearing it in my native language. It's like, when we go to church, it means more to listen to it in Spanish than in English.
NAVARRO: The tour covers the story of the mission turned fortress, which has been at the crossroads of Texas and U.S. history.
MEDINA: (Speaking Spanish).
NAVARRO: Tour guide Medina explains that Coahuiltecans were the Indigenous people who inhabited the land the Alamo sits on. The Alamo was originally established in 1718 as Mission San Antonio de Valero, founded as a Spanish foothold to convert Indigenous people to Catholicism. It's best known as the site of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution, the culmination of a 13-day siege between the Texas defenders and the Mexican army and the fight to gain independence from the centralized Mexican government. The Spanish tours is the latest move in the Alamo's half-a-billion-dollar effort to try and tell a more nuanced history. Ernesto Rodriguez, a senior curator and historian at the Alamo, says it's crucial to acknowledge where the narrative of the battle comes from.
ERNESTO RODRIGUEZ: All the defenders were killed. Who survives? Women, children, enslaved. Our story is one of the special stories, that the people without a voice are the ones that give us the narrative.
NAVARRO: The Alamo's history has often been mythologized to focus on the story of white defenders, like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and often leaves out its complex history of the groups who have ties to the land. Groups representing Mexican Americans, Black Americans and Indigenous people have long been advocating to include the story of all those involved before, during and after the battle. Mexicans fought at the site. It has ties to slavery, and Native American groups cite the Alamo as a sacred burial ground that includes the remains of their ancestors. Historian Rodriguez says the Alamo's recent effort aims to diversify the narrative.
RODRIGUEZ: You cannot tell about a place without including everyone because it's sort of like when you weave a tapestry. If you're missing a thread, it's going to fall apart.
NAVARRO: Tourist Nuna Aguilera says that thread, whether told in English or in Spanish, still highlights a history of colonialism.
AGUILERA: (Through interpreter) There were people here, the Native peoples, and it's sad to see that they were left with nothing.
NAVARRO: Officials at the Alamo say the Spanish tours are just one step. A new visitor center and museum is slated for 2027. They plan to continue evaluating the Alamo's history and develop more specialized Spanish-language programming, including history talks, in the future.
For NPR News, I'm Marian Navarro in San Antonio.
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