The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986 Page: 39
610 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Remembering the Alamo
where grease and filth hold divided dominion, and the singular appropri-
ateness of the name . . . soon caused it to be universally adopted by the Ameri-
can army."'
It is rare indeed when the opprobrious term is used with anything
other than loathing, but a positive instance does occur in Joseph A.
Altsheler's The Texan Star: The Story of a Great Fight for Liberty (1912).
A character named Obed says with grudging respect: "Greasers or no
greasers. Those are men of" courage!"'" From such attitudes would
come later, fairer estimates of the Mexican soldier until, in films such
as The Alamo, the Mexican army is bright, brave, and altogether
admirable.
Racism infects the juvenile novels as well, those written, need it be
added, expressly for the edification of Anglo children. Everett McNeil's
In Texas with Davy Crockett (19o8), which enjoyed four reprintings
through 1918, sprinkles the epithet "greaser" on nearly every page.
Even Jim Bowie, who took a Mexican woman for his wife, speaks of"
"Santa Anna and his army of Greasers." And Davy Crockett, when he
hears of an account of the early Texan victory over General Martin Per-
fecto de C6s in San Antonio, calculates the odds in familiar racist arith-
metic: "If it takes three hundred Greasers to get two Texans, how many
Greasers will it take to get all Texas?" In the celebrated comic strip Texas
History Movies, which has been oft-reprinted, including a recent bowd-
lerized version to eliminate racial slurs, racial exchanges between the
opposing armies-"Gringos," "Greasers"-do much to create the fla-
vor of enmity."
Like Catholicism, racism provides a convenient platform for dismiss-
ing Mexican civilization across the board. In Guy Raymond a familiar
generalization occurs: "Mexican treachery was but one degree re-
moved from savage barbarity...." Even when Mexico is depicted in
more temperate terms, the dismissal is still apparent. In Francis Nona's
verse drama The Fall of the Alamo (1879) a long paean to Texas contains
this characterization of Mexico:
"'Jeremiah Clemens, Bernard Lile: An Historical Romance, Embracing the Periods of the Texas Rev-
olution and the Mexican War (Philadelphia, 1856), 214.
"Joseph A. Altsheler, The Texan Star: The Story of a GreatFightforLiberty (New York, 1912), 314.
12 Everett McNeil, In Texas with Davy Crockett: A Story of the Texas War of Independence (New York,
1908), 159 (3rd quotation), 177 (2nd quotation); John Rosenfield, Jr., Texas History Movies
(Dallas, 1928). For Jim Bowie, see Walter Prescott Webb, H. Bailey Carroll, and Eldon Stephen
Branda (eds.), The Handbook of Texas (3 vols.; Austin, 1952, 1976), I, 197.
'SAlsbury, Guy Raymond, 18.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986, periodical, 1985/1986; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117151/m1/65/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.