In San Antonio, Remembering More Than the Alamo

Innovators Are Using Digital Tools to Tell Stories of the City’s Black and Latinx History

In San Antonio, Texas, one memorial—the church-turned-fort-turned-shrine of the Alamo—dominates the landscape. At the Alamo, the artifacts, images, and captions on display tell a unified story: That martyrs died there for Texas independence and that their sacrifice will never be forgotten. The didactics urge the public to observe this history with solemnity and reverie.

Yet the story is one-sided. While there were many root causes of the Alamo siege, one of the most important was that Texas Anglos were fighting Mexican soldiers to uphold slavery. In San Antonio, as in many …

by William Deverell, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, and Stephanie Yi | October 12, 2023

What’s the Cost of a Family Secret?

A California Writer on the Aunt He Never Knew He Had—and the Lessons She Taught Him

by Joe Mathews | August 1, 2023

Is there a family trait more common than keeping secrets?

These secrets can have hidden costs. When we leave a place or person behind, we don’t know what becomes of them. …

Can Los Angeles Elect a City Council That Reflects Our Values?

It’s Hard to Legislate Decency—But Changing Demographics and New Technologies Require New Ethics and Rules

by Michael Woo | November 3, 2022

Politics is full of high-stakes battles and strategies concocted behind closed doors. But that’s no excuse for the level of venality, toxicity, self-aggrandizement, condescension, hubris, and racism exposed in the …

How Mahjong Laid Tiles for Chinese America

The Popular Game Helped Forge a New Identity as it Crossed Classes, Genders, and Generations

by Annelise Heinz | June 30, 2022

The rumble of shuffling mahjong tiles filled the air in Chinatowns across the United States in the 1920s. Before even seeing the game, you could hear it being played in …

Does America Really Want to Be a Nation of Immigrants? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Journalist Jia Lynn Yang Wins the 11th Annual Zócalo Book Prize

One Mighty and Irresistible Tide Challenges the Well-Worn American Immigration Narrative

Interview by Jackie Mansky | April 21, 2021

Jia Lynn Yang, national editor at the New York Times, is the winner of the 11th annual Zócalo Book Prize for her debut book, One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic …

How an Early Santa Barbara Scion Protected Women’s Rights to Property in the California Constitution

In 1849, Doña Angustias Bargained Away Suffrage for Non-Whites to Help Preserve Her Social Status

by Andrew Gibb | October 17, 2018

In 1849, Angustias de la Guerra struck the first blow for gender equality in U.S.-controlled California when she influenced the outcome of the new state’s constitutional convention.

Doña Angustias, as …

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