The first time this Blogger heard about the egregious treatment of Mexican-Americans in Texas, by the Texas Rangers and Anglo Texikans, was when he attended a NALIP (National Association of Latino Independent Producers). He was there to lobby a Latino writer/Director to develop a project about the Cristero War in México, a war in which the Mexican government tracked down and killed Roman Catholic priests.
In one seminar, the legendary actor Edward James Olmos encouraged the assembled talented Latinos to write about the bloody yoke placed on Mexicans in Texas.
Below is a well meaning article in the NEW YORK TIMES about Anglos lynching Mexicans in Texas. The article confirms that there is a streak of perhaps irredeemable racism in the American gene pool; the outraged article skips the concept that the American character may not only be racist, but mean as hell.
In the play 1776, the character BENJAMIN FRANKLIN explains the birth of the American character: “…. We've spawned a new race here… Rougher, simpler; more violent, more enterprising; less refined. We're a new nationality.”.
The following is excerpted from that TIMES’article;
“EL PASO — Arlinda Valencia was at a funeral when an uncle told her a bewildering family secret: An Anglo lynch mob had killed her great-grandfather.
“A mixture of grief and shock overwhelmed me since this was the first I heard of this,” said Ms. Valencia, 66, the leader of a teachers’ union in El Paso. “The more I looked into it, the more stunned I was at how many Mexicans were lynched in this country.”
Ms. Valencia and other descendants of lynching victims are now casting attention on one of the grimmest campaigns of racist terror in the American West: the lynching of thousands of men, women and children of Mexican descent from the mid-19th century until well into the 20th century.
Some victims were burned alive, like Antonio Rodríguez, 20, a migrant worker who was hauled from a jail in Rocksprings, Tex., tied to a tree and set ablaze in 1910. Other mobs hanged, whipped or shot Mexicans, many of whom were United States citizens, sometimes drawing crowds in the thousands. Lynchings have long been associated with violence against African-Americans in the American South, and these atrocities are remembered at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice…. Lynchings of Hispanics have faded into history with less attention. Often, they have been portrayed as attempts to exercise justice on behalf of white settlers protecting their livestock or claims to land.
But a new movement is underway to uncover that neglected past. It has unleashed discussions about the scramble for land or mining claims that frequently influenced these lynchings, as well as the traces of such episodes in resurgent anti-Latino sentiment and the question many parts of the United States are confronting: Who gets to tell history?
“The conquest of the West is still simply a tale of incredible progress for many Americans,” said Monica Muñoz Martínez, a professor of American studies at Brown University who has written extensively about anti-Mexican.
“But despite the unwillingness to recognize these lynchings as a tragedy, or even recognize them at all, momentum is building to finally reckon with these events,” said Professor Muñoz Martínez, who was raised in Texas and is a co-founder of Refusing to Forget, a group committed to increasing awareness about state-sanctioned violence against Latinos in Texas.
…. these lynchings varied wildly, including accusations of cattle theft, murder, cheating at cards, refusing to play the fiddle, shouting “Viva Diaz”— even witchcraft…..In another episode in 1882, a man of Mexican descent identified as Augustin Agirer filed a complaint against an Anglo man who shot at his dog. In retaliation, Anglos tracked Mr. Agirer down and fatally shot him in front of his wife, The Austin Weekly Statesman reported at the time.
In 1922, a group of 10 men snatched Elias Villareal Zarate from a jail in Weslaco …La Prensa, a San Antonio newspaper, described how the mob hanged him, raising the ire of Mexican diplomats who were trying to curb such killings…..…..NEW YORK TIMES.”
Before this Blog goes further some stipulations must be made: a) more American blacks suffered lynching than any other racial group. b) Native Americans and Mexican Americans were lynched at a higher rate than American Anglos.
Chinese migrants were also lynched in America, but seemingly 1910 Mexican Revolutionaries massacred more Chinese migrants in Mexico, on a per capita basis, than did American lynch mobs.
Chinese migrants were also lynched in America, but seemingly 1910 Mexican Revolutionaries massacred more Chinese migrants in Mexico, on a per capita basis, than did American lynch mobs.
Lynching is terrible.
Most American lynchings were caused by racism; this Blogger will stipulate that.
However, what the NEW YORK TIMES article fails to explore is this empirical fact-Americans like to lynch people, of all races, nationalities and sexes. Americans like it, and will do it again when civil order breaks down. Americans like lynchings because they are cost effective, convenient , efficient, and without the horror of interfacing with lawyers and judges.
“Hanging one scoundrel, it appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it? The first one is at least disposed of.”— H.L. Mencken (1880-1956).
Upset with California Democrats and their administration of the City, in 1851, the good citizens of San Francisco formed a vigilante committee.
The first person the committee lynched was not a Mexican nor a Native American nor a Black but an Australian, John Jenkens, for grand larceny.
The Vigilantes disbanded in September of 1851, after hanging Australians James Stuart, Samuel Whittaker and Robert McKenzie. Fourteen more Aussies were deported back to Australia with the promise if they returned to America they too would be lynched.
