When Alex Brinckerhoff shows up in costume for Living History Days at Presidio San Agustín del Tucson, he imagines he is a Dutch pirate captured by the Spanish military.
For several years, Alex has donned the costume of a drummer boy one Saturday each month, traveling back in time to the 18th century.
Alex, 15, is the youngest re-enactor and part of the Garrison soldiers. He joined the “soldados,” or soldiers, after a presentation on medical practices from the era captivated his attention at an Arizona centennial celebration.
He was 12 at the time.
“They found documents of soldiers as young as 9 taken into the Spanish military, and they wouldn’t give them guns,” Alex says. “They would give them a sword and a drum. It fit my age ... so it would have been period-accurate.”
When he turns 16, he can get a musket, he says.
The very first day Alex joined the soldiers in his cotton shirt, wool jacket and felt hat, he marched with a flag in a St. Patrick’s Day parade, surrounded by the other marchers. If he lost control of the flag, he risked hitting someone.
“It was a breezy day,” says Bill Brinckerhoff, Alex’s father, a fellow re-enactor and board member of the Tucson Presidio Trust for Historic Preservation. “He’s the smallest member of the Presidio carrying this flag. He earned his stripes that day.”
Alex’s grandfather, Sidney Brinckerhoff, is also a re-enactor and is on the advisory board. When he visits his family each winter from his home in Seattle, he plays the part of a visiting colonel.
Alex attributes some of his passion for history to his grandfather, who was the executive director of the Arizona Historical Society for years.
During his career, Sidney worked to preserve the original Presidio and provide insight about military and architectural details for the museum.
“I was there during the urban renewal, and we were desperately trying to save buildings so there would be physical integrity,” Sidney says. “I’m doubly thrilled to see how Tucson has matured, in my view, as a cultural community, and I’m proud to have a small part of it. And to see your grandson out there doing it, too, I get goosebumps.”
But Alex didn’t join the the soldiers just because of his grandfather’s involvement.
“It didn’t start off as a family thing,” says Alex, a sophomore at Salpointe Catholic High School. “I had an interest in it and wanted to do it, so I did.”
His father started volunteering after he did.
“When I see kids who are younger than I am, and the smiles on their faces when they find it interesting, I do it for that ... .” Alex says.
On Living History Days, Alex joins the other volunteers to re-create life as it would have been during the days of the original Presidio. He marches with the other soldiers once or twice, and mans a table with props that Spanish soldiers might have used.
The information Alex shares he learned from other volunteers or through personal study. For a school paper, he spent hours researching online and reading his grandfather’s books about Spanish colonial history.
That wasn’t a requirement to volunteer. He did it because he wants to learn and educate.
“I want to teach people about their past,” he says. “And I want them to see that people from all walks of life can learn the same exact thing and leave with an equal knowledge about that place. I think that’s a really cool thing.”
From his research, Alex has learned about the diverse nationalities of the early soldiers in Tucson — the inspiration for his Dutch pirate character as a play on the origins of his last name.
“To see my blood in Tucson contributing this way is probably one of the nicest things that has ever happened to me,” Sidney says, admiring his grandson’s consistent dedication.
And it’s not like Alex has time to spare.
Volunteering at the Presidio gets him up early on weekends — even though the rest of his week is packed.
He is part of Salpointe’s drama program, and either acts or does tech for plays and musicals. In January 2015, he learned to play the trombone so he could join the school’s jazz and symphonic bands. He also sings in the school choir and is involved in his youth group at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church.
Beyond playing the drum and fife for the Presidio, Alex also plays guitar and hopes to do something musical someday.
But history will always be a passion. It’s too important to let go.
“History teaches us not to make mistakes for our future ... ,” he says. “People need to know how Tucson got here.”
Alex believes that people should understand the history of the place where they live.
“Tucson’s history is so rich,” he says. “There is so much behind it. There is so much more than, ‘It was a fort.’”
