HISTORICAL PRESERVATION AND IDENTITY: THE ALAMO AND THE PRODUCTION OF A CONSUMER LANDSCAPE

Historical preservation often reveals more about contemporary culture than about history. The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, is just such a case. No other large US city is so dominated by a single historical event, and the Alamo plays a central role as a cultural icon for regional Anglo identity, a symbol of the Anglo-dominated social hierarchy. Its preservation and restoration have coincided with modern identity formation contextualized by commodities. Thus, a critical part of this project is the development of a consumer landscape as an economic extension of the Alamo that promotes consumption by harmonizing with prevailing Anglo conceptions of ethnic identities; not simply a strategically located commercial zone, but an integral part of the pilgrimage to the monument, providing a mechanism for socialization, including “racialization”, contextualized by commodities.