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Speaker 1: This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and

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Speaker 1: Courturre Latino USC Latin Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa. We

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Speaker 1: bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered to.

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Speaker 2: You, overlooked by the rest of the media.

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Speaker 1: And while the country is struggling to deal with these,

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Speaker 1: we listen to the stories of Black and Latino Studio

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Speaker 1: United Latino Front, a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront

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Speaker 1: of the movement. I'm Maria ino Jossa nose Bayan. Hello,

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Speaker 1: dear listener, Here's a show from Los Archivos and a

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Speaker 1: quick warning. This story has some graphic references to violence

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Speaker 1: and murder. Over the last few years, there have been

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Speaker 1: several reports of law enforcement agents on the US Mexico

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Speaker 1: border going rogue.

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Speaker 2: Border Patrol agent Joel Luna has been dealt a twenty

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Speaker 2: year prison sentence for organized criminal activity in a case

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Speaker 2: involving the decapitation of a.

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Speaker 3: Would be snake.

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Speaker 4: Had pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute marijuana

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Speaker 4: for receiving a bribe.

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Speaker 1: Importation of Customs and Border Protection agents have traffic drugs,

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Speaker 1: taken bribes, and allegedly raped migrants. In one dramatic case,

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Speaker 1: an agent turned out to be a serial killer.

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Speaker 5: Juan David Ortiz confessted killing four women in a two

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Speaker 5: week time span in the Laredo, Texas area near the

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Speaker 5: US Mexico border. Ortiz was a border patrol.

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Speaker 1: What these individual reports reveal is just how much discretion

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Speaker 1: law enforcement has while policing the border, and under the

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Speaker 1: Trump administration's recent policy changes, these powers have expanded even more.

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Speaker 6: Human rights groups have complained for months that border agents

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Speaker 6: are wrongfully turning away people seeking asylum.

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Speaker 7: In the US.

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Speaker 8: The Trump administration began hearings Monday in makeshift tent courthouses

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Speaker 8: in South Texas.

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Speaker 9: Customs and Border Protection is advancing a program that allows

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Speaker 9: border patrol agents to conte the first interview in the

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Speaker 9: asylum process.

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Speaker 1: While historically there have been few attempts to increase oversight

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Speaker 1: or reform, the government once actually did investigate the way

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Speaker 1: policing happened on the border. But that was over one

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Speaker 1: hundred years ago. From Futromedia and PRX. It's Latino USA.

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Speaker 1: I'm Mariano Posa. Today, we go back one hundred and

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Speaker 1: one years to a rare moment in time when the

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Speaker 1: State of Texas investigated the way we police our border.

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Speaker 1: One of the early forms of law enforcement on the

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Speaker 1: US Mexico border were the Texas Rangers. The Rangers were

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Speaker 1: founded in eighteen twenty three and they still exist today.

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Speaker 1: And the image they conjure up is that of a

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Speaker 1: lone cowboy on a horse with a star shaped badge.

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Speaker 1: They have a lot of cultural importance even today. There

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Speaker 1: there's a baseball team named after them and killed on

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Speaker 1: the Error.

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Speaker 2: Rangers get that first One of the.

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Speaker 1: Afternoon and a big movie that came out last year and.

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Speaker 2: You put cowboys on bunnang clubs.

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Speaker 1: Texas Rangers, but their narrative is complicated. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of history here, but basically, back in the early eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: the southern border of Texas was disputed by the US

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Speaker 1: and Mexico. It wasn't until eighteen forty eight, after the

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Speaker 1: Mexican American War that the Treaty of Guadelupe Valgo established

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Speaker 1: the Rio Grande as the border. That meant Mexicans who

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Speaker 1: were living in the region were suddenly in US territory

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Speaker 1: and Anglo or white settlers moved in. So there's tension

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Speaker 1: over land, which increased with the Mexican Revolution in nineteen ten,

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Speaker 1: and it's around then that the Ranger force started growing fast.

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Speaker 4: So they are protecting in name, Anglo settlers from savage

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Speaker 4: Native nations and from you know, treacherous Mexicans.

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Speaker 1: That's historian Monica Munos Martinez. She's the author of the

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Speaker 1: Injustice Never Leaves You, Anti Mexican violence in Texas. She's

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Speaker 1: an assistant professor of American Studies at Brown University, and

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Speaker 1: she's from South Texas.

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Speaker 4: And so what you have is the recruitment of men

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Speaker 4: who have no training. They can shoot on site, they

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Speaker 4: can arrest prisoners.

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Speaker 1: Claiming that they were protecting Anglo ranches from raids by

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Speaker 1: Mexican bandits. The Rangers terrorize the Mexican and African American community,

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Speaker 1: beating and even taking the lives of as many as

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Speaker 1: five thousand people. In nineteen eighteen, a group of Rangers

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Speaker 1: was part of a ruthless massacre of fifteen men and

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Speaker 1: boys in the border town of Borbenide, Texas.

