WEBVTT - The Lone Legislator 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:04.040 This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:09.320 Courturre Latino USC Latin Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa. We 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.760 bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered to. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:14.840 You, overlooked by the rest of the media. 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:16.720 And while the country is struggling to deal with these, 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.440 we listen to the stories of Black and Latino Studio 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:24.560 United Latino Front, a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:31.120 of the movement. I'm Maria ino Jossa nose Bayan. Hello, 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.680 dear listener, Here's a show from Los Archivos and a 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.280 quick warning. This story has some graphic references to violence 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:43.319 and murder. Over the last few years, there have been 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:47.320 several reports of law enforcement agents on the US Mexico 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.400 border going rogue. 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.080 Border Patrol agent Joel Luna has been dealt a twenty 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.640 year prison sentence for organized criminal activity in a case 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.000 involving the decapitation of a. 0:00:58.960 --> 0:00:59.640 Would be snake. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:04.000 Had pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute marijuana 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:05.360 for receiving a bribe. 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:09.560 Importation of Customs and Border Protection agents have traffic drugs, 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:15.000 taken bribes, and allegedly raped migrants. In one dramatic case, 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.840 an agent turned out to be a serial killer. 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.000 Juan David Ortiz confessted killing four women in a two 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.520 week time span in the Laredo, Texas area near the 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.400 US Mexico border. Ortiz was a border patrol. 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:30.600 What these individual reports reveal is just how much discretion 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:35.679 law enforcement has while policing the border, and under the 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:41.440 Trump administration's recent policy changes, these powers have expanded even more. 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.600 Human rights groups have complained for months that border agents 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.720 are wrongfully turning away people seeking asylum. 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:48.880 In the US. 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:53.960 The Trump administration began hearings Monday in makeshift tent courthouses 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:55.080 in South Texas. 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.640 Customs and Border Protection is advancing a program that allows 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.040 border patrol agents to conte the first interview in the 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:02.000 asylum process. 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.960 While historically there have been few attempts to increase oversight 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:10.440 or reform, the government once actually did investigate the way 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.080 policing happened on the border. But that was over one 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:24.280 hundred years ago. From Futromedia and PRX. It's Latino USA. 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:27.960 I'm Mariano Posa. Today, we go back one hundred and 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.280 one years to a rare moment in time when the 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.280 State of Texas investigated the way we police our border. 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.600 One of the early forms of law enforcement on the 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:44.560 US Mexico border were the Texas Rangers. The Rangers were 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:49.040 founded in eighteen twenty three and they still exist today. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.120 And the image they conjure up is that of a 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.720 lone cowboy on a horse with a star shaped badge. 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:59.919 They have a lot of cultural importance even today. There 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.639 there's a baseball team named after them and killed on 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:04.200 the Error. 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:06.320 Rangers get that first One of the. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:12.280 Afternoon and a big movie that came out last year and. 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.280 You put cowboys on bunnang clubs. 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:26.720 Texas Rangers, but their narrative is complicated. There's a lot 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:31.280 of history here, but basically, back in the early eighteen hundreds, 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.000 the southern border of Texas was disputed by the US 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.720 and Mexico. It wasn't until eighteen forty eight, after the 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:43.520 Mexican American War that the Treaty of Guadelupe Valgo established 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:47.920 the Rio Grande as the border. That meant Mexicans who 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.160 were living in the region were suddenly in US territory 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:56.560 and Anglo or white settlers moved in. So there's tension 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:01.560 over land, which increased with the Mexican Revolution in nineteen ten, 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:07.120 and it's around then that the Ranger force started growing fast. 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:12.720 So they are protecting in name, Anglo settlers from savage 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.600 Native nations and from you know, treacherous Mexicans. 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:22.080 That's historian Monica Munos Martinez. She's the author of the 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:26.839 Injustice Never Leaves You, Anti Mexican violence in Texas. She's 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.560 an assistant professor of American Studies at Brown University, and 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:32.240 she's from South Texas. 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.359 And so what you have is the recruitment of men 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:40.520 who have no training. They can shoot on site, they 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:42.320 can arrest prisoners. 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.200 Claiming that they were protecting Anglo ranches from raids by 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:51.240 Mexican bandits. The Rangers terrorize the Mexican and African American community, 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.200 beating and even taking the lives of as many as 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:59.760 five thousand people. In nineteen eighteen, a group of Rangers 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:03.200 was part of a ruthless massacre of fifteen men and 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.640 boys in the border town of Borbenide, Texas. 