thesis

The Alamo 2004: Everybody in Texas is Going

my master's thesis has been bound and shelved. it is in the University of Texas at San Antonio library. you know, in case anyone might want to read it. here is the global cataloging link:
worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/75182820?tab=details
it has my abstract. which is, i hope, easy enough to understand. i tried to avoid jargon and theory crap (difficult with this sort of topic, but i think most people know most of these words).

ABSTRACT
The Alamo narrative tells Texas’ creation myth, and has in the past been a symbol of unity for “Americans” by displacing San Antonio’s Mexican/Tejano origin. After September 11th, Disney’s The Alamo was conceived as a blockbuster epic to reshape history. It would unite all Texans, justify and glorify war, and entertain families. Though a dozen films of the Alamo have succeeded, Disney’s 2004 version flopped. This thesis examines Tejano marginalization, bicultural society, anti-Mexican stereotypes, and American identity, illustrated in scenes from The Alamo involving four characters: Juan Seguín, Jim Bowie, Santa Anna, and David Crockett. As public history, Hollywood’s Alamo films are sites of struggle between academic history and myth. In this case, an incompatibility between inclusionist revisionism and ethnocentric stereotype creates incoherence. Ideals of history and inclusion are ultimately abandoned to re-inscribe Alamo myth. During the War On Terror, Disney and director John Lee Hancock created a movie that not even Alamo fans wanted to see. The Alamo film shows this divisive symbol is losing relevance altogether. Constructions of the nation as a linguistic, ethnic, or cultural monolith no longer work. San Antonio and America deserve better public history, and a better symbol, than the Alamo.

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