UNESCO names the Alamo a World Heritage site

All the demands to "remember the Alamo" have finally paid off. San Antonio's Missions have been picked by UNESCO as new World Heritage sites, and among them is the Alamo Mission — better known as the site of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, a 13-day fight against the Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna that felled Davy Crockett.

The San Antonio Missions are the first Texan sites to be deemed by UNESCO as having "outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity," and join the Stonehenge, Taj Mahal, and Statue of Liberty as educational, cultural, and scientific landmarks. The nomination process for the San Antonio missions began in 2006, but amid the controversy of Southern heritage — and the ongoing Confederate flag debates — Fusion notes that the Alamo's World Heritage designation arrives at a sensitive time for many Americans.

“Even though the Texans were fighting against a certain kind of tyranny, they were also fighting for an independent republic where slavery was legal,” North Carolina State University Historian James Crisp told Fusion.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up