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Contributing Editors Historical Advisors Special Consultant Educational Consultant William R. Chemerka Archaeological Consultants | ||||||||||
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 | Randell TarĖn OurManaging Editor and Art Directoris a 9th generation Texan and can trace his Hispanic ancestry to the earliest settlements of San Antonio. Randell is a descendant of no fewer than twelve of the sixteen original Canary Island Families who settled the Villa de San Fernando in 1731. His family's name originated in Texas with his third great grandfather, the former commandant of the Compañía Volante,Vicente TarĖn. His great-great grandfather, Juan MarĖa TarĖn owned and lived on the property now occupied by the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, only feet away from the Alamo. His great-great grand uncle,Manuel TarĖnwas also a member of the Alamo company and a Tejano participant at the Battle of San Jacinto. Another great-great grand uncle, Antonio TarĖn also fought for Texas during the revolution and still another great-great grand uncle, Macario TarĖn married Gertrudes Smith, the daughter of Texas spy, Erastus "Deaf" Smith. His mother's family came to Texas as early as 1837. | ||||||||
 | Kevin R. Young Kevin R. Youngis a South Texas based writer and research historian who has served as the chief of historical interpretation at the Presidio La BahĖa in Goliad and is currently the historical interpreter and exhibit technician at the Landmark Inn State Historical Park in Castroville. As a recognized expert on the Alamo and the Texas Revolution, Young was a consultant for the A&E Network's production ofThe Alamo,The Texas Rangers, andThe Mexican War, as well as for the History Channel's two-hour documentaryThe Alamo. He has served as president of the Alamo Battlefield Association since 1993. | ||||||||
 | Bob Durham OurContributing EditorandBooks Editoris a native of Washington, Pennsylvania, but has lived in Dayton, Ohio since 1967. He's a computer specialist with the Defense Logistics Agency and for the past fourteen years has traveled extensively in foreign countries and has seen a good bit of the world. His main historical interest are the American frontier west and the Civil War. His interest in the Alamo started like that of many others his age -- from seeing Disney's Davy Crockett on TV. When he was a teenager, a family vacation took him to the Alamo. That visit began many years of interest in the historical Alamo for him. Over the years, he's read everything he could find on the subject. Says Bob, "This is a great time to be living if you're a serious student of the Alamo. There are a lot of dedicated researchers out there and the results of their work is now being made available to the public." Bob is a member of the Alamo Society and the Alamo Battlefield Association.
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 | Dr. Richard Bruce Winders Historian and Curator of the Alamo Dr. Winders is the Historian and Curator of the Alamo. He is the author of Mr. Polk's Army and assistant editor of The United States and Mexico at War: Nineteenth Century Expansionism and Conflict. Dr. Winders received his Ph.D. from Texas Christian University and was named a Fellow of the Grady McWhiney Research Foundation in 1997. A frequent lecturer on the Alamo and the U.S.- Mexican War, he often participates in living history demonstrations. | ||||||||
 | William R. Chemerka William R. Chemerka is the founder ofThe Alamo Societyand edits its quarterly publication,The Alamo Journal. He is the author ofThe Alamo Almanac & Book of Lists(Eakin Press). Chemerka writes frequently on historical topics for the "In The Towns" section ofThe Star-Ledgerand co-authoredTeenage New Jersey, 1941"-1"975(NJ Historical Society/Rutgers University Press). He is an award-winning teacher of American History and Economics at Madison High School in Madison, New Jersey, where he has taught for the last twenty-five years. Chemerka has won the DAR's "Outstanding Teacher in the State of New Jersey," three Barrett-Caprio Teaching Awards, the Governor's Teaching Recognition Award and the Golden Apple Teaching Award. He is a member of Who's Who Among American Teachers and is the recipient of two Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Grants, one for the study of "New Jersey's Role in the Texas Revolution." Chemerka is a member of the Texas State Historical Commission and the New Jersey Historical Society. | ||||||||
