Originally posted by TyrannosauruschexThis doesn't sound like a streight...er, straight question, but I'll try. If I drive the speed limit I can be at the Alamo in about 40 minutes (52.3 minutes in the metric system). It is a beautiful place where you can leave the bustle of downtown San Antonio and sink back into the past. I wasn't born in Texas so maybe I'm not the one to discuss this, but the history here is so strong you can almost touch it. A few hundred men made a decision that there was something more important than their lives. They bought the rest of the rebel army against Mexican rule enough time to regroup which ended up at San Jacinto and Texas independence.
I have a quite streight question today that maybe some americans might answer for me.
When you are playing a mexican at chess does the saying "remember the alamo" inspire you to make better moves?
Brave men on both sides died. Stories of battles where there are few survivors catch our attention and the Alamo is one of them. But we live together now in south Texas and it is far enough in the past that this battle would certainly not affect a chess game.
I was just having a we joke with Tyrannosauruschex
But funnily enough I'm about 40 minutes drive from Bannockburn.
A famous and very important battle was fought their in 1314 between England & Scotland.
Robert the Bruce beat the English and thus Scotland became a nation.
If Scotland had lost, and it was touch and go for a while.
Then Scotland may today be called Northern England.
No Haggis, No Bagpipes, No Kilts....No Scotch Gambit!
The Scotch Gambit got it 's name from the Edinburgh v London
correspondence match 1824-1828. In the press it was being reported
as Scotland v England.
This chess match was the first sporting contest between the two countires.
Scotland won that one as well W2. L1. D2
And I have seen and actually held the original letters that went back
and forth between London and Edinburgh in the 1820's.
Here endeth today's lesson.
(Anbody else 40 minutes drive away from a famous battle site?)
Originally posted by TyrannosauruschexWhen I think about the Alamo, I remember the lies and fabrications that American school children learn. The truth favors the Mexican side.
I have a quite streight question today that maybe some americans might answer for me.
When you are playing a mexican at chess does the saying "remember the alamo" inspire you to make better moves?
Originally posted by MontyMooseThere were thousands of survivors. They were soldiers in an army attempting to clear up a little insurrection by some immigrants that came in under false pretenses and then turned violent.
Brave men on both sides died. Stories of battles where there are few survivors catch our attention and the Alamo is one of them.
Originally posted by TyrannosauruschexLiving in the city where the Alamo is located I would say no.
I have a quite streight question today that maybe some americans might answer for me.
When you are playing a mexican at chess does the saying "remember the alamo" inspire you to make better moves?
Originally posted by WulebgrLet us not forget that those who surrendered to Santa Anna were murdered.
There were thousands of survivors. They were soldiers in an army attempting to clear up a little insurrection by some immigrants that came in under false pretenses and then turned violent.
1830's San Antonio was hardly what would be considered a Spanish or Mexican populated city. It was not until around 1970 that the population was even 50 per cent Hispanic.
Where I live (northern NYC suburbs), there are revolutionary war battlefields all over the place. My brother used to call any strange house we saw "George Washington's house" because there are a gazillion restored houses around here that claim "George Washington slept here" at some point or another during the war.
(Anybody else 40 minutes drive away from a famous battle site?)[/b]
You think George Washington played chess? I bet he did.
Originally posted by caissad4
Let us not forget that those who surrendered to Santa Anna were murdered.
That's more or less true. Although I learned in grade school back in the 1960s that Jim Bowie, for example, took out some nine Mexicans from his death bed with a couple of single shot pistols and his famous knife. He, and many of the other legendary heroes, surrendered and were executed.
Bear in mind that those defending the Alamo were adventurers and immigrants, and that the Anglo immigrants to Tejas were admitted under certain terms and conditions, terms and conditions that they violated from the get go. According to the terminology employed in today's America, they were illigal immigrants and terrorists.
1830's San Antonio was hardly what would be considered a Spanish or Mexican populated city. It was not until around 1970 that the population was even 50 per cent Hispanic.
Immigrants often form their own cities. The presence of such beachheads serve as a base for further insurgency.
Those defending the Alamo were not defending a small Anglo-dominated outpost. They were defending American imperialism. For patriotic Americans that profess justice, it is a dark moment in our history.
Originally posted by WulebgrDe la Peña's journal says only 7 were captured and murdered, including Davy Crockett. Most accounts I have read say Bowie was bayoneted in his sick bed; there are conflicting accounts as to whether he ever fired a shot. What are the sources for your info?
Originally posted by caissad4
[b]Let us not forget that those who surrendered to Santa Anna were murdered.
That's more or less true. Although I learned in grade school back in the 1960s that Jim Bowie, for example, took out some nine Mexicans from his death bed with a couple of single shot pistols and his famous knife. He, and many of the oth ...[text shortened]... mperialism. For patriotic Americans that profess justice, it is a dark moment in our history.[/b]