In 1856, the Committee of Vigilance reorganized, seemingly against Irish immigrants.
They struck a medallion inscribed: "Organized 9th June 1851. Reorganized 14th May 1856. Be Just and Fear Not."
The 1856 Vigilantes lynched four.
The first train robbery in America was carried out in Indiana, in 1868 by the Reno Brothers and their gang.
Gang members, Theodore Clifton, Tom Elliott, and Charlie Roseberry were lynched on July 20, 1868. Gang members Henry Jerrell, John Moore, and Frank Sparks were lynched on July 25, 1868.
The Reno Brothers themselves, Frank, William and Simeon along with Charlie Anderson were lynched on December 18, 1868. There was not an immigrant, nor illegal alien, nor Mexican nor Black in the Reno Gang.
The first three lynched were taken off the train, and hanged by the neck from a nearby tree by a group of masked men calling itself the Jackson County Vigilance Committee. Three other gang members, Henry Jerrell, Frank Sparks, and John Moore, were captured shortly after in Illinois. In a grisly repeat, they too fell into the hands of vigilantes and were hanged from the same tree.
As for Frank Reno,”On the night of December 11, about 65 hooded men traveled by train to New Albany. The men marched four abreast from the station to the Floyd County Jail where, just after midnight, the men forced their way into the jail and the sheriff's home. After they beat the sheriff and shot him in the arm for refusing to turn over the keys, his wife surrendered them to the mob. Frank Reno was the first to be dragged from his cell to be lynched. He was followed by brothers William and Simeon. Another gang member, Charlie Anderson, was the fourth and last to be executed, at around 4:30 a.m on December 12. “
Texas is not only noted for lynching Mexicans and blacks but also lynching for the sake of frontier justice.Between 1846 and 1861 vigilantes hung 141 white men.
That number included the Methodist minister Anthony Brewley, who was for the Union.
“Recognizing the danger, Bewley left for Kansas in mid-July with part of his family. A Texas posse caught up with him near Cassville, Missouri and returned him to Fort Worth on September 13. Late that night, vigilantes seized Bewley and delivered him into the hands of a waiting lynch mob. His body was allowed to hang until the next day when he was buried in a shallow grave. Three weeks later his bones were unearthed, stripped of their remaining flesh, and placed on top of Ephraim Daggett’s storehouse, where children made a habit of playing with them."
That was followed by the lynching of twenty more Unionists, and that was following by the Great Hanging of Gainesville, in which 41 Unionists were lynched.
On January 23, 1863, Confederate soldiers lynched attorney Martin Hart when he spoke up for Lincoln.
Over the same period in Montana over 71 white men were lynched, including Sheriff Henry Plummer( who dabbled in outlawry).
During the same period in New Mexico, gunfighter Clay Allison led a lynch mob against a white man; after the hanging was done, Allison cut off the victim’s head, and jammed it on a pole.
Back in Texas, Anglo Texans were lynching German immigrants during the Mason County Hoodoo War. That is how Johnny Ringo made his bones, lynching German immigrants.
In Oklahoma, fervent Methodist and hired killer Deacon Jim Miller was lynched. The Deacon had killed over 30 men for hire, and because he hired the best lawyers had always gotten off. Knowing that ,the lynch mob decided to hang him before a trial.
“…a crowd of vigilantes did not wait for these legal procedures to take place. They knew that Miller, who had often bragged of his many killings, might cheat justice through his highly paid lawyers.
On the night of April 19, 1909, a lynch mob broke into the jail in Ada, Oklahoma and dragged Miller and three others out to a livery stable. Though the other men begged for their lives, Jim “The Killer” Miller showed no signs of fear. He only asked that his diamond ring be given to his wife and that he be permitted to wear his black Stetson while he was being hanged. The vigilantes granted these wishes. Then Miller, standing on a box, displayed his last act of bravado, shouting “let ‘er rip!” He then voluntarily stepped off the box to be jerked by the rope around his neck which was tied to a rafter in the stable. He dangled as the other three were strung up. The bodies were left hanging for some hours in order to allow a local photographer to take enough photos of the lynchings.”
1892 was the apex for lynching white men in America, 69 non Mexican, non black whites were lynched.
“raising the ire of Mexican diplomats who were trying to curb such killings…..…..NEW YORK TIMES.” That statement leaves the impression that only Mexicans were suffering lynchings, so much so that Mexican diplomats were rallying to them.
But this is America; everybody gets lynched, if given the chance, THE AMERICAN DREAM. THIS IS US.
“The international response, condemning the U.S. for lynching foreign citizens residing in the U.S. resulted in the State Department having to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to foreign governments. Between 1887 and 1903 a total of $480,000 was paid to the governments of China, Italy, Great Britain and Mexico alone.”
SIDEBAR
The question will be asked, and rightfully so, why is the American gene so racist and mean?
The answer is simple- all the nice Americans were deported to Canada after the Revolutionary War....Look it up.
THIS IS US
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