 | Dr. Stephen L. Hardin Dr. Stephen Hardinteaches history at The Victoria College in Victoria, Texas. He is the author ofThe Texas Rangers(1991),Lone Star: The Republic of Texas, 1836-1846(1998), and the award-winningTexian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution, (1994). The author of more than a dozen scholarly articles, he appears regularly on the History Channel and has appeared on NBC's TODAY. In 1995 the Texas Institute of Letters inducted Dr. Hardin as a member. Most recently, Dr. Hardin served as historical advisor for the blockbuster, "The Alamo" produced by Imagine Entertainment. He resides in Victoria with his wife, Deborah and children Walker and Savannah. | ||||||||
 | Dr. James E. Crisp Assistant Department Head Department of History North Carolina State University James E. Crisp is Associate Professor and Assistant Head in the Department of History at North Carolina State University. He graduated with a B. A. in History from Rice University in 1968, and received his doctorate from Yale in 1976. A member of the NCSU History faculty since 1972, he turned apostate for only one year, when he was a Rockefeller Fellow and Humanist-in-Residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1992-1993. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Academy of Outstanding Teachers at NCSU. His 1993 article, "Sam Houston's Speechwriters," received the H. Bailey Carroll Award from the Texas State Historical Association. A sequel, "In Pursuit of Herman Ehrenberg: A Research Adventure," appeared in the April 1999 issue of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Since 1994 Crisp has published several articles relating to the authenticity of the celebrated memoir of JosČ Enrique de la Peña, a Mexican officer who claimed to have witnessed the execution of David Crockett at the Alamo. An expanded edition of the "De la Peña Diary," with a new Introduction by Crisp, was published in 1997 by the Texas A&M Press under the title, With Santa Anna in Texas. In 2000, the manuscript of the De la Peña Diary appeared for the first time in Guinness World Records, having been sold at auction for almost $400,000 in 1998. Both the History Channel and the Discovery Channel have televised special programs on the De la Peña controversy, and a documentary film -- "The De la Peña Diary" --featuring Crisp's research has been produced by Rice University Film Studies Professor Brian Huberman. The film premiered in April, 2000, at the LBJ Presidential Library at the University of Texas at Austin. Video copies are available through Prof. Huberman at Rice University. Prof. Crisp's most recent research has focused on visual imagery, collective memory, and historical identity. Two prize-winning articles have appeared so far from this work, one published in Italy in Situazioni d'Assedio, a multi-disciplinary collection of studies of siege situations through history (Firenze: Pagnini e Martinelli, 2002). A related study, "An Incident in San Antonio: The Contested Iconology of Davy Crockett's Death at the Alamo," appeared in the Spring 2001 issue of the Journal of the West. Crisp will appear in the spring of 2004 in a PBS American Experience program on the life of JosČ Antonio Navarro and the role of Tejanos in the Texas Revolution. He will also be a featured commentator in the a two-hour History Channel documentary on the Alamo which will be televised in December, 2003. Publishing projects currently underway include a first-person account of historical detective work titled Sleuthing the Alamo: Lost and Found Voices from the Texas Revolution, and an annotated translation of Herman Ehrenberg's memoir of his volunteer military service in the Texas Revolution. Ehrenberg published Texas und Seine Revolution in Leipzig in 1843 in an effort to make the new Texas Republic an inspiration to democratic and nationalistic reformers in Europe. The new edition will include a biographical sketch of Ehrenberg, whose obscure but wide-ranging life in the American West has up until now defied the best efforts of historians. | ||||||||
 | Dr. Jesús F. de la Teja Dr. de la Teja was born in Cuba and arrived in the United States in 1963 at the age of seven. He was raised in northern New Jersey where he attended Seton Hall University. From there he received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Political Science, History and Latin American History. He received his Ph.D. in Colonial Latin American History from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. de la Teja's eclectic background as a resident of Texas for the past ten years has included experiences as a college instructor, as research assistant to the lateJames A. Michner, and as Director of Archives and Records of the Texas General Land Office. He has authored or edited numerous publications concerning the Hispanic influences in Texas and the Spanish land grants. Dr. de la Teja is an Associate Professor of History at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. | ||||||||