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Speaker 4: It is the most well documented example of gross abuse

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Speaker 4: and injustice in a haunting story because despite the number

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Speaker 4: of witnesses, there were no prosecutions of the Texas Rangers

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Speaker 4: that participated.

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Speaker 1: After hearing about all of these abuses, one man would

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Speaker 1: decide that all of this was just too much. The

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Speaker 1: Rangers needed to be held accountable for their violence. That

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Speaker 1: man would end up starting an investigation into the Rangers

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Speaker 1: that would capture the nation's attention, and it would leave

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Speaker 1: behind a narrative about the US Mexico border that would

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Speaker 1: linger even today. To tell us the story of how

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Speaker 1: it all turned out, producer Liza Jaeger is going to

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Speaker 1: take it from here.

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Speaker 9: Jose Tomascanalis didn't really want to be at the center

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Speaker 9: of an investigation of the Texas Rangers, but from the

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Speaker 9: very beginning that's how it was. Well, I mean, I

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Speaker 9: think maybe we should just start with, like, who was

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Speaker 9: he like as a person?

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Speaker 7: This guy is you know, he's in terms of like

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Speaker 7: top forty hits, right, this guy was a hit.

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Speaker 2: This is Richard Ribb.

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Speaker 9: He's studied canalist for years, since he started his PhD

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Speaker 9: back in the nineties. He's writing a book about him

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Speaker 9: for ut Press, and he knows a lot of details.

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Speaker 7: And he's this incredibly well educated, sharp looking. If I

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Speaker 7: don't know if you've seen pictures of him, he was

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Speaker 7: a good looking young man. Like what very fine cheekbones.

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Speaker 9: Canalis was born in eighteen seventy seven on a ranch

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Speaker 9: in South Texas, a really huge, fancy ranch.

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Speaker 7: He was from the landed elite in South Texas, whose

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Speaker 7: family in South Texas dated back into the late eighteenth century.

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Speaker 9: Canalis is descended from Spanish immigrants who set up in

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Speaker 9: Texas back when it was Mexico.

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Speaker 2: By the time Canalis is.

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Speaker 9: Born, they'd been living in the region for over one

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Speaker 9: hundred years, so he's of Mexican descent as well. They're

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Speaker 9: one of the most powerful, wealthy ranching families in the region.

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Speaker 9: But Canalis from early on isn't going to be a rancher.

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Speaker 9: He goes to law school in Michigan.

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Speaker 7: And soon he is conducting the legal affairs and real

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Speaker 7: estate affairs for the King Ranch.

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Speaker 9: Back from law school, Canalis starts working as a lawyer

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Speaker 9: for one of the biggest ranches around.

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Speaker 7: Which would be you know, the equivalent of Exxon Mobile

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Speaker 7: or Amazon or something today.

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Speaker 9: It's a huge, important job, and Canalis does it well.

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Speaker 2: He becomes pretty well known, powerful.

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Speaker 7: And eventually came into the political side of things.

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Speaker 9: In nineteen oh five, he becomes the sole official of

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Speaker 9: Mexican descent in the Texas legislature.

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Speaker 2: And it's important to.

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Speaker 9: Know that for Canalis, being a legislator isn't really.

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Speaker 2: Just a job.

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Speaker 9: He was really religious and law legal system. For him,

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Speaker 9: all of that gets wrapped up in his faith.

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Speaker 7: Canalis is all about the rule of law. If the

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Speaker 7: rule of law breaks down, then we're no more than

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Speaker 7: savage beasts.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 9: So that's his mentality and the other thing to know

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Speaker 9: about Canalis he is very familiar with the Texas Rangers.

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Speaker 4: He idolizes as the Texas Rangers.

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Speaker 9: Historian Monica Munos Martinez. Again, Canalis is familiar with the

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Speaker 9: Rangers because.

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Speaker 2: He grew up with them.

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Speaker 7: He tells stories about the Rangers, like camping on their property,

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Speaker 7: about them swapping horses with the Rangers, and that you

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Speaker 7: know they were glad to see them when they came around,

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Speaker 7: and they you know, they were men of honor.

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Speaker 9: But as a state representative, Canalis starts getting reports about

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Speaker 9: the Rangers, and they're telling a really different story that

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Speaker 9: the Rangers, especially those rangers who are hired fast in

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Speaker 9: a group, pretty untrained, are not the Rangers of his youth.

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Speaker 9: He hears about men shot in the back just for

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Speaker 9: reporting a crime, or burnt alive, beaten to death, all

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Speaker 9: of this with no prosecutions, no serious oversight, And to Canalis,

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Speaker 9: all of that sounds like the rule of law breaking down.

