human rights NewsTaco April 10, 2015

Handling history: Scholars focus on violent chapter from Texas’ past

*This is a very interesting read. There’s a legacy, a history of Latinos in Texas and the Texas Rangers. It isn’t well known outside of Texas, it should be. VL

By Lucia Benavides, Austin American Statesman

On a late September day in 1915, Texas Rangers shot and killed Jesus Bazan and his son-in-law, Antonio Longoria, as they rode their horses along a dirt road not far from their ranch near Edinburg.

The men had committed no crimes, but the Rangers suspected they sympathized with Mexican bandits who had been raiding local ranches. Without warning, the Rangers shot the men and left the bodies where they fell. Two days later, neighbors found the corpses and buried them.

The story survives because a witness, Roland Warnock, recorded an oral history of the killing. His grandson, Kirby Warnock, made a 2004 documentary, “Border Bandits,” about this violent but largely untold chapter in South Texas history.

University of Texas English professor John Moran Gonzalez, one of six scholars in a group called Refusing to Forget, which is trying to draw attention to a violent chapter of Texas history known as “La Matanza” or “The Massacre.” During the early 1900s, Texas Rangers, law officers and vigilantes are thought to have killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of Mexicans and Tejanos along the border. (Photo credit: Martin do Nascimento)

Now, six scholars, including four from Texas, have built a website, RefusingtoForget.com, to make sure this history is fully told and accessible to the public.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo by iveofficer/Flickr]
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