THE ALAMO
With the military component established as the Presidio of San Antonio de Béxar and civilians organized under the Villa of San Fernando de Béxar, Native Americans were gathered into missions of the Catholic Church. The first in the San Antonio area was Mission San Antonio de Valero, established in 1718.
Why it was nicknamed the Alamo is not clear, but there are some good guesses. In Spanish, Alamo means “poplar,” a tree including the cottonwood. Cottonwoods flourished along the river around the mission. The eastward extension of what is now Commerce Street was called the Alameda—“poplar grove” in Spanish. At the time of the battle in 1836 it was described as broad and irregularly shaped, flanked on both sides by huge cottonwood trees.
There is a more likely explanation. In the early 19th century, as Spain fortified its northern territories against French expansion, Spain created light, mobile troops called “flying companies.” One company of 100 mounted lancers was recruited in the Coahuilan town of San José y Santiago del Alamo de Parras, a village known for grapevines (“las parras”) and cottonwood trees (“los alamos”). This unit arrived in 1803 to bolster the San Antonio garrison stationed at the Mission San Antonio de Valero. For the next 25 years or so the names Valero and Alamo were apparently used interchangeably, but eventually the name Alamo predominated.