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Speaker 4: So he starts to be unsettled by this culture of impunity.

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Speaker 9: And then a relative of Canalis, a rancher, is tortured

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Speaker 9: by a group of rangers. It happens when he's on

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Speaker 9: his own property. They claim that he's helping bandits. Canalis

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Speaker 9: writes about the case to the governor.

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Speaker 7: Like, you've got to clean these guys up. These rangers

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Speaker 7: are a destructive force and if he could just talk

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Speaker 7: to somebody, get him to see the light, then they

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Speaker 7: would act responsibly.

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Speaker 9: But the governor doesn't do anything about it. And then

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Speaker 9: one day Canalis is walking down the street by his

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Speaker 9: law office and.

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Speaker 7: He hears this shout from behind him and approaching him

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Speaker 7: is this massive individual six four two eighty.

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Speaker 2: Maybe it's a ranger named Frank.

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Speaker 7: Hamer, and he says to Canalis, you better stop what

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Speaker 7: you're doing or you're going to get hurt.

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Speaker 9: As in, stop complaining about the rangers. And that for

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Speaker 9: Canalis that's a turning point.

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Speaker 4: Him with all of his privilege. He's not even protected

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Speaker 4: from this kind of racial intimidation.

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Speaker 9: So in January of nineteen nineteen, Canalis arrives at the

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Speaker 9: Statehouse in Texas with a plan. Canalis, lover of law

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Speaker 9: and order, has written a bill, a bill recommending some

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Speaker 9: simple reforms.

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Speaker 7: And it creates quite a fewer.

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Speaker 9: He wants rangers better discipline, a bond system, basically meaning

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Speaker 9: that if a Ranger killed someone, the victim's family could

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Speaker 9: seek compensation.

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Speaker 7: So it comes in and the word gets out that

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Speaker 7: Canalis wants to take down the Rangers. That's the message.

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Speaker 9: Canalis doesn't want to take down the Rangers. He just

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Speaker 9: wants to pass a bill for more oversight perform.

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Speaker 7: And Canal you know, way, whoa whoa, whoa. Wait, who's

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Speaker 7: calling for the dissolving of the Rangers?

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Speaker 2: Not me, But the legislature decides.

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Speaker 7: Let's let's have a hearing about all this. Let's have

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Speaker 7: a hearing on the existence of the future existence of

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Speaker 7: the Rangers.

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Speaker 2: Are not a public hearing on the legislature floor.

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Speaker 5: The committee will now come to order.

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Speaker 9: So for this next part of the story, we're going

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Speaker 9: to take you inside that investigation, which is over one

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Speaker 9: hundred years old. So to bring it alive, we have

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Speaker 9: some voice actors who will be reading a bit from

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Speaker 9: that transcript.

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Speaker 2: It's January thirty.

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Speaker 9: First, nineteen nineteen, and Canalis is in the middle of

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Speaker 9: this six hundred square foot room at the State Capitol

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Speaker 9: in Austin. There are all these rows of desks, a

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Speaker 9: podium up front, and a serious audience. Every Texas Ranger

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Speaker 9: has been called to Austin for the investigation, and they've

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Speaker 9: shown up at the Capitol building filling the room.

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Speaker 4: You know, there are accounts of the room being so

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Speaker 4: packed that people are spilling out to the hallways and

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Speaker 4: looking in from the windows.

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Speaker 9: And the plan for this whole thing is get a

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Speaker 9: bunch of witnesses to talk about exactly how the Rangers

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Speaker 9: are acting, and at the end decide are they doing

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Speaker 9: a good job or are they breaking the law?

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Speaker 2: And Canalis he's pretty much.

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Speaker 9: Single handedly in charge of making the case against the Rangers.

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Speaker 7: He's in over his head. He's in way over his head.

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Speaker 7: I mean, this all has come up on the fly, right,

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Speaker 7: It's not like he's been planning this for six months.

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Speaker 7: He's putting this together on a week's notice.

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Speaker 9: But if you read those first few pages, of the transcript.

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Speaker 9: Canelis seems to start out pretty confident. He has his

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Speaker 9: letter he's written up with a bunch of charges against

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Speaker 9: the Rangers, and he hands.

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Speaker 2: It out to all these important people in the room.

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Speaker 9: On the first day of testimony, this big group of

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Speaker 9: men shows up to talk. They're all Anglo businessmen and ranchers,

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Speaker 9: and they're there to talk about general conditions on the

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Speaker 9: border and their personal histories with the Rangers. So one

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Speaker 9: of the first witnesses Canelis questions is a guy who

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Speaker 9: runs a car shop in Idelgo County, in a town

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Speaker 9: called Mercedes, which is right near the bottom tip of Texas.

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Speaker 2: He jumps right in.

