The Injustice Never Leaves You, by Monica Muñoz Martinez
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The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas
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This book is not only a history of anti-Mexican violence in Texas, but it is also a review of the long legacies of violence in subsequent years as a few individuals persevered to remember the details of the violence in the face of competing interests that promoted a positive memory of white settlers taming the West. The worst of the anti-Mexican violence occurred during the years from 1910 to 1920 when violence from the Mexican Revolution spilled over the border as banditry in south Texas. Both the U.S. Army and Texas Rangers attempted to protect American lives and property by using methods that tended to assume anyone who appeared to be Mexican might be a bandit.
Of course people of Mexican heritage had lived in the region before the Texas Revolution of 1835-36 and the annexation of Texas into the Union in 1845. Most of the white settlers arriving in Texas in subsequent years were from southern slave states and brought with them typical prejudices against those with dark skin. In the years following the American Civil War the development of Jim Crow laws and traditions throughout the South evolved into "Juan Crow" traditions in Texas. It was assumed that the role of Mexican Americans in the economy was to supply the labor needed for rural farms and ranches while Anglos were the land and business owners.
The first three chapters of this book delve into the details of three incidents of anti-Mexican violence. The first chapter examines a public lynching in 1910 of Antonio Rodriguez by an Anglo mob in Rock Springs, Texas. The second chapter describes the cold blooded murder of Jesus Bassan and Antonio Longoria who in 1915 were shot in broad daylight in front of witnesses. The third chapter is a horrifying retelling of the 1918 Porvenir, Texas massacre of fifteen men and boys. In all three of these cases nobody was convicted of a crime even though the perpetrators could be identified. Indeed law enforcement of military officers were involved or acquiesced with these and other instances of violence. These chapters also highlight witnesses, sometimes generations removed, who preserved these histories and made them available to the public nearly a century later.
The focus of the book next switches to the role of state administrations, state institutions, and historians alike in allowing cultures of violence to be celebrated throughout the 20th century. The balance of the book tells of politicians, civil rights advocates, and descendants of victims who have worked to challenge interpretations of state violence in Texas. All through these years the Mexican American community remembered, and referred to the 1910 to 1920 reign of terror as La Matanza ("The Massacre" or "The Slaughter").
I have read numerous books about anti-African American violence, and recently read a book about anti-Chinese violence.. Am I ever going to run out of minority groups to read about who have been subjected to violence at sometime in American history?
Of course people of Mexican heritage had lived in the region before the Texas Revolution of 1835-36 and the annexation of Texas into the Union in 1845. Most of the white settlers arriving in Texas in subsequent years were from southern slave states and brought with them typical prejudices against those with dark skin. In the years following the American Civil War the development of Jim Crow laws and traditions throughout the South evolved into "Juan Crow" traditions in Texas. It was assumed that the role of Mexican Americans in the economy was to supply the labor needed for rural farms and ranches while Anglos were the land and business owners.
The first three chapters of this book delve into the details of three incidents of anti-Mexican violence. The first chapter examines a public lynching in 1910 of Antonio Rodriguez by an Anglo mob in Rock Springs, Texas. The second chapter describes the cold blooded murder of Jesus Bassan and Antonio Longoria who in 1915 were shot in broad daylight in front of witnesses. The third chapter is a horrifying retelling of the 1918 Porvenir, Texas massacre of fifteen men and boys. In all three of these cases nobody was convicted of a crime even though the perpetrators could be identified. Indeed law enforcement of military officers were involved or acquiesced with these and other instances of violence. These chapters also highlight witnesses, sometimes generations removed, who preserved these histories and made them available to the public nearly a century later.
The focus of the book next switches to the role of state administrations, state institutions, and historians alike in allowing cultures of violence to be celebrated throughout the 20th century. The balance of the book tells of politicians, civil rights advocates, and descendants of victims who have worked to challenge interpretations of state violence in Texas. All through these years the Mexican American community remembered, and referred to the 1910 to 1920 reign of terror as La Matanza ("The Massacre" or "The Slaughter").
I have read numerous books about anti-African American violence, and recently read a book about anti-Chinese violence.. Am I ever going to run out of minority groups to read about who have been subjected to violence at sometime in American history?
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
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