A controversy has erupted at the Alamo—the storied San Antonio mission and symbol of Texan independence— as Republican state leaders moved to oust the head of the Alamo Trust, Inc. amid a dispute over how the site’s history should be told.
The trust’s former President & CEO Kate Rogers, resigned on Oct. 24 following a letter from Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick that described her 2023 doctoral dissertation as “writings incompatible with the telling of the history of the Battle of the Alamo.”
That move to remove Rogers came days after the Alamo Trust posted on social media recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Oct. 12 and announcing a planned Native American gallery. That post triggered online outrage from conservative activists and was later removed. Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, who oversees the Alamo, messaged, “Woke has no place at the Alamo.” She said there would be an investigation into who authorized the post.
Patrick and other Republican officials argued that the Alamo’s narrative must focus squarely on the 1836 battle for Texas independence.
According to Rogers’ dissertation, she had advocated for a broader interpretation of the site’s history, one that would include its era as a Spanish mission, the role of Indigenous and Tejano peoples, and even the impact of slavery and labor in pre-Revolution Texas. She wrote: “I would love to see the Alamo become a beacon for historical reconciliation … but politically that may not be possible at this time.”
The Alamo Trust, which oversees the site under contract with the Texas General Land Office, is in the process of a multi-hundred-million-dollar redevelopment. A new museum and visitor center are slated to open in 2027.
Guest:
Ramon Vasquez is an enrolled member of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation. He is the Executive Director of the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions, which serves the indigenous population of Central and South Texas. In this capacity Ramon has spent the last 28 years working for the preservation of the American Indian descendants and developing community/academic partnerships primarily focusing on reversing extinction of the American Indian descendants of the Spanish Missions of Northeastern Mexico and South Texas. In 2003, Ramon co-founded the National Urban Indian Family Coalition, now headquartered in Seattle Washington. He also is the co-founder and Vice President of the Land Heritage Institute Foundation in Bexar County. Since 2014, Ramon has served as the Mayor's Appointee for the City of San Antonio Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee and more recently appointed to the State of Texas and Alamo Trust Inc. Alamo Museum Planning Committee. In 2021, he was co-author of “Battling the Alamo: Towards preservation and protection of Coahuiltecan legacies and camposantos” published in the Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas. In 2024, Ramon was awarded the San Antonio Peace Laureate and appointed to the Bexar County Historical Commission.
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