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Speaker 10: You say you live in Mercedes, Yes, sir, you remember

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Speaker 10: the incident of the young man that came to Mercedes

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Speaker 10: during the Bandit trouble we had in nineteen fifteen on

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Speaker 10: the branch train arrived there about noon and was arrested

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Speaker 10: by rangers. He had his hand in a sling and

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Speaker 10: was arrested by rangers and was found dead a few

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Speaker 10: minutes afterwards.

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Speaker 2: So here Canalis.

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Speaker 9: He's reminding the guy of this case where a wounded

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Speaker 9: man had come to town for medical help, and because

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Speaker 9: the man was of Mexican heritage and had arrived a

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Speaker 9: few days after a bandit raid in town where bandits

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Speaker 9: were injured. He was shot and killed by the rangers,

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Speaker 9: no questions asked, even though he had nothing to do

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Speaker 9: with the raid.

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Speaker 10: This wounded man. You know, it was a day or

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Speaker 10: two after the incident that this man arrived at Mercedes

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Speaker 10: on the noon train with his hand in a sling

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Speaker 10: to see the doctor and was arrested and immediately taken

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Speaker 10: out and shot, thinking he was one of those persons

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Speaker 10: wounded in that.

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Speaker 9: And Canalis is kind of like, come on, remember this

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Speaker 9: thing that happened, But the car shop owner up on

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Speaker 9: the stand says no, multiple times, No.

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Speaker 3: I never heard of any such case as that.

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Speaker 9: And maybe it's then that Canals starts to realize that

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Speaker 9: he's not going to be like collectively putting heads together

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Speaker 9: with everyone in the room to get to the bottom

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Speaker 9: of what's really going on with the rangers. The investigation

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Speaker 9: is going to be a fight one version of reality

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Speaker 9: against another, And for many of the witnesses in those

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Speaker 9: first few days, their reality of the US Mexico border

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Speaker 9: is that it's a violent place. This is an Anglo

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Speaker 9: settler from South Texas on the stand being questioned.

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Speaker 5: Would you be afraid to continue your residence there if

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Speaker 5: they should abolish the Rangers.

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Speaker 10: I think it would be dangerous. I think would start

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Speaker 10: all over again. The bandits and outlaws across the river

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Speaker 10: now will come on this side more.

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Speaker 2: We were almost terror stricken down there.

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Speaker 10: We look upon the rangers as more or less of

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Speaker 10: a godsend.

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Speaker 3: To our valley.

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Speaker 9: They're describing a border region where the rangers are necessary

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Speaker 9: and Mexicans are outlaws.

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Speaker 2: One lawyer who.

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Speaker 9: Testifies says the border is infested with banditry, and Canalis

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Speaker 9: has a different narrative. He has a lot of evidence

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Speaker 9: on his side, stacks of testimonies from people who've written

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Speaker 9: to him about ranger abuse.

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Speaker 2: Except there's a catch.

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Speaker 4: People know that if you bring charges against the Texas Ranger,

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Speaker 4: you're likely going to be killed. People know this.

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Speaker 9: People are too afraid to testify in person. The next

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Speaker 9: few days of the trial are just this barrage of witnesses.

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Speaker 9: Canellis doesn't even get his own witnesses on the stand

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Speaker 9: for days, and it's not until the seventh day that

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Speaker 9: Canalis actually gets someone on the stand who is of

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Speaker 9: Mexican heritage a man named Jesus Vireal.

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Speaker 2: He's in law enforcement in South Texas, a constable.

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Speaker 9: Viareal says one day he was driving three men to

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Speaker 9: his ranch when a ranger pulled them over. The ranger

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Speaker 9: interrogated them aggressively, and Villareal tells the story on the stand.

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Speaker 11: They got hold of me by the throat, mouth and

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Speaker 11: nos and they held me that way about five minutes.

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Speaker 5: They told me to speak. I could not speak.

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Speaker 2: He says.

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Speaker 9: The rangers beat them with pistols until they confess to

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Speaker 9: a crime draft divasion, but that it was a false confession.

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Speaker 11: I told him there was an untruth. Then the cocked

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Speaker 11: pistol was put into my mouth. They told me I

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Speaker 11: would tell the truth or they would kill me.

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Speaker 9: Via Reel is one of just two Mexican American victims

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Speaker 9: of ranger abuse who speak during the investigation, and at

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Speaker 9: the end of his testimony, he gets asked to do

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Speaker 9: this thing to point out his abuser, the man who

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Speaker 9: he's just told that whole story about.

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Speaker 2: He's in the room.

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Speaker 9: The investigation is by all accounts grueling, but janels he

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Speaker 9: feels like he's doing pretty well.

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Speaker 4: I think that he wholeheartedly believes that if you show

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Speaker 4: the ways in which people are being denied due process,

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Speaker 4: that that is going to alarm politicians, and so I

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Speaker 4: think that he has more faith in American democracy at

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Speaker 4: that time that looking at the conditions, looking at the context,

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Speaker 4: than I would have had.

