Remember the Alamo!
Posted on 01/09/2005 12:58:30 PM PST by Racehorse
For 90 years, most Mexican Americans in South Texas have known the truth behind the myth — that during a reign of terror in 1915, Texas Rangers randomly lynched, shot and killed Tejanos, whose farms, ranches and land were coveted by Anglo land speculators.
Kirby Warnock, an Anglo baby boomer and Dallas filmmaker who grew up in Texas watching "The Lone Ranger," also grew up on alternative stories about the Rangers from his grandfather, Roland Warnock, a cowboy who worked on Guadalupe Ranch near Edinburg in the mid-1900s.
On Sept. 30, 1915, Roland Warnok witnessed the murder of two unarmed Tejanos — 68-year-old Jesus Bazan and his son-in-law Antonio Longoria — by Rangers in a Model T Ford. Bazan and Longoria were shot in the back, off their horses, as the Rangers passed by. Warnock found their bodies two days later and buried them where they remain today, on a lonely stretch of road 18 miles north of Edinburg.
Kirby Warnock told his grandfather's story — and the larger untold story of South Texas — in a documentary called "Border Bandits," which returns Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Westlakes Shopping Center on Southwest Loop 410. The film was here in November, sold out two theaters at the Alamo Draft-house and is back for an encore. For more information, visit www.drafthouse.com .
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
Sounds like a whole bunch of cowpuckie to me....Texas Rangers are honorable men, in my books.
Panic spread in 1915 when authorities in McAllen, Texas, arrest Basilio Ramos, Jr. Ramos was carrying a copy of the Plan of San Diego, a revolutionary manifesto supposedly written and signed at the South Texas town of San Diego. It called for the formation of a "Liberating Army of Races and Peoples," of Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Japanese, to "free" the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado from United States. Versions of the plan call for the murder of all white citizens over 16 years of age. The goal was an independent republic, which might later seek annexation to Mexico. Raids from both side the the border quickly escalated into guerilla warfare. Francisco (Pancho) Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico, in March 1916, causes more panic and the United States responds by sending a large military force under Gen. John J. Pershing in pursuit of Villa.
Yeah those poor innocent theives and murderers.
I happen to be doing my Master's thesis on this forgotten war of 1915. Lots of bad stuff on both sides--but the 'bandits' were were aided by the Mexican government and their avowed aim was to take back the entire Southwest for Mexico. One of the planks of their 'platform' was to kill all gringos over 16--after obtaining all their money in the form of 'loans.'
Another plank was to get the blacks and Indians on their side by promising them all the Mid-West for a new country of their own.
I know it sounds crazy but there it is.
By the way, the old man's story has a few holes in it. He 'witnessed' the execution as the Rangers rode by and the Mexicans toppled off their horses--but he 'found' the bodies two days later? Something sounds strange about that.
So; he didn't actually attack the U.S.A.? Another internet myth?
Jan Jarboe Russell, San Antonio Express-News
Jan Jarboe Russell, journalist and biographer, is the author of Lady Bird: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson, which was published by Scribner's. Her book was favorably reviewed by the Washington Post, Kirkus, all of the major newspapers in Texas, and many others around the country.
She is also a syndicated opinion columnist with King Features. Her column appears in the San Antonio Express-News, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the San Francisco Examiner, and other newspapers. Her book tour included appearances on The Today Show and the Jim Lehrer News Hour, as well as interviews on National Public Radio.
Jan started her journalism career in 1973 with the Savannah Morning News. Two years later, she joined the staff of the San Antonio Light, where she covered politics and won state-wide awards for investigative pieces. In 1981, she joined the San Antonio Express-News as a daily columnist. In 1983, Russell joined the staff at Texas Monthly magazine as a senior editor. There, she did a number of profiles of well-known Texans such as former Texas Governor Ann Richards, oilman Oscar Wyatt, actress Sissy Spacek, and many others. She also wrote award-winning stories about the state's adoption practices as well as one about the Rev. Jimmy Allen, a
Southern Baptist minister who had three family members die of AIDS. During her career, she has also written hundreds of other stories for such publications as The New York Times, George magazine, Talk magazine, Good Housekeeping, Working Woman and Redbook.
Currently, she is a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly. Her column on faith appears every other month in Texas Monthly. Jan is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters. She lives in San Antonio with her husband and two children. She can be reached at 210-250-3480 or by email at jjarboe@express-news.net.
izzatzo says its always good to know a little something more about the author of such material-maybe this bio helps put the book in context. I suspect she's just another.....well, I suspect.....
Not saying what's true and what isn't.
The winner always writes the history books and of course they tend to leave out the unpleasantries.
How many times have you heard a police chief mention 'his' crooked cops? That tends to be a subject that's off limits except to very few.
They did good work with the foul comanches.
I have a old book claiming to be the true history of the Rangers and it names times people and places where the Rangers were morally and legally wrong such as the time they attacked the wrong ranch ,killing 5 or so Mexicans who were guilty only of minding their own business. A close look at Western history shows some killers turned lawmen because fewer people tried to kill them if they wore a star.Sometimes it takes a real b*****d to stop the outlaw b*****ds.
Gunsmoke was television entertainment not history.
Doesn't sound crazy to me. Quite the opposite.
They're a little outside your time period, but has your research delved into the activities of the Loyalty Rangers created by the Hobby Loyalty Act? (35th Legislature: 1917)
Some still confuse the Loyalty Rangers with the Texas Rangers.
Last time I looked New Mexico was in the USA.
Did any of the Rangers throw a folding chair at the immigrants?
I've done a little reading on them--mainly through research in the transcripts of the hearings on the Rangers that the legislature carried out in 1920 about the events from 1915 forward. The hearings had several witnesses about their work in the Valley and elsewhere in trying to enforce the draft laws and prevent dodging service.
There's also a good book out on a German_American citizen from Seguin (if you Know Texas, you know we have a large German immigrant pop.) who was caught in the toils of the loyalty Rangers during the war. Can't think of the name off-hand.
Translation: if you say slavery is bad, you'll have to admit that lynching was wrong, too. So be consistent: racism all the time, not just when you can get away with it without being sneered at by liberals!
On Sept. 30, 1915, Roland Warnok witnessed the murder of two unarmed Tejanos — 68-year-old Jesus Bazan and his son-in-law Antonio Longoria — by Rangers in a Model T Ford. Bazan and Longoria were shot in the back, off their horses, as the Rangers passed by.
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Note the synchronicity of dates. There was a war taking place in 1915. The Rangers were probably out "Meskin' huntin' " -- and got what they went after.
Ugly times! But it is inappropriate to dredge them up 90 years later and whine about one side of what took place on both sides.
I read this BS before. It's neither new nor important.
I guess the killers could have moved the bodies after they shot them...not leaving them in the same spot.
And the real picture of our Rangers...not this crap piece of re-writing history...again by the liberal loons. ;o)
Sometimes it takes a real b*****d to stop the outlaw b*****ds.
When you can think like they do, they job is easier.
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