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Arlinda Valencia was at a family funeral when she heard what sounded like a wild rumor. One of his uncles mentioned that the Texas Rangers had murdered his great-grandfather. This idea seemed so ridiculous that some members of the Valencia family laughed. Nobody believed the story. But the narrative remains between Valencia and later she connected online to the history of Texas.
Valencia, who lives in El Paso, discovered on his computer the story of a massacre perpetrated by the Texas Rangers. Among a list of victims, she recognized the name of her great-grandfather. "Her name was there," she recalls. "The story was true. That made me shiver in the back.
Valencia's great-grandfather, Longino Flores, had lived in the small border town of Porvenir in western Texas. Early in the morning of January 28, 1918, a group of ranchers, Texas Rangers and US Army cavalrymen entered the village and drove the inhabitants out of their beds. They took 15 unarmed men and boys of Mexican origin to a nearby bluff where they were shot. These victims were between 16 and 72 years old and some were American citizens. The women and children of the city fled to the Mexican border for security reasons. The next day, the criminals came back and burned the village. Porvenir has ceased to exist.
This dark episode of Texas history is the subject of a documentary titled "Porvenir, Texas", directed by the late Andrew Shapter. The film is aired continuously until October 19 on PBS.org. It will be the subject of a free preview screening in Austin, Texas on October 1, followed by a screening in El Paso on October 4.
Christina Fernandez Shaper, producer of the film, believes that the story of Porvenir must be told. "I'm Mexican myself, I'm from Texas, my family has been here for generations. And I know that we all have stories in our families, sometimes land is taken from us or other injustices. "
The story of Porvenir could have been lost in history if it was for two men. One of them was Harry Warren, who taught at the village school and wrote a story in which he saw the bodies of the dead. The second was José Tomás ("J.T.") Canales, a state legislator who, in 1919, opened an investigation into the Rangers. Although he lost his case, the depositions and testimonials he has obtained have provided historians with a wealth of information.
This investigation also led to a major reform of the Rangers, helping to make them their current organization.
"Porvenir, Texas" includes interviews with family members and experts, as well as theatrical performances. "Some of the descendants were on the set for re-enactments," said Shapter. "It was moving for them, and our actors and team felt it all."
The film includes footage of Juan Flores, the only witness to the massacre, who was spared because he was 12 years old.
The killings in Porvenir apparently took place in retaliation for Mexican cattle raids, but there is no indication that anyone from Porvenir was involved in such incidents. The Porvenir massacre was not an isolated event. Between the mid-nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, thousands of men, women and children of Mexican origin were victims of lynching and extrajudicial killings in the south-west of the country. country. Yet, these events remain largely unknown to the public, including Latinos.
Cleared of history
According to John Morán González, director of the American-Mexican Studies Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the Porvenir massacre was erased until a relatively recent date in history. "What made it remarkable is the number of people killed and embarrassed by the state of Texas after the Rangers' involvement."
None of the Rangers involved in the murders of Porvenir have been sued for his actions.
"In many cases, like Porvenir, the initial response of the state has been to try to manufacture what had really happened," said Monica Muñoz Martinez, assistant professor at the University of California. Brown University and founding member of the public history project Refusing To Forget. "It was not unusual for the state to try to justify such acts by criminalizing the victims. The residents of Porvenir were sometimes described as squatters or bandits. None of this is true.
At the time, it did not matter that a person of Mexican origin was a US citizen. "Class, social status and citizenship did not protect against violence," Martinez said. Mexican nationals actually had more options for protection or redress because they could call on their consul or the Mexican government. In contrast, Americans of Mexican descent did not have anyone to turn to, as the government did not recognize their legal rights.
While many Americans know the story of the African-American lynchings, few are aware of similar acts of violence against people of Mexican descent. "This may be due to the fact that American consciousness is disturbed by its ugly chapters of slavery and by Jim Crow's laws in history," said Emilio Zamora, professor of history at UT Austin. "The big problem is that the experience of people of Mexican origin is rejected or left out of the curriculum."
Not taught in Texas schools
The Porvenir massacre, which is not included in Texas' standard history curriculum in Texas public schools, remains controversial. The efforts of descendants and historians to obtain a marker commemorating the event took years and resulted in a fight with local leaders opposed to the politicization of the tragedy by "militant Hispanics". The marker was finally approved, but with the suggestion to consider additional markers as commemorating the violence perpetrated by Mexicans against white settlers. The Porvenir marker was built in 2018 on a highway outside Marfa, Texas.
For Arlinda Valencia, who runs a website for the descendants of Porvenir, the August shooting in El Paso, her hometown, echoed the violence in Porvenir. "What happened 100 years ago is happening today. In El Paso, 22 people were murdered because of the color of their skin, in Porvenir, there were 15 people. It's just something that should not happen. "
Historians such as Muñoz Martínez see parallels between the political climate that characterized the Porvenir massacre and the recent attack in El Paso, where an armed man told authorities that he was targeting Mexicans, killing 22 people and dozens of wounded. Both occurred during a period of anti-Mexican rhetoric, amid tensions along the border and fears of immigrants.
"The El Paso shooter would have worried about the Hispanic vote and the change in the state of Texas," said Monica Muñoz Martinez. "This kind of rhetoric was used 100 years ago. "The illegal vote" is a used historical trope. "
"People say the past is the past, and you have to move on," Martinez added. "Unfortunately, this is just not the case. The violence against Latinos and the fear of Mexicans have become more relevant than I would have imagined in the last two years. "
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