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Speaker 9: But Monique says that there's also this bigger thing that's happening.

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Speaker 9: The Ranger investigation is being reported on every day, not

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Speaker 9: just locally but also nationally. It's read by people who've

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Speaker 9: never been to Texas, let alone South Texas.

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Speaker 4: So people are developing these ideas about what the border is,

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Speaker 4: what Mexicans are, and because many people have been actually

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Speaker 4: been there, the people who are testifying or setting the scene.

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Speaker 9: Of a place full of Mexican outlaws and horse thieves

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Speaker 9: and draft dodgers on the border, the.

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Speaker 4: Attorneys create this narrative that there is a crisis on

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Speaker 4: the border and that Anglos are under threat and that

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Speaker 4: they are being murdered in mass by Mexicans, which is

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Speaker 4: not accurate.

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Speaker 9: It starts to become evident that that's not an accident.

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Speaker 2: It's a strategy paint.

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Speaker 9: The border as lawless and Mexicans as violent, disloyal and

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Speaker 9: patriotic and anyone who disagrees probably shouldn't be trusted.

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Speaker 1: Coming up on Latino USA, the investigation of the Texas

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Speaker 1: Rangers is about to get personal. Stay with us, Yes, Hey,

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Speaker 1: we're back. It's nineteen nineteen and j Di Canales is

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Speaker 1: the only member of the Texas State Legislature of Mexican

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Speaker 1: heritage and he begins a full scale investigation into the

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Speaker 1: lawless behavior of the Texas Rangers, who have been known

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Speaker 1: to arrest, torture, or even murder Mexican Americans on the

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Speaker 1: border with impunity. And in this part of the hearing

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Speaker 1: things start to heat up. Producer Liza Jeger takes us

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Speaker 1: to Austin, Texas and the biggest day of the instigation.

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Speaker 9: The Rangers hearing is pretty well publicized. People in Austin

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Speaker 9: are paying attention, but there's one moment that's advertised in

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Speaker 9: the papers for days beforehand. It's the tenth day of testimony,

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Speaker 9: when Canalis himself is slated to take the stand.

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Speaker 4: People were spilling out of the room trying to watch

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Speaker 4: what was happening.

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Speaker 9: It's ten am and Canalis settles into his seat at

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Speaker 9: the front of the room, poised and smiling, and then

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Speaker 9: he starts talking.

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Speaker 4: So he actually starts with a long monologue he gives

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Speaker 4: he introduces himself to the people in the room, and

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Speaker 4: really it's like he's introducing himself to the journalists who

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Speaker 4: are going to be writing about this.

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Speaker 10: My name is J. T. Canales. I was born in

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Speaker 10: the old county of Nuess, state of Texas, very near

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Speaker 10: to the present town of Kingsville. I am forty two

365
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Speaker 10: years old, will be next month. I went to the

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Speaker 10: public schools of my county, came to Austin and attended

367
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Speaker 10: business College.

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Speaker 9: He talks about his degrees, his history of service for

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Speaker 9: the state, and Canalis. He's being strategic here, like, come on,

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Speaker 9: you guys, we're on the same team.

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Speaker 2: We're all from the same world.

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Speaker 4: He was lighter skinned, his wife was anglow, and so

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Speaker 4: he very much is trying to align himself in terms

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Speaker 4: of his family history and his political work with the

375
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Speaker 4: other men, the other white men who are in the

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Speaker 4: Texas legislature.

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Speaker 2: He starts narrating how he feels like the Rangers for

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Speaker 2: almost one hundred years were this great heroic force.

379
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Speaker 10: They were a capable set of men and did not

380
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Speaker 10: need any restriction because their own conscience was a self

381
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Speaker 10: restraint and law.

382
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Speaker 2: But that little by little they've gone rotten.

383
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Speaker 10: In nineteen fifteen, so far as my recollection goes, is

384
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Speaker 10: when the first general outrages perpetrated by Rangers began.

385
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Speaker 9: He explains that bandit raids on the border increased because

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Speaker 9: of economic instability after the Mexican revelation, and then he

387
00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 9: spends the next two and a half hours explaining how

388
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Speaker 9: the Rangers have come to violate the people's trust as

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Speaker 9: law enforcement.

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Speaker 3: Are you ready for the cross examination?

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Speaker 9: And then it's time for questions. The Rangers lawyer, this

392
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Speaker 9: man named Robert E. Lee Knight, gets up mister Canalis

393
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Speaker 9: and he starts grilling Canalis mostly about his motives.

394
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Speaker 5: Have you not consciously or do you think it is

395
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Speaker 5: possible unconsciously permitted yourself to be worked into a condition

396
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Speaker 5: where you are prone to the outrageous perpetrated and magnify

397
00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:38,440
Speaker 5: the casual mistakes of those struggling with the situation down there?

