I'm surprised these folks haven't protested Houston. After all, Houston is named after General Sam Houston who slaughtered their ancestors in 1836.
DAMN, I am late... Let me be the first to say... Bwwaaaaaa-hahahahahahaha... hahahahahahahahaaahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! Or maybe JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAAAAA!!!! No, not offensive... just... STUPID!!!! Don't be silly like when Don KING said this at a Chavez boxing match. You all LOST the Alamo. Quote the Yellow Rose, or Sam Houston... or Bowie...
I figure I should comment on this... I dont post very often but I think I will in this case.... I host a sports talk show in the Rio Grande Valley we're an ESPN Radio Affiliate and also have Astros and Texans games on our station. I also happen to be of Mexican decent. I myself am an American and proud of it. I also happen to be proud to be a Texan. When I went to school at Boston University I made sure everyone knew I was from Texas. I also am proud to be a Mexican American and proud of my heritage and my culture. When the name came out I joked about it on my show...But I mentioned the fact that I thought it was a clever name but kind of adventerous on managements part considering you have the posibility of offending some members of your fan base. Usually when you are starting a team you try to avoid any potential PR nightmares no matter how silly they may appear to be. I wasn't myself offended by the name... but I also didnt have any decendants, at least none that I know of, who lost any of their land to Texas. There are some however ... that did... and although none of us are affected by it directly... we need to be sensitive to the fact that there are people who did. Culture, beliefs, and family is a powerful thing in the Hispanic Community and I am actually more offended by some of you on this board that are trivializing this topic. First by neglecting the Hispanic Population's influence on not just profesional soccer but in our whole society nowadays. Second to think that Hispanics should think of themselves strictly as Americans and should neglect their heritage... No one asks blacks to neglect theyre African heritage, why are Hispanics always asked to do so. I love being an American but If anyone thinks that I should neglect my family and theyre struggles then you are mistaken... Lets not forget that unless your a freakin Native American... your not from here either you have a back history.....Im not going to get into a debate about this... but let people have their beliefs and theyre culture. For those of you who thinks the MLS is a second rate sport that people do not care about, You are sadly mistaken... Also according to many published reports... and you can do the research if you like.... Although the league itself continues to operate in the red,,, many of the franchises.. INcluding the ones who now operate in their own soccer specific facilities actually turn a profit. They have figured out how to make the sport work and are now looking to further increase they quality of their product which includes moving franchises into trully soccer hungry markets i.e. Houston One big reason for Houston being a Soccer Hungry market is that it has a large Hispanic Population...Its one of the biggest US cities with considerable local talent that could be available and of course new corporate dollars... If your a business owner do you really want to cut off one of your tripod legs from the get go... Do I think they should change the name.... I am not quite certain....Do I think they could avoided this had they done some more research before unveiling the name? Absolutley... Do I think they should have named the team something else in the first place...? Yes.... So in summary before we criticize anyone offended by this name Houston 1836.. criticize the organization first for not making the effort to test the name before unveiling it. Alex Del Barrio KSOX 1240 AM
i'm part hispanic and i apologize for my people... we still haven't caught up on this democracy thing yet, FAN VOTING MEANS FANS DECIDE!!! AND WE DECIDED HOUSTON 1836!!!
Who's doing the protesting? You would think the offended and now triumphant group would come forward now - reading this thread I don't see anything about that. Not knowing anything about it - this sounds like a convenient excuse for a marketing ploy that flopped.
If they change it, it better not be anything stupid or lame, like Toros, and Apollos. I like Houston Chingas.
OK, I actually paid attention in Texas Histroy class in the 7th grade. Here is a brief story of the most famous Tejano on the Texans side in 1836. link Juan Seguin (1806-1890) In a life that spanned both sides of the Rio Grande, Juan Seguin knew both the adulation of a Texas hero and the anguish of a tejano forced to live among his former enemies. Seguin was born in 1806 into a long-established tejano family in San Antonio. Few details of his early life are known, but he became a harsh liberal critic of Santa Anna's centralization of authority in Mexico in the 1830's. Seguin's father had been a strong political ally of Stephen F. Austin, and Seguin himself played an active role in the Texas revolution. He served as provisional mayor of San Antonio and led a band of like-minded tejanos against Santa Anna's army in 1835. The next year he was at the Alamo for the first part of the siege, and survived only because he was sent to gather reinforcements. He and his tejano company fought at the battle of San Jacinto, helping to defeat Santa Anna's army. Seguin was rudely shocked, however, by the aftermath of the Texas Revolution. Numerous towns in Texas moved to expel all of their tejano residents, and even in San Antonio many anglos seriously considered such a move. But the most stunning blow came when Seguin helped defeat a Mexican expedition against San Antonio in 1842. In a ploy to turn anglo Texans against him, the Mexican commander stated publicly that Seguin was still a loyal Mexican subject, and although Seguin was the mayor of San Antonio at the time, anglos who had been his former comrades suddenly accused him of treason. Vigilantes drove him from the city where he had been born and forced him to flee to Mexico. Seguin's hopes that the Texas revolution would mean freedom for all Texans were shattered. Seguin's betrayal left him embittered: "A victim to the wickedness of a few men... a foreigner in my native land; could I be expected to stoically endure their outrages and insults?" he wrote in 1858. "I sought for shelter amongst those against whom I fought; I separated from my country, parents, family, relatives and friends, and what was more, from the institutions, on behalf which I had drawn my sword, with an earnest wish to see Texas free and happy." The Mexican government hardly welcomed Seguin with open arms. Upon his arrival in Nuevo Laredo in 1842, the authorities arrested him and offered him a choice between serving in the army or extended imprisonment. He chose to join the army, and fought in the Mexican-American war against the United States. After the war Seguin received permission to return to Texas, and did so, but in 1867 continued harassment again prompted his return to Mexico. He died in Nuevo Laredo, just across the Rio Grande from the land for whose independence he had fought, in 1890.
Who is asking you to neglect your heritage or to forget your family and their struggles? Us Texans and Houstonians really should forget where and how our state and city came to be. That kind of stuff is not important.
Well I can now see that 1836 is offensive, as well as Houston. I say they should scrap the city name (like Chivas USA) and sell naming rights to a corporation: Or if all else fails, the Redskins sounds like a good name. Anyway, I enjoyed reading the posts here (specifically the ones by people that were genuinely proving good points at how it can be offensive and how it should be changed), but for real...this country has got to stop being so damn sensitive. Should the team name have been chosen? Probably not if there was even a minute chance that hinted at bad memories. But when YOUR FANBASE selects it, why not??? It's a clever and different name. If people are actually openly complaining about 1836 and the Redskins is still there, they got their priorities ****ed up. It's an entirely different situation, but to have something blatantly racist and proudly and prominantly displayed in professional US sports this current day and then be upset by something that is harmless at the surface is amazingly hypocritical. If the organizers thought 1836 would be offensive, there's no way they would have allowed it to be selected; you cannot blame it on the team at all. This is just the public being too sensitive (rightfully or not is not up to me to say).
It's not politically correct to be Texas proud even though we live in Texas. We're supposed to re-write history to make Mexicans feel better about themselves. I can't believe 1836 would pick this name then back out.
Im sorry but you should not have to do "research" to find out if somethings going to be offensive or not.
Especially since the fans voted for the damn name and they asked some of the local Hispanic city officials about it and they had no problem.
