How the Irish Culture Affected San Antonio

by Michael Maffei

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 8th Grade

My heart pounded in my ears, and the rifle shook in my hands.  I could faintly see through the darkness the surge of advancing troops.  The torch light glimmered from their bayonets charged at my position.  Then, in unspoken unison, our rifles thundered driving back the advancing troops.  I scrambled to reload my rifle as the Mexican ladders hit the wall.  My weapon swayed in my hands as I took aim at the first solider to slip over the wall.  The rifle kicked into my shoulder as the solider let out an agonized cry and fell back over the wall.  I moved over to the ladder kicking it back as I shoved the ram round down the gun barrel to chamber my round.  I turned to see a solider charging at me bayonet drawn ready to stab.  I brought my rifle around and fired.  The round ripped into the solider causing him to fall.  Then Crockett’s voice sounded calling for the remaining defenders to fall back to the Alamo barracks.  I ran through the barrack doors and readied for my final battle.

I am one of the Irish defenders of the Alamo, fighting to see that my descendents will have a future in this land.  I am fighting to make the city of San Antonio and the land we call Texas free from the dictatorship of Santa Anna.  I came to this land to find a better home, but was taxed and my family labored.  After years of this mistreatment I decided to take up arms.  I remember my father’s words when he asked me if my gun would help our cause for freedom.  My response was this “In a hundred years this city will mean something to many people and I want the people to remember what I have done.  Not only what I have done, but what the Irish people can do for this city and more importantly this land.”  Leaving my grief-stricken father, I stormed out of the barn to my waiting horse.  My goodbyes to my mother and sister echoed on the road as I headed off towards the old mission.  There I found Colonel Travis recruiting volunteers for the defense of the mission.  The following months where filled with strenuous labor as we fortified our defenses and prepared for the worst of Santa Ana’s wrath.  I was in town the day that Santa Ana’s army was sighted.  Little did I know that dream I had of making a better San Antonio was going to cost my life.

The first day of battle the Mexican army pounded our walls day and night relentlessly.  We however did not lose a man.  Travis has sent letters calling for aid, for he believes we shall not last long.  On the morning of the second day the enemy charged our walls and their attack was fruitless.  As the thirteenth day of the siege began, so did the end of my life.  The yells were heard all too late.  Their ladders clattered against the walls.  Our forces readied.  I kicked the closest ladder back, and fired at the soldier who climbed over wall.  I then thrust my rifle at the enemy soldier.  My bayonet struck him down.  I reloaded the rifle and fired again.  Another enemy soldier fell from the wall.  I kicked the ladder back, from which the soldier came.

Then as I looked to my left to see if any more soldiers had made it over the walls, my eyes fell upon Colonel Travis.  He stood upon the wall battle back countless foe and then his rifle hit the ground and he clutched his chest.  Then a soldier bayoneted Travis and the great man fell.

Then I heard Crockett’s voice sound “fall back to the barracks.”  I ran jumping down from the wall and crossed the courtyard then into the barracks.  I lay on the floor gazing at the barrack door.  Many thoughts crossed my mind, but one of which was what the people of San Antonio and this land would think of the Irish people now.  I hoped that with this sacrifice would make San Antonio a better place but most of all a free one.  The barrack door then splintered, as a captured cannon’s shell passed through the door.  In the next moments Mexican soldiers poured through the door.  I fired my rifle and then thrust my rifle forward.  My bayonet caused another soldier to fall.  Then as I pulled my rifle back, I felt something strike me in the side.  My rifle fell from my hands, and then I sank to my knees.  My vision grew dim and my eyes watered.  Then I fell to the floor and passed.  My hope of a better San Antonio would later be filled when other Irish people fought in the battle of San Jacinto.

This is my Irish heritage; but, I am also a quarter Italian.  In fact, in 1890 the Brazos Valley had more Italian immigrants that any other place in the United States.  One of the first individuals to spot the Texas coast was an Italian named Amerigo Vespucci.  I have often heard my own father remind me that Prospero Benardi was an Italian that fought in the battle of San Jacinto.  Clearly, both the Irish and the Italians played key roles in the Texas struggle for independence.

The Irish people contributed much to San Antonio from their culture and even with their lives, and I believe that they helped make a better San Antonio.  Over the most recent generation I have had ancestors that have helped shape San Antonio into what it is today.  I had a great aunt who was a Sister of the Incarnate Word and taught many children in grade school.  My father, Colonel Michael Maffei, was assigned to Randolph AFB for his last assignment in the USAF.  He taught many Texas military pilots to fly at a high level and advance their skills.  My mother is instructing student nurses at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.  Each parent is shaping tomorrow’s leaders today.

Last summer, I volunteered at Camp Camp.  My sister Katelyn and I assisted in the care of both physically and medically challenged children.  We tried to give another child an opportunity to be like any other child and enjoy the Texas outdoors.  In other words, we tried to make the life of another person a little better and isn’t that what each generation from the Alamo defenders to present day San Antonio has done?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Texas Texas Culture.” 9-17-2006.

WWW.TRAVELTEX.COM/TX_CUL_MAD.ASP?SN=536322&LS=0.

The Irish Presence in Mexico. 9-17-2006.

WWW.HOUSTONCULTURE.ORG/MEXICO/IRISH.HTML

Copyright San Antonio Founders Day Alliance 2006

www.SanAntonioFoundersDay.org