398
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Speaker 5: About what you have testified?

399
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Speaker 9: Okay, So what's happening here is he's asking this really

400
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:47,320
Speaker 9: roundabout question where he's basically saying, don't you have an

401
00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 9: agenda here?

402
00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:51,919
Speaker 2: An anti white, pro Mexican agenda?

403
00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 10: No, Sir, I do not at all I say here

404
00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 10: that the men who killed the Austins and others down

405
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:00,959
Speaker 10: there committed cold blooded murder.

406
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:06,440
Speaker 9: Canalis is like, no, I'm not biased. These murders are

407
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 9: just wrong. And basically for hours, this is the tone

408
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:14,000
Speaker 9: of the back and forth between Knight and Canalis. The

409
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:16,000
Speaker 9: committee actually has to take a break for dinner, and

410
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:20,119
Speaker 9: when they come back, there's a surprise testimony. State Representative

411
00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:24,040
Speaker 9: Claude Hudsmith has traveled all the way from DC to testify.

412
00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 3: You have lately been elected a member of Congress.

413
00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,120
Speaker 6: Yes, from the sixteenth Congressional district.

414
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:33,440
Speaker 2: Hudsmith is a really big deal.

415
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:35,960
Speaker 9: He's one of the most respected politicians in the state

416
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:40,879
Speaker 9: from El Paso, and from the start his testimony is aggressive.

417
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,240
Speaker 6: I don't believe in this, mister Chairman. In extending very

418
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:47,600
Speaker 6: much clemency to men who come across that river and

419
00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 6: murder our wives and children, you have got to kill

420
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Speaker 6: those Mexicans when you find them, or they will kill you.

421
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Speaker 4: He describes Mexicans as inherently violent. He calls the murderers

422
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,280
Speaker 4: and rapists. You know, it's all transcribed, and he says

423
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:04,679
Speaker 4: things like you can't give them a chance. You have

424
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:07,119
Speaker 4: to shoot them when you see them, you know, saying

425
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 4: if you remove the Texas Rangers, I will calm down

426
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:12,199
Speaker 4: from DC and lead a mob if I have to.

427
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Speaker 6: Now, I'm going to be candid with you, tell you

428
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:18,920
Speaker 6: about mob law. If I had it in my power,

429
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Speaker 6: I would lead a mob in a minute against them.

430
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Speaker 3: You are speaking as a citizen.

431
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,920
Speaker 6: Yes, I'm speaking as a citizen. We are not going

432
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Speaker 6: to stand for those bandits to ravage our country.

433
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:41,119
Speaker 9: After Hudspith, the Rangers lawyer picks up the cross examination

434
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:45,400
Speaker 9: of Canalis, and that's when things start to get even uglier,

435
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:46,600
Speaker 9: more personal.

436
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:50,880
Speaker 5: Now, mister Canalis, you are by blood a Mexican, are

437
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:51,199
Speaker 5: you not.

438
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 10: I am not a Mexican. I am an American citizen.

439
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:58,680
Speaker 5: Your father or grandfather came from Mexico.

440
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:00,920
Speaker 10: My father came from Mexico.

441
00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:03,240
Speaker 5: How old were you when he came here.

442
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 10: I don't know. I wasn't born then, And you.

443
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:10,320
Speaker 5: Don't know from family history or tradition where he came. No, sir,

444
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:13,439
Speaker 5: and all of your people are not Americans, that is,

445
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:17,439
Speaker 5: are not citizens of the United States. Mister Canalis, have

446
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,520
Speaker 5: you any blood relatives on the other side? I have

447
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:24,120
Speaker 5: got some, yes, sir, how many?

448
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,399
Speaker 10: I don't know. I can't tell you because I haven't

449
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:29,000
Speaker 10: been to Mexico in a long time.

450
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 9: The lawyer is basically saying to the room, look at

451
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:36,680
Speaker 9: this guy. Because he has Mexican heritage, we should think

452
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,919
Speaker 9: twice about everything he says and this whole investigation.

453
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,639
Speaker 3: You want this committee to assume that because mister Canalis

454
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,199
Speaker 3: has some relatives in Mexico, that he is disloyal.

455
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:51,040
Speaker 5: No, sir, I do not. I simply offer it under

456
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 5: the ordinary rules the proceedings of this character. Hear me

457
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 5: a moment. It will do no harm. There is a

458
00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 5: saying that blood is thicker than water. Not accusing the

459
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,159
Speaker 5: gentleman of consciously having motives that are not worthy, but

460
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:07,880
Speaker 5: I say that might unconsciously influence him in this matter.

