It’s Time to Tell the True History of Texas :: Personal Narrative

Its Time to Tell the True History of TexasWhen the Bob Bullock Texas convey History museum opened in March 2001, it advertised itself as The Story of Texas. It still calls itself the story of Texas in letters chiseled into the top of the building, on its network site, on signs directing visitors to the museum, and even on the refrigerator magnets you can buy in the gift shop. When I first saw the slogan, I wondered how there could be the story of Texas, since Texas has been culturally diverse throughout its history as a part of Mexico that became a separate nation and later a state. Shortly Texas ordain have no one group as a majority. I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, where the great majority of the population, like me, is Mexican American. How was this new museum exit to present my story? I had to go and find out. When I first walked into the lobby, I noticed the large mosaic on the floor but I couldnt figure out what it depicted. I just saw a campfire and a bunch of wiggly fi gures. Someone next to me told their kids that theyd be adequate to see the entire mosaic from the third floor. I decided to wait and do the same. The first exhibit I saw was the It Aint Braggin if its True (one of my friends told me I had to see the shrine to Lance Armstrong and the rhinestone car). The name of the exhibit didnt make much sense to me though arent all museum exhibits, specially ones about history, supposed to be true? The big banner in the middle of the room didnt help much either. It simply said imagination and had a quote about how only those with great visual sense can see opportunity where others see empty space. Maybe those who have this type of vision get the braggin rights? Texas was never a big empty space. The Spaniards and later the French who came here discovered cultures that were centuries old. But history, and the museum itself, begins with European colonization. The history of Texas, one of the signs says, was shaped by the way the different grou ps of people who came to Texas responded to the land and to each other. So land, and interaction between different groups of people, would be used a lot in the telltale(a) of this story of Texas, I assumed.