Remember the Alamo!

Texas was born on Sunday 6 March 1836.

On that day, at 5 am, after what had been a bloody 13-day siege, Mexican General Santa Anna ordered his 1800 troops to once more attack with all the force and numbers they could muster the battered, but still standing, walls of the Alamo, a former mission that now had become a fortress. Its 189 Texan defenders fought to the bitter end against impossible odds. When, however, the dust finally settled after the 90-minute battle, all Alamo defenders lay dead.

It was not the end though.

That day the Texas Revolution had a new battle cry: Remember the Alamo!

Those words were to become a rallying cry for a newfound spirit of defiance in the face of tyranny. Thereafter, the spirit of the defenders of the Alamo was to inspire thousands of others to fight for and, eventually, to win independence for Texas.

Today, we remember those men who died for freedom, for a cause to which they were prepare to give up everything, even life itself.

The Texas Declaration of Independence had been proclaimed only days before the battle at the Alamo. It stated the following:

“When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression… The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation. We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the people of Texas … do hereby resolve and declare… that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations.”

Texans continue to remember the Alamo and that earlier declaration that inspired its defenders. Texans also continue to celebrate their still independent spirit, the Texan unique take on life, and even the Texan innate rebelliousness against any outside coercive forces.

Just back from my Irish trip I was thinking about the Irish American story. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that nine of the 189 defenders of the Alamo – who were mostly Texans and Tennesseans – were born in Ireland, and many others in this gallant band, like Davy Crockett, William Travis and Jim Bowie were first, second or even third generation Scots-Irish pioneering settlers who had crossed the Atlantic on immigrant ships.

These men’s ancestors had come to America and, later, their descendants came to Texas to seek a new life. They wanted a better life for their families than what they had known until then.  They wanted to prosper – but not at any price. They knew what freedom was and that that needs independence. They exhibited this desire for freedom in their attitudes and how they lived. How they lived was, in the end, how they were prepared to die – free. These men realised that it was better to fight and die for something rather to live for no reason.

Many entrepreneurs are fighting for an ideal: a dream of independence that is personified in a product or a service. And, be under no illusion, that ideal is as powerful an urge as that which drove the Alamo’s defenders.

The land those men died for, Texas, remains to this day a frontier. It is a land that has always drawn the ambitious and those in search of adventure – and, yes, also its freedoms. That remains true to this day as the now State of Texas continues to draw talent from many different quarters, not least Europe. As at the time of the Alamo, Texas remains a diverse place that is home to many cultures. The Rio Grande still marks out the southern border and, for many, the promise of a new and better life.

At Mount Bonnell it is no coincidence that our US office is in Texas. The people we work with and for are just like the Texans of old. Only this time, today’s European immigrants to Texas do not have to fight for freedom with musket and cannon. Instead, they fight to build a better, freer life through commerce, through enterprise, through their God-given entrepreneurial zeal.

Texas still needs people. It needs the highly skilled, be they computer programmers, doctors, nurses.  It also needs those who create jobs and business opportunities. But Texas needs more than even that. Just like the men at the Alamo, Texas still needs those who come with not just know how but with new visions – visions worth dying for.

Could that be you? Are you a visionary – with some great business ideas? Do you have what it takes to arrive not only at a new place in your business but, also, to reach out for whole new frontier and the challenges that brings? If so, Mount Bonnell is here for you: and here to help you defend that goal to the ‘bitter end’ no matter how many are ranged against us.

Originally, the Alamo was a mission station for Christian missionaries. Today it remains a mission as much as a fort, bringing different people together to appreciate a shared history and their joint future. Because March 6, 1836, and the Battle of the Alamo was a triumph for immigrants. So that old mission fort calls out not just to Texans or even Americans but also to Europeans who share the Texas Republic founders’ dream of freedom and prosperity.

Believe me, reflecting on the Alamo so many years later, Texas is still, and will always remain, the rightful home to those who are fighting for an ideal, no matter what it takes to realise it.