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:12.160 It is the most well documented example of gross abuse 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:16.200 and injustice in a haunting story because despite the number 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.720 of witnesses, there were no prosecutions of the Texas Rangers 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:22.119 that participated. 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:26.920 After hearing about all of these abuses, one man would 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.520 decide that all of this was just too much. The 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:35.039 Rangers needed to be held accountable for their violence. That 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.400 man would end up starting an investigation into the Rangers 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.719 that would capture the nation's attention, and it would leave 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.320 behind a narrative about the US Mexico border that would 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:50.400 linger even today. To tell us the story of how 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.760 it all turned out, producer Liza Jaeger is going to 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:54.440 take it from here. 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.800 Jose Tomascanalis didn't really want to be at the center 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:05.080 of an investigation of the Texas Rangers, but from the 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.520 very beginning that's how it was. Well, I mean, I 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:09.719 think maybe we should just start with, like, who was 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:10.920 he like as a person? 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.039 This guy is you know, he's in terms of like 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.800 top forty hits, right, this guy was a hit. 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:17.560 This is Richard Ribb. 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.760 He's studied canalist for years, since he started his PhD 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.040 back in the nineties. He's writing a book about him 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.960 for ut Press, and he knows a lot of details. 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:32.000 And he's this incredibly well educated, sharp looking. If I 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:33.760 don't know if you've seen pictures of him, he was 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:40.880 a good looking young man. Like what very fine cheekbones. 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.599 Canalis was born in eighteen seventy seven on a ranch 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.559 in South Texas, a really huge, fancy ranch. 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:52.640 He was from the landed elite in South Texas, whose 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:57.160 family in South Texas dated back into the late eighteenth century. 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.279 Canalis is descended from Spanish immigrants who set up in 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:01.839 Texas back when it was Mexico. 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:03.280 By the time Canalis is. 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:05.440 Born, they'd been living in the region for over one 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.360 hundred years, so he's of Mexican descent as well. They're 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:11.400 one of the most powerful, wealthy ranching families in the region. 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:15.560 But Canalis from early on isn't going to be a rancher. 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:17.800 He goes to law school in Michigan. 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.320 And soon he is conducting the legal affairs and real 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:21.920 estate affairs for the King Ranch. 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.960 Back from law school, Canalis starts working as a lawyer 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:28.080 for one of the biggest ranches around. 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:33.720 Which would be you know, the equivalent of Exxon Mobile 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:35.440 or Amazon or something today. 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:40.440 It's a huge, important job, and Canalis does it well. 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.120 He becomes pretty well known, powerful. 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:48.800 And eventually came into the political side of things. 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.240 In nineteen oh five, he becomes the sole official of 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.520 Mexican descent in the Texas legislature. 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:56.160 And it's important to. 0:07:56.120 --> 0:08:00.120 Know that for Canalis, being a legislator isn't really. 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:00.640 Just a job. 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:05.560 He was really religious and law legal system. For him, 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.080 all of that gets wrapped up in his faith. 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.680 Canalis is all about the rule of law. If the 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:17.200 rule of law breaks down, then we're no more than 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:18.160 savage beasts. 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:21.200 Okay. 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.480 So that's his mentality and the other thing to know 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.480 about Canalis he is very familiar with the Texas Rangers. 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.640 He idolizes as the Texas Rangers. 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:36.160 Historian Monica Munos Martinez. Again, Canalis is familiar with the 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:37.800 Rangers because. 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:38.680 He grew up with them. 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.600 He tells stories about the Rangers, like camping on their property, 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:47.120 about them swapping horses with the Rangers, and that you 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:49.640 know they were glad to see them when they came around, 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:51.559 and they you know, they were men of honor. 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:56.199 But as a state representative, Canalis starts getting reports about 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:00.160 the Rangers, and they're telling a really different story that 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.800 the Rangers, especially those rangers who are hired fast in 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.679 a group, pretty untrained, are not the Rangers of his youth. 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.520 He hears about men shot in the back just for 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.319 reporting a crime, or burnt alive, beaten to death, all 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:20.120 of this with no prosecutions, no serious oversight, And to Canalis, 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:24.000 all of that sounds like the rule of law breaking down. 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:32.360 So he starts to be unsettled by this culture of impunity. 