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HISTORICAL PRESERVATION AND IDENTITY: THE ALAMO AND THE PRODUCTION OF A CONSUMER LANDSCAPE
Author(s) -
Oliver Miguel
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8330.1996.tb00669.x
Subject(s) - racialization , pilgrimage , identity (music) , symbol (formal) , consumption (sociology) , ethnic group , history , icon , hierarchy , socialization , sociology , ethnology , gentrification , aesthetics , political science , anthropology , gender studies , archaeology , race (biology) , social science , art , law , computer science , programming language , civil engineering , engineering
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.