 | I. Waynne Cox Archaeological Consultant The late Mr. Cox, was a research associate with The Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) for many years. CAR is a research facility within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at The University of Texas at San Antonio. He worked on numerous projects in Texas and Belize. He authored over 20 contract reports on Texas archaeology and published a peer reviewed article on Texas Spanish Mission archaeology. Currently last book was on the acequia system of San Antonio. Mr. Cox's responsibilities included historic documents research, historic site research, and evaluation of threatened sites. He had unique knowledge of historic San Antonio and the Spanish Mission period in Texas and was an invaluable asset to the Texas history community. | ||||||||
 | James E. Ivey Archaeological Consultant James E. Ivey is the Research Historian for the History Program of the Intermountain Cultural Resource Center of the Intermountain Regional Office, National Park Service, in Santa Fe. He was a contract historical archeologist in Texas for ten years, and has specialized in the cultural and architectural history of the American Southwest. As an archeologist and historian, he has worked on Spanish missions, presidios, ranches, the history of ranching, and settlements from Texas to California, as well as American frontier forts, industrial sites, and settlements. As an architectural historian, he has written the structural histories and co-authored the cultural landscape studies of the four San Antonio Missions and the Alamo in Texas; written the structural histories of the colonial periods of the four missions of Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, the missions and other Spanish structures at Pecos National Historical Park, and the mission at Jemez Springs State Park in New Mexico; carried out architectural surveys of two presidios and a mission in northern Mexico (Presidios San Carlos in Chihuahua and San Vicente in Coahuila, and Mission Nuestra Señora de Cocospera in Sonora); and is writing the architectural histories of the three missions of Tumacacori National Monument in Arizona. He is presently working on architectural histories of nineteenth-century ranching buildings at Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, and comparative architectural studies that look at the entire northern Franciscan frontier from 1565 to 1821. | ||||||||
 | John Bryant Staff Writer The late John Bryant was a Fort Worth native and product of the Disney "Davy Crockett" craze of the 50's. This instilled a lifelong love of Texas history with a particular emphasis on the Alamo, but John was also interested in all history pertaining to the American frontier. He was an avid historical re-enactor and maker of historical clothing and accouterments. John's experience in Blackpowder weaponry and research of primitive pioneering skills spaned over 25 years. He was a member of theAlamo Society,the Texas Association of Buckskinnersand the7th U.S. Infantry. John was a valuable asset and friend to Alamo de Parras. He will be missed by everyone who knew him. | ||||||||
| Lieutenant Colonel, Alan C. Huffines Alan C. Huffines was born in Big Spring, Texas in 1964. An 8th generation Texan, he is a professional combat arms officer and married to the former Caroline Cotham. They have three daughters: Morgan, Madison and Melissa, and make their home in Central Texas. He received a BA in history from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas and an MA in history from Norwich University in Montpelier, Vermont. He is a member of Western Writers of America and The Company of Military Historians, and received the Bronze Star Medal for achievement in the Persian Gulf War, was a featured author at the 1999 and 2001 Texas Book Festival and has appeared on CSPAN's "Book TV." He has provided historical work on several feature films and documentaries including: "Gone to Texas" (CBS, 1986); "Glory" (Tri-Star, 1989); "Son of the Morning Star" (ABC, 1990); "Two for Texas" (TNT, 1997);"The Real American Cowboy" (Kurtis Productions, 1999). He recently served as military advisor for the blockbuster movie, "The Alamo" (Imagine Entertainment, 2004) and is currently working on a historical novel on the Briton Johnson. | |||||||||