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.360 And then a relative of Canalis, a rancher, is tortured 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:39.440 by a group of rangers. It happens when he's on 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:43.839 his own property. They claim that he's helping bandits. Canalis 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:45.719 writes about the case to the governor. 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:48.720 Like, you've got to clean these guys up. These rangers 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:53.360 are a destructive force and if he could just talk 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:57.200 to somebody, get him to see the light, then they 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:58.559 would act responsibly. 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.959 But the governor doesn't do anything about it. And then 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.960 one day Canalis is walking down the street by his 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:08.000 law office and. 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.040 He hears this shout from behind him and approaching him 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:16.080 is this massive individual six four two eighty. 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.040 Maybe it's a ranger named Frank. 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:23.600 Hamer, and he says to Canalis, you better stop what 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:25.280 you're doing or you're going to get hurt. 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:30.679 As in, stop complaining about the rangers. And that for 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.320 Canalis that's a turning point. 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.480 Him with all of his privilege. He's not even protected 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:39.559 from this kind of racial intimidation. 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:46.120 So in January of nineteen nineteen, Canalis arrives at the 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:50.280 Statehouse in Texas with a plan. Canalis, lover of law 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:53.520 and order, has written a bill, a bill recommending some 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:55.200 simple reforms. 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.360 And it creates quite a fewer. 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.760 He wants rangers better discipline, a bond system, basically meaning 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.400 that if a Ranger killed someone, the victim's family could 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:07.160 seek compensation. 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.080 So it comes in and the word gets out that 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:17.840 Canalis wants to take down the Rangers. That's the message. 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.400 Canalis doesn't want to take down the Rangers. He just 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:24.719 wants to pass a bill for more oversight perform. 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.520 And Canal you know, way, whoa whoa, whoa. Wait, who's 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:29.920 calling for the dissolving of the Rangers? 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.720 Not me, But the legislature decides. 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:34.480 Let's let's have a hearing about all this. Let's have 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:36.679 a hearing on the existence of the future existence of 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:37.199 the Rangers. 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.480 Are not a public hearing on the legislature floor. 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.080 The committee will now come to order. 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.400 So for this next part of the story, we're going 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.120 to take you inside that investigation, which is over one 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.959 hundred years old. So to bring it alive, we have 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:58.160 some voice actors who will be reading a bit from 0:11:58.200 --> 0:11:58.960 that transcript. 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:08.079 It's January thirty. 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:11.520 First, nineteen nineteen, and Canalis is in the middle of 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.240 this six hundred square foot room at the State Capitol 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.920 in Austin. There are all these rows of desks, a 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:22.360 podium up front, and a serious audience. Every Texas Ranger 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.800 has been called to Austin for the investigation, and they've 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.280 shown up at the Capitol building filling the room. 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.760 You know, there are accounts of the room being so 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:34.520 packed that people are spilling out to the hallways and 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:35.840 looking in from the windows. 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:38.640 And the plan for this whole thing is get a 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.440 bunch of witnesses to talk about exactly how the Rangers 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:46.160 are acting, and at the end decide are they doing 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:48.800 a good job or are they breaking the law? 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.440 And Canalis he's pretty much. 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.000 Single handedly in charge of making the case against the Rangers. 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.720 He's in over his head. He's in way over his head. 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:08.200 I mean, this all has come up on the fly, right, 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:10.480 It's not like he's been planning this for six months. 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:13.160 He's putting this together on a week's notice. 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.040 But if you read those first few pages, of the transcript. 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:20.080 Canelis seems to start out pretty confident. He has his 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:22.280 letter he's written up with a bunch of charges against 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.280 the Rangers, and he hands. 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.120 It out to all these important people in the room. 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.000 On the first day of testimony, this big group of 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.880 men shows up to talk. They're all Anglo businessmen and ranchers, 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.840 and they're there to talk about general conditions on the 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:39.520 border and their personal histories with the Rangers. So one 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.400 of the first witnesses Canelis questions is a guy who 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:45.080 runs a car shop in Idelgo County, in a town 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.120 called Mercedes, which is right near the bottom tip of Texas. 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:49.240 He jumps right in. 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.040 You say you live in Mercedes, Yes, sir, you remember 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.120 the incident of the young man that came to Mercedes 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.080 during the Bandit trouble we had in nineteen fifteen on 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.800 the branch train arrived there about noon and was arrested 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:06.840 by rangers. He had his hand in a sling and 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.760 was arrested by rangers and was found dead a few 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:11.000 minutes afterwards. 