Let the meltdowns begin.
In a 7-4 vote, San Antonio’s Historic Design and Review Commission on Wednesday approved parts of the Alamo’s redevelopment plan, including a new placement for its Cenotaph monument — the source of much fiery rhetoric surrounding the $450 million redevelopment.
The plans call for shifting the Cenotaph — which was erected a century after the battle of the Alamo — some 500 feet across Alamo Plaza to the location now occupied by a bandstand.
Activist groups, including the colorfully monikered Texas Freedom Force, have raised hell about the relocation, labeling it a blow against freedom and an erasure of the state’s history. The group plans a December 27 protest at Alamo Plaza to decry the decision.
“We’ll see you in court,” one person in the meeting room shouted after the vote, according to the Rivard Report.
The goal of the Alamo’s master plan is to make the grounds a recreation of how the site looked at the time of the Battle of the Alamo and restoring a “sense of reverence” — a goal supported by historians who testified at the meeting, Texas Public Radio reports.
“There’s nothing more scared about that site than there is about any other part of the Alamo battlefield, so there’s not really a good reason to consider not removing it,” said John L. Hittan, an Alamo historian in attendance, according to TPR.
Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit by the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation against the Texas General Land Office and the city demands that Native Americans have a say in how the site is handled because the remains of indigenous people are buried at the site.
The remains of three people were unearthed at the Alamo roughly a week ago during archaeological work.
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This article appears in The Drink Issue 2019.
