Questions Texas Borderlands
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Homework Texas Borderlands
Instructions: Read the lecture slides and then watch the linked documentary. Be sure to answer the questions as you complete the assignment.
Texas Borderlands Slides
:
1.
In general terms, describe/discuss how ethnic Mexicans in the borderlands generally experienced American "western expansion" and annexation to the US across the latter decades of the 1800s and early 1900s.
They experienced American western expansion by ethnic Mexicans being offered citizenship, including equal rights and protections under the law. Most entered US citizenship as land owners,
some had great ranches and were held at high political office. 2.
Draw upon the three prompts below to explain how did ethnic Mexicans went from being a mostly land owning and politically empowered people to mostly the opposite (non-landowning and disenfranchised) by the early 1900s? a.
Land Loss- by what mechanisms was land lost?
The Texas constitution constitution complicated property protection by requiring proof that the individual had supported the revolution and not left during the war. Newly imposed property taxes, wealthy land brokers would convince the tejanos to sell out. b.
Political disempowerment- by what mechanisms was political empowerment lost?The Texas constitution complicated Tejano citizenship rights. Even the hero of the Texas Revolution and prominent political figure Juan Seguin was harassed and threatened to death. After he served as senator he fled for his life to Mexico in 1842. c.
Migration- how did migration influence the general nature of ethnic Mexicans in Texas? Texas had attracted migrants mostly from the deep south since the war. Even though people of Mexican descent had lived in Texas since the 1700’s, most Americans treated them as foreigners. Most Hispanics were classified as white under the law but were treated on some of the same levels as African Americans.
3.
How did many Anglo newcomers imagine the proper “place” of ethnic Mexicans in Texas? (What should their “place” be?) And, how did they endeavor to enforce this "place."
The Mexican government moved to enact policies to move more settlers into the area to ensure control over the region. 4.
In what regards did the following men and their followers struggle for freedom? Be sure to consider motivations
(what prompted resistance?) and ambitions
(what did they seek to achieve?) a.
Juan Cortina:He fell into conflict with corrupt lawyers and judges in Brownsville who threatened to take his family’s land- claims and the claims of other ethnic Mexicans in the borderlands.
b.
Catarino Garza:He helped found mutual aid societies for the improvement of hispanic
circumstances. When he was a journalist he became a vocal critic of the Portfolio Diaz. dictatorship in Mexico and the abuses by the texas rangers on the border.When
the Garza rebellion surged suppression became brutal and indiscriminate. The US Army was instructed to shoot them on sight, and burn their ranches down.
c.
4.
Discuss the term, "bandit" and the selectively with which it was applied in the Texas borderlands (consider to whom it was and was not applied, and the ironies). Bandits are men who were considered freedom fighters. Cortina and Garza fought for justice in their unjust system. They wanted to do right by everyone, not just a specific group of people. 5.
Texas Rangers- Were they freedom fighters? Defend your response (consider how an ethnic Mexican living in the borderlands at this time might regard the Rangers). No, the Tejas rangers came into existence for the purpose of vying with Native tribes, especially the Comanche. They punished tribes that had sided with Mexico and hunted runaway slaves who looked to Mexico for freedom. 6.
The Texas Rangers forged a distinct character in the context of originating in frontier circumstances, including lack of accountability, and the settler colonial processes of destroy to replace (ethnic an indigenous population and secure settlements). How did shifts in US behavior abroad tend to impact the Rangers, in general? The rangers became disbanded by the federal government and replaced by the Texas State police. The rangers had disbanded due to the fighting
for the Confederacy or punishing Texans who declined to support the Confederacy. 7.
Identify and discuss the role of American corporations in propelling Mexican migration northward as both labor migrants and wartime refugees (consider the role of US corporations in propelling labor migrations out of Mexico and in the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution): a.
Labor Migrants: conditions inTexas caused some of the most ethnic Mexicans to migrate to Mexico. Tejanos became landless and downwardly mobile as American citizens. Without land many became wage workers and tenant farmers. b.
Wartime Refugees:The intensity of the Mexican elite in the U.S., downward mobility, and loss of sovereignty caused a refugee crisis on the border. 8.
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)- Who were they? Industrial workers were a labor organization that aimed to organize workers in industrial unions. rather than the specialized trade unions of the American Federation of Labor. 9.
Labor migrations (from Mexico and elsewhere) generated transnational communities and experiences. They also generated a more transnational working-class struggle. Accordingly, how did the brewing spirit of revolution in Mexico impact the US labor movement during the early?
The collapse of Mexican authority opened the South American economic growth and settlement. Mexican independence also led to the downfall of the California mission system. Many Mexicans
were fleeing the war in Mexico and went to the U.S. to find refugee. 10.
The socialists made great contributions to the working-class struggle by stressing that which unites a diversity of laborers and by promoting solidarity upon this basis. In this context, the Texas Socialist Party united Anglo, black and Hispanic small farmers, tenant farmers, and seasonal agricultural labor in opposition to agricultural realities which impacted all. Describe agricultural realities in Texas by 1900 even as most Texans continued to work in agriculture:
The amount of land that grew in Texas went from 15 to 25 million acres. Cotton production increased, as well as rice and corn farming. They were overly charged by monopolies for farm machinery and fertilizer,
high tariffs, unfair tax structures, inflexible banking systems, political corruption, and the list goes on.