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:13.319 So here Canalis. 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.920 He's reminding the guy of this case where a wounded 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:18.480 man had come to town for medical help, and because 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.200 the man was of Mexican heritage and had arrived a 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.240 few days after a bandit raid in town where bandits 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:26.880 were injured. He was shot and killed by the rangers, 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:29.920 no questions asked, even though he had nothing to do 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:30.480 with the raid. 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.400 This wounded man. You know, it was a day or 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:37.520 two after the incident that this man arrived at Mercedes 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.160 on the noon train with his hand in a sling 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.920 to see the doctor and was arrested and immediately taken 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.720 out and shot, thinking he was one of those persons 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:47.720 wounded in that. 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.680 And Canalis is kind of like, come on, remember this 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.920 thing that happened, But the car shop owner up on 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.840 the stand says no, multiple times, No. 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:02.000 I never heard of any such case as that. 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.960 And maybe it's then that Canals starts to realize that 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.200 he's not going to be like collectively putting heads together 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.160 with everyone in the room to get to the bottom 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.360 of what's really going on with the rangers. The investigation 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.240 is going to be a fight one version of reality 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:26.240 against another, And for many of the witnesses in those 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:30.120 first few days, their reality of the US Mexico border 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.560 is that it's a violent place. This is an Anglo 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.280 settler from South Texas on the stand being questioned. 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:40.400 Would you be afraid to continue your residence there if 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:41.880 they should abolish the Rangers. 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.240 I think it would be dangerous. I think would start 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:48.240 all over again. The bandits and outlaws across the river 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:50.160 now will come on this side more. 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.040 We were almost terror stricken down there. 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:55.440 We look upon the rangers as more or less of 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:56.800 a godsend. 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:56.920 To our valley. 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.239 They're describing a border region where the rangers are necessary 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:05.560 and Mexicans are outlaws. 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:06.920 One lawyer who. 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:12.280 Testifies says the border is infested with banditry, and Canalis 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:14.560 has a different narrative. He has a lot of evidence 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.800 on his side, stacks of testimonies from people who've written 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:19.160 to him about ranger abuse. 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:21.120 Except there's a catch. 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:25.240 People know that if you bring charges against the Texas Ranger, 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.520 you're likely going to be killed. People know this. 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:35.880 People are too afraid to testify in person. The next 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.640 few days of the trial are just this barrage of witnesses. 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:41.600 Canellis doesn't even get his own witnesses on the stand 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:45.640 for days, and it's not until the seventh day that 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.040 Canalis actually gets someone on the stand who is of 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.160 Mexican heritage a man named Jesus Vireal. 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.080 He's in law enforcement in South Texas, a constable. 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:57.840 Viareal says one day he was driving three men to 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.400 his ranch when a ranger pulled them over. The ranger 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:04.760 interrogated them aggressively, and Villareal tells the story on the stand. 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.879 They got hold of me by the throat, mouth and 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.440 nos and they held me that way about five minutes. 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.240 They told me to speak. I could not speak. 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:17.520 He says. 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.119 The rangers beat them with pistols until they confess to 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:25.600 a crime draft divasion, but that it was a false confession. 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:30.719 I told him there was an untruth. Then the cocked 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.879 pistol was put into my mouth. They told me I 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.240 would tell the truth or they would kill me. 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.720 Via Reel is one of just two Mexican American victims 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.119 of ranger abuse who speak during the investigation, and at 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.159 the end of his testimony, he gets asked to do 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:54.280 this thing to point out his abuser, the man who 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:56.399 he's just told that whole story about. 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:02.040 He's in the room. 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:07.439 The investigation is by all accounts grueling, but janels he 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:09.080 feels like he's doing pretty well. 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:13.240 I think that he wholeheartedly believes that if you show 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.240 the ways in which people are being denied due process, 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:19.560 that that is going to alarm politicians, and so I 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.800 think that he has more faith in American democracy at 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.639 that time that looking at the conditions, looking at the context, 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:27.560 than I would have had. 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.320 But Monique says that there's also this bigger thing that's happening. 