Landscapes of the Sacred I

During February of 1836, a group of volunteers in Texas fought for the independence of Texas from Mexico. The volunteers occupied the Alamo and held off thousands of Mexican soldiers for nearly 13 days. Although the few hundred Texans lost the Battle of the Alamo, Texas won its independence later in the year. The Alamo is seen as a sacred place, not only because individuals died, but because they died fighting for an idea larger than themselves. If more individuals had volunteered to help in the fight at the Alamo, the Texans would have had a better chance of winning the battle, and their freedom. With so few individuals fighting, the Texans must have know they were likely to lose the battle, and their lives. But they fought for 13 days until every last man had paid the ultimate price. As seen in "Landscapes of the Sacred", by Belden C. Lane, "A sacred place is most readily defined, culturally at least, as a site over which conflicting parties disagree-- a place about which people are willing to fight and even die" (Lane, 43). When an individual loses his/her life, it is tragic. But when an individual loses his/her life fighting for something bigger than themselves, that is honorable and heroic.