461
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:12,639
Speaker 9: And remember, for Canalis this whole time, the heart of

462
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:16,120
Speaker 9: his problem with the Rangers hasn't actually been that they're

463
00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 9: targeting Mexicans or people with Mexican heritage. He's upset because

464
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:25,639
Speaker 9: they're breaking the law. So Monica says, for him to

465
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,520
Speaker 9: be personally attacked like this, it's a blow.

466
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:34,760
Speaker 4: He saw himself as a Texan, as an American and

467
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 4: didn't identify as being Mexican, and in this investigation, in

468
00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 4: the ways in which he is treated, this is an

469
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,159
Speaker 4: effort by these lawyers to put him in his place

470
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:49,200
Speaker 4: and to say you are a Mexican. Just try to demean.

471
00:27:48,880 --> 00:28:03,160
Speaker 12: Him anything, for they're with this witness, Gentlemen absolutely through.

472
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 9: By the time the hearings closed that day, it's been

473
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 9: twelve hours since Canelis first took the stand. The hearings

474
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:24,639
Speaker 9: end on February eleventh, eighty three people have testified. A

475
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,679
Speaker 9: few days later, the Hearings committee releases their report.

476
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:32,959
Speaker 7: The committee says, Okay, we've carefully considered this stuff and

477
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 7: Rangers are fine. They exonerated them, finest force the world

478
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:39,760
Speaker 7: has ever seen.

479
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 5: Kind of stuff.

480
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:43,280
Speaker 9: They go out of their way to commend the Rangers

481
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:46,680
Speaker 9: captain and his general for doing excellent work. They've been

482
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:49,440
Speaker 9: under trying conditions, the report says, and done a good

483
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 9: job in a violent place. They do include a few

484
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 9: specific incidents of abuse.

485
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 7: This guy and this guy and this guy were bad apples,

486
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 7: you know, like this guy went row, that guy went rogue,

487
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 7: you know, this guy.

488
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 2: And there were some big changes afterwards.

489
00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:08,000
Speaker 9: Many members of the force were dismissed, mostly the ones

490
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,880
Speaker 9: that were hired quickly and without qualifications, and a way

491
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 9: to hear complaints was put in place. But overall, systematically

492
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 9: the Rangers procedures mostly don't change and the findings don't

493
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:26,280
Speaker 9: call for any prosecutions. Later, the Rangers captain writes about

494
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 9: the report to a friend and tells him quote, the

495
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:34,479
Speaker 9: committee report was all we could hope for vindication complete.

496
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:39,680
Speaker 7: But even after the hearings, House Bill five is still around.

497
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 9: This is Canalis's original bill for Ranger reform, but now

498
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:47,200
Speaker 9: it's gutted of power. Mostly it just gives the Rangers

499
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 9: a raise, which infuriates Canalis.

500
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 7: He fights it to the nail on the House floor,

501
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 7: almost coming to blows.

502
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 2: The bill passed.

503
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,080
Speaker 9: When Canalis Is asked about it in the newspaper later,

504
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 9: he says, I do not recognize my child. Canellis doesn't

505
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 9: run for office again. After that session. He goes back

506
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 9: to Brownsville.

507
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:16,000
Speaker 4: He continues to work as a lawyer, not.

508
00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:18,920
Speaker 2: In politics, via legal advocacy.

509
00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 9: And in nineteen twenty nine he helped to found what

510
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:26,040
Speaker 9: is one of the main civil rights organizations for Latinos today, LULAC,

511
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,239
Speaker 9: the League of United Latin American Citizens.

512
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 4: And he then continues to help design this legal strategy

513
00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 4: for seeking more rights for Mexican Americans, and so the

514
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 4: way that he does that shifts, So you know, the

515
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 4: idea of who they're fighting for, whose rights they're trying

516
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 4: to defend, shrinks.

517
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 9: In the early days, members were US citizens only, and

518
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:56,800
Speaker 9: women were not encouraged to join. And Monica argues that

519
00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:01,720
Speaker 9: in that early advocacy, a particular strategy starts to take shape.

520
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 4: So it's essentially, you know, the strategy of civil rights

521
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 4: that says, like, we will through this respectability politics. You know,

522
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,760
Speaker 4: we are well educated, we have good jobs, we have

523
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:17,719
Speaker 4: histories of military service, and we have good patriotic citizens

524
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 4: that they, as a legal strategy, claim a category of whiteness.

525
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 9: And she says, canalists latching onto that strategy. It might

526
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 9: have been related to his experience in nineteen nineteen in

527
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 9: the Ranger investigation.

528
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:39,480
Speaker 4: Historians have interpreted his conservative politics in the twenties and

529
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 4: thirties and forties and thereafter is really being shaped by

530
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 4: this experience in the trial.

531
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 9: When it comes to what the Ranger investigation meant for

532
00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 9: law enforcement on the border, this is a moment of

533
00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 9: some reform, some acknowledgment.

