Juana Navarro Alsbury
Juana Gertrudis Navarro Alsbury (1812 – July 23, 1888) was one of the few Texian survivors of the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution in 1836.
As Mexican forces entered her hometown, San Antonio de Bexar, on February 23, Alsbury's cousin by marriage, James Bowie, brought her with him to the Alamo Mission so that he could protect her.
One Texian was killed trying to protect Alsbury, her sister Gertrudis, and her young son Alijo Perez Jr., from Mexican troops.
[5] In 1832, Juana married Alejo Pérez Ramigio,[1] a relative of the De León family which had founded Victoria, Texas.
Pérez was a merchant, with a license to transport goods to and from Monclova[3] The couple had one son, Alijo Perez Jr., and may have had a daughter who died in infancy.
Their actions infuriated Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who immediately began preparations to invade Texas.
[9] The couple had known each other for some time; Alsbury had many meetings in Béxar with James Bowie, the widower of Juana's cousin Ursula.
[4] Rumors soon flew that Santa Anna and his army were coming directly toward Béxar, location of the Alamo Mission, one of two Texian garrisons.
On February 23, Horace Alsbury left for East Texas, either to find a safe place to bring his wife, her son, and her sister Gertrudis,[1][9] or to gather reinforcements for the undermanned Texian garrison.
[1] The women and child were given a room in "the northwest corner of the fort", near the quarters of Texian commanders Bowie and William Barret Travis.
Fellow survivor Susanna Dickinson misinterpreted Juana's mission and, years later, accused her of deserting the Texians to provide information about their defenses to her father, who served on Santa Anna's staff.
[17] Historians place no credence in the theory that Juana spied for the Mexican army, but acknowledge that her visit likely increased Santa Anna's impatience to end the siege.
[20] Soldiers rifled through Juana's trunk and confiscated most of its contents, including her clothing, coins, jewelry, and even "the watches that Travis and other officers had given her for safekeeping.
[24] Juana and her family were escorted out of the Alamo by her former brother-in-law, Manuel Pérez, who was a soldier in Santa Anna's army.
[25] The survivors requested permission to find the bodies of their loved ones and give them a proper burial, but were denied by Santa Anna.
[26] The Texas Revolution ended in April 1836, when the Texian army captured Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto.
[3] Following the war, the Alsburys moved to Calaveras Ranch, property her family had long owned along the road to Goliad.
[29] In the late 1880s Juana was interviewed by her friend Mary Maverick and historian John S. Ford about her recollections of the Battle of the Alamo.
[29] The interview took place over 50 years after the battle, and the resulting synopsis was written in the "romantic post-Civil War language of hyperbole that was fashionable in the 1880s".
"[31] The interview was not published until 1995, when it appeared in historian Timothy Matovina's book The Alamo Remembered: Tejano Accounts and Perspectives.