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.280 The Ranger investigation is being reported on every day, not 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:39.439 just locally but also nationally. It's read by people who've 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.200 never been to Texas, let alone South Texas. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.280 So people are developing these ideas about what the border is, 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:49.240 what Mexicans are, and because many people have been actually 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:52.600 been there, the people who are testifying or setting the scene. 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.840 Of a place full of Mexican outlaws and horse thieves 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.240 and draft dodgers on the border, the. 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.680 Attorneys create this narrative that there is a crisis on 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:06.359 the border and that Anglos are under threat and that 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:09.960 they are being murdered in mass by Mexicans, which is 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:10.800 not accurate. 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.320 It starts to become evident that that's not an accident. 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.320 It's a strategy paint. 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:21.920 The border as lawless and Mexicans as violent, disloyal and 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:26.600 patriotic and anyone who disagrees probably shouldn't be trusted. 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:35.320 Coming up on Latino USA, the investigation of the Texas 0:19:35.400 --> 0:20:26.160 Rangers is about to get personal. Stay with us, Yes, Hey, 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:32.000 we're back. It's nineteen nineteen and j Di Canales is 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.960 the only member of the Texas State Legislature of Mexican 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:40.639 heritage and he begins a full scale investigation into the 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:44.120 lawless behavior of the Texas Rangers, who have been known 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:48.280 to arrest, torture, or even murder Mexican Americans on the 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:52.080 border with impunity. And in this part of the hearing 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:56.840 things start to heat up. Producer Liza Jeger takes us 0:20:56.880 --> 0:21:01.240 to Austin, Texas and the biggest day of the instigation. 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.399 The Rangers hearing is pretty well publicized. People in Austin 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.720 are paying attention, but there's one moment that's advertised in 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.520 the papers for days beforehand. It's the tenth day of testimony, 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.439 when Canalis himself is slated to take the stand. 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:19.320 People were spilling out of the room trying to watch 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:20.080 what was happening. 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:23.320 It's ten am and Canalis settles into his seat at 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:26.280 the front of the room, poised and smiling, and then 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:27.280 he starts talking. 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:31.840 So he actually starts with a long monologue he gives 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:36.800 he introduces himself to the people in the room, and 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:39.800 really it's like he's introducing himself to the journalists who 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:40.879 are going to be writing about this. 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:44.800 My name is J. T. Canales. I was born in 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.800 the old county of Nuess, state of Texas, very near 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:52.359 to the present town of Kingsville. I am forty two 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:56.359 years old, will be next month. I went to the 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:00.440 public schools of my county, came to Austin and attended 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:01.280 business College. 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.320 He talks about his degrees, his history of service for 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:08.800 the state, and Canalis. He's being strategic here, like, come on, 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:10.200 you guys, we're on the same team. 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:11.800 We're all from the same world. 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:17.040 He was lighter skinned, his wife was anglow, and so 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:21.480 he very much is trying to align himself in terms 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:25.720 of his family history and his political work with the 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:28.879 other men, the other white men who are in the 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:29.919 Texas legislature. 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.159 He starts narrating how he feels like the Rangers for 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:36.280 almost one hundred years were this great heroic force. 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.080 They were a capable set of men and did not 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:42.639 need any restriction because their own conscience was a self 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:44.080 restraint and law. 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:46.960 But that little by little they've gone rotten. 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:51.560 In nineteen fifteen, so far as my recollection goes, is 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:55.240 when the first general outrages perpetrated by Rangers began. 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:58.840 He explains that bandit raids on the border increased because 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:02.760 of economic instability after the Mexican revelation, and then he 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:06.000 spends the next two and a half hours explaining how 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:08.720 the Rangers have come to violate the people's trust as 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:09.480 law enforcement. 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:12.159 Are you ready for the cross examination? 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:16.000 And then it's time for questions. The Rangers lawyer, this 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:20.280 man named Robert E. Lee Knight, gets up mister Canalis 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:24.280 and he starts grilling Canalis mostly about his motives. 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:26.800 Have you not consciously or do you think it is 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:30.920 possible unconsciously permitted yourself to be worked into a condition 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:35.000 where you are prone to the outrageous perpetrated and magnify 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.440 the casual mistakes of those struggling with the situation down there? 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:40.080 About what you have testified? 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:43.359 Okay, So what's happening here is he's asking this really 0:23:43.560 --> 0:23:47.320 roundabout question where he's basically saying, don't you have an 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:48.000