534
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:02,160
Speaker 4: Some people look at this investigation in nineteen nineteen is

535
00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 4: saying that's the endpoint. The crimes were put on display,

536
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,720
Speaker 4: and so the Texas Rangers were reformed, and then after

537
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:10,480
Speaker 4: that the Texas Rangers were wonderful.

538
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,880
Speaker 9: Right for historians like Monica and for many descendants of

539
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 9: people who were hurt by the Rangers, it wasn't that

540
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 9: simple because mostly the investigation affirmed a culture of anti

541
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 9: Mexican policing, one that didn't change after those weeks in

542
00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:27,680
Speaker 9: the hearings.

543
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:31,200
Speaker 4: You know, dismissing Texas Rangers is not an act of

544
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 4: justice when you don't see the prosecutions. It means that

545
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:38,720
Speaker 4: many of them also rejoin law enforcement and other capacities.

546
00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:42,760
Speaker 4: Some of them become federal officers, They become US Immigration

547
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 4: Customs Inspection agents, some of them become prison guards. Some

548
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:50,800
Speaker 4: of them go on to be in the Border Patrol.

549
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 9: The Border Patrol, by the way, was founded in nineteen

550
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:57,280
Speaker 9: twenty four, just five years after this investigation, and it

551
00:32:57,320 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 9: came out of a section of a congressional bill push

552
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:03,760
Speaker 9: or by none other than Claude Hudsmith, the guy from

553
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:14,360
Speaker 9: the investigation who called Mexicans murders and rapists, and Monicae

554
00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 9: says the investigation left another legacy too.

555
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 4: What you really saw was that there was a media

556
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 4: and pr machine that was being animated by politicians, by

557
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,680
Speaker 4: Texas rangers to cast the border as a dangerous place

558
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 4: and to justify state.

559
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 9: Violence, a place in crisis and full of others. That

560
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 9: image that the state lawyers and the Anglo ranchers and

561
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:47,320
Speaker 9: the rangers painted of the US Mexico border it stuck.

562
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:52,400
Speaker 4: That's something that actively goes on today, the separations of families,

563
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 4: people being denied their legal rights to claim asylum. There's

564
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:01,600
Speaker 4: an active effort to portray people, racialize them in a

565
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:05,560
Speaker 4: way that denies them any sort of public sympathy and

566
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:10,319
Speaker 4: instead sanctions publicly the kinds of brutality that we're seeing

567
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:11,760
Speaker 4: on the border today.

568
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:16,040
Speaker 9: And so this idea of the border as this violent,

569
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:19,440
Speaker 9: lawless place where law enforcement doesn't have to follow the

570
00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 9: same rules as they do elsewhere, that's not something new.

571
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 9: It's over one hundred years in the making.

572
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 1: Special thanks to historians Monica Munjos Martinez and Richard Ribb.

573
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:41,840
Speaker 1: Rib is currently working on a book titled Shame and

574
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,560
Speaker 1: Disgrace to My Native State, j Ticnalees and the Quest

575
00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:48,720
Speaker 1: to Reform the Texas Rangers. It comes out in twenty

576
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:52,400
Speaker 1: twenty two and special thanks to our voice actors Marlon Bishop,

577
00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:58,080
Speaker 1: Brandon Gomez, jg Lilly, Tim Lopez, Raul Pes and Brian Pickett.

578
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Liza Jaeger and edited by

579
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:23,759
Speaker 1: Sophia Paalisa car fact checking by Amy Tardiff. It was

580
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: mixed by Stephanie Lebou and Julia Caruso. The Latino USA

581
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:33,440
Speaker 1: team includes Andrea Lopez Cruzado, Daisy Contreras, Mike Sargent, Marta Martinez,

582
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:39,799
Speaker 1: Victoria Strada, Reinaldo, Leanos Junior, Patricia Sulbaran, and Elizabeth Lowenthal Torres.

583
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:44,160
Speaker 1: Our editorial director is Vinandza Santos. Our associate engineers are

584
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:47,560
Speaker 1: gabriel A Bias and JJ Carubin. Our marketing manager is

585
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 1: Luis Luna. Our theme music was composed by Zane Rouinos.

586
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 1: I'm your host and executive producer Maria jo Josa. Join

587
00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:56,440
Speaker 1: us again on our next episode. In the meantime, look

588
00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,400
Speaker 1: for us on social media and remember not de vayas

589
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:03,759
Speaker 1: Luka Joe.

590
00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 8: Latino USA is made possible in part by public Welfare Foundation,

591
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:15,239
Speaker 8: catalyzing transformative approaches to justice that are community led, restorative,

592
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:20,120
Speaker 8: and racially just. W. K. Kellogg Foundation, a partner with

593
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:25,400
Speaker 8: Communities Where Children Come First, and the John D. And

594
00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 8: Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,