During the Texas Revolution, a small garrison of Texan soldiers defended The Alamo against the Mexican army, and their defeat and deaths became a rallying cry for Texas independence. After it was secularized at the end of the 18th century, and during Mexican struggle for independence from Spain, the building fell into disuse. The mission eventually became a community of Spanish, Mexican, and American Indian Catholics.
Known today as The Alamo, this Spanish mission complex was the first of the San Antonio missions founded to convert the local American Indians to Christianity. There is no better example of this transition than the remains of the mission complex established by Franciscan missionaries as Mission San Antonio de Valero in 1718. The meaning of places can change drastically through time. Robert Jenkins Onderdonk, via Wikimedia Commons 'The Fall of the Alamo“ or 'Crockett's Last Stand“