11.
Identify and discuss the United States government in relation to the Mexican Revolution and its outcomes?
The U.S. supported the anti-reelectionist movement, and agreed with Reyes and Diaz’s revolt against Madero. The U.S. also helped the revolutionaries defeat Huerta, and invaded Veracruz. 12.
In Texas, racial violence targeted both African Americans and ethnic Mexicans (citizens and non-
citizens), and with very similar objectives entered upon the reinforcement of a so called “place.” Why are public lynching numbers insufficient to assessing the murder of ethnic Mexicans, however? This number is misleading because it does not account for the many deaths that occured at the hands of local Texas police and Texas Rangers. 13.
Estimates place ethnic Mexican death at the hands of Texas law enforcement (mainly Rangers) at as high as ___5,000_____________ during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), alone. The period was called: La Matanza 14.
Truth speakers- how each of the following participate in the struggle for freedom on the borderlands as truth speakers?... and, how did the Texas Rangers respond?
a.
Jovita Idar: She wrote articles condemning racial violence and injustice and recording the
crimes committed against ethnic Mexicans. Her and her family organized the First Mexican Congress to unify Mexicans across the border to fight injustice. She also founded La Liga Feminil Mexicaista. The texas Rangers shut down her newspaper headquarters but not without a fight. b.
Jose Tomas Canales: He filed a bill intended to prevent a repeat of the Ranger actions of the previous years by dramatically restructuring the force. He filed 19 charges against rangers and their commanders. The rangers imputed Canales’s credibility and indeed his loyalty and he was stalked in South Texas and in Austin.
Documentary: "Porvenir, Texas"
:
https://tamusa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1199631019
1.
(throughout documentary) Who was Harry Warran and what was his relation to events in Porvenir? Why did he write about it? He was a local school teacher who had close relations with both Anglo and Mexican border residents. After the shooting another Provenir youth named Juan
Flores came to get Warren to look for the missing men. They had discovered the 15 victims. 2.
After the US took the northern half of Mexico by conquest in 1848, Mexican people living in the
annexed land were promised several things. What two things does the documentary mention?
Guaranteed land rights and civil rights to the new citizens. Note
: Unfortunately, the documentary does not provide a historical explanation sufficient to making sense
of the so called "Bandit Wars." Hopefully, the material included in the slides gave you a more complete understanding of the tensions, grievances and complexities of the scenario. 3.
The so-called “Bandit War” flared amid the Mexican Revolution and migration north of war refugees. How did President Woodrow Wilson respond to this “border crisis?” President Wilson
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ordered General Pershing to proceed into Mexico with over 5,000 soldiers to capture or kill Pancho villa, this began the Pancho Villa Expedition. Note
: The documentary says "the person who emerges as leader (Mexican Revolution) was Venustiano Carranza."… He did not naturally emerge as leader. US intervention hoisted him toward leadership through an assassination and by supplying weapons. Poncho Villa understood this as a betrayal
and raided American border settlements. Hence, US government intervention in the affairs of another nation endangered American civilians.
4.
Poor ethnic Mexicans bore the brunt of American fear, vengeance and opportunism. As the letter
to Woodrow Wilson stated, "all that somebody has to do to have us killed is say this guy is a bandit and they will come and kill us. _____________________."
5.
Use examples from the video to discuss the Texas Rangers during this period, including in relation to ethnic Mexican property and lives. They developed their own brand of lynch law against Mexicans and Tejanos. They “policed” Texas from the time of their initial organization. Many of the people who joined the Rangers were thugs. The rangers would murder, 15 million innocent, some were U.S. citizens were taken out during dark hours and executed against a bluff. 6.
(throughout documentary) What happened in Porvenir? Why? Who was responsible?
Texas Rangers were responsible for Porvenir. They executed 15 boys and mon of Mexican descent living in Porvenir, Texas. They were sent to stop banditry after the Brite Ranch Raid. 7.
Who is Juan Flores in relation to this event?
Juan Flores was one of those initially selected to die. Juan Flores helped Warren find the bodies of the 15 men. 8.
Does evidence exist of the US military being at least partially culpable in the Porvenir massacre?
Explain. The artifact evidence indicate the the US Military was at fault for the massacre. The people in Porvenir did nothing to the US Military, they fed them, housed them, gave them water, and suddenly they were taken in the night and were shot dead. The rangers were attempting to whitewashes and cover up the truth
about the massacre and they were succesful for 100 years. 9.
How did the US military, including Captain James Monroe Fox, respond? Was there justice? Explain.
Fox published a letter. He admitted in the letter that he had ordered them to execute which didn’t go with his original story that they had fired back only in defense.. He was forced ro resign. They weren’t tried or brought to justice, their punishment was losing their jobs and that was all.
10.
Who was JT Canales? What did he seek to achieve? And, why did this require extraordinary bravery? He attempted to bring the Texas Rangers to justice 100 years earlier. He believed that everyone needed to hear about the massacre, and see it. He voiced that the people of Porvenir were victims of law enforcement gone wild in 1918. He voiced the ranger and the army worked together and they would do things that would benefit one another. He wanted justice for the people in Provenir.