1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:05,600 Speaker 1: Or La Latino USA listener, it's Mariaino Hosa. Today, we 2 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:08,479 Speaker 1: wanted to bring you a podcast that we're listening to 3 00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: and that we think you also might find interesting. It's 4 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:18,200 Speaker 1: called White Hats and it's by Texas Monthly. The podcast 5 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:22,440 Speaker 1: is a deep dive into the Texas Rangers. No, no, no, 6 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:26,479 Speaker 1: not the baseball team. I'm talking about the criminal investigative Unit. 7 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:31,639 Speaker 1: And next year, these Texas Rangers will turn two hundred 8 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:36,320 Speaker 1: years old. For many Texans, the Texas Rangers have been 9 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:40,840 Speaker 1: a symbol of justice and protection, but the Rangers also 10 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:45,839 Speaker 1: have a haunting dark side of violence that's part of them, 11 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: particularly towards Mexicans and Mexican Americans. 12 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:56,200 Speaker 2: Through several episodes, podcast host Jack Errera explores the Rangers 13 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 2: true place in Texas history. All right, here's the first 14 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:02,920 Speaker 2: episode of White. 15 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 3: Ats in Texas Monthly. Without overdoing it, I have to 16 00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:29,319 Speaker 3: think that there might be some metaphor here. I'm trying 17 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:32,440 Speaker 3: to get back to this history, to understand it, figure 18 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:36,679 Speaker 3: out a path forward, and in both directions, it's a 19 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 3: tricky road. And where I'm standing right now, it's just 20 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:46,319 Speaker 3: completely washed away. I'm close to this history. I feel 21 00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 3: close to it. But there's those last five miles of 22 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 3: mud and boulders and washed out road between me and 23 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:58,360 Speaker 3: what I'm trying to get to, and I'm trying to understand. 24 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 3: I've got to drive my truck across the stream now 25 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 3: and head up about twenty miles of dirt road and 26 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:13,400 Speaker 3: get back to the highway and back to the marker 27 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:22,079 Speaker 3: that does remember the people who died here. 28 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:48,120 Speaker 4: Oh, when you grow up in Texas, you're raised on 29 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:49,840 Speaker 4: the symbols that define this place. 30 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:53,760 Speaker 3: The heroes of the Alamo Wildcatters in the oil fields, 31 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:58,680 Speaker 3: and the Texas Rangers. No, not the baseball team. Instead, 32 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 3: picture this a stoic, steely eyed man with a silver 33 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 3: star pinned onto his shirt. He's on horseback, riding through 34 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:12,160 Speaker 3: brushland or mesquite or limestone canyons, and he's wearing a 35 00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 3: white stetson hat. The whole idea of the Western hero, 36 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:20,400 Speaker 3: that cowboy lawman, was born in large part from the Rangers' 37 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:24,520 Speaker 3: true stories. The Rangers were created almost exactly two hundred 38 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 3: years ago by Stephen F. Austin, the leader of the 39 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,280 Speaker 3: first Anglo settlers here. These original Rangers, a scrappy group 40 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:33,800 Speaker 3: of ten adventurers men would become some of the great 41 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:38,080 Speaker 3: icons of the American West. Rangers rode in the battle 42 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,680 Speaker 3: against the Comanche. They helped Texas wage award a secession 43 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:44,680 Speaker 3: against Mexico and later a war a secession against the 44 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:47,960 Speaker 3: United States. They were among the men who finally brought 45 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 3: out laws like Bonnie and Clyde to justice. And they're 46 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:53,080 Speaker 3: not just a vision from the past. 47 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 5: One Riot, one Ranger is still prophetic and still true today. 48 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 5: They are able to do the tremendous job they do 49 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 5: because each one of them is is thaoroughly skilled and 50 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:07,480 Speaker 5: art of scientific kind of investigation. 51 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 6: It guess we'll start up Baju mist Gacion delivery Texas 52 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 6: Rangers or. 53 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 3: So as you report the Texas Rangers. They've taken over 54 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 3: this investigation. The FBI is getting involved. 55 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:20,200 Speaker 5: In the Texas Rangers, not the baseball team, the police, 56 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:21,320 Speaker 5: the Texas Rangers. 57 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:22,480 Speaker 6: No, they're not the police. 58 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:23,760 Speaker 3: They're different from the police. 59 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 6: Okay, Texas Rangers. 60 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 7: That's a whole nother level. 61 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 5: They ride horses and stuff, don't they And they wear 62 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:29,760 Speaker 5: cowboy hats and they have a star. 63 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,160 Speaker 3: Today's Rangers tend to ride trucks, not horses, and their 64 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:37,160 Speaker 3: guns hold a lot more than six bullets, but they 65 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:40,920 Speaker 3: still turn up wherever they're needed anywhere in Texas. Texans 66 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,880 Speaker 3: know that when the White Hats arrived, things are serious. 67 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:45,360 Speaker 3: Heads turned when. 68 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:46,360 Speaker 7: They enter a room. 69 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,040 Speaker 3: When you remember that our state is just one hundred 70 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,000 Speaker 3: and seventy seven years old, you realize that the Rangers 71 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 3: are actually older than Texas. They were founded when Texas 72 00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:58,800 Speaker 3: was still just an idea, and they were the men 73 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 3: sent out to fight Texas a reality at any cost. 74 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:07,640 Speaker 3: From Texas Monthly, This is White Hats, the story of 75 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 3: the legendary Texas Rangers and a struggle for the soul 76 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:16,560 Speaker 3: of Texas. I'm your host, Jack Arera. Over the next 77 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 3: six episodes, we're going to dive into a history of 78 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:23,279 Speaker 3: manheunts and battles. But if you're from Texas, you know 79 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:27,480 Speaker 3: that in this state, telling history is a battle. From 80 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:30,360 Speaker 3: school textbooks to the Alamo itself. We are in the 81 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:33,000 Speaker 3: midst of a bitter fight over how to remember where 82 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,160 Speaker 3: we came from, and the legacy of the Texas Rangers 83 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 3: is where one line in the sand has been drawn. 84 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:43,600 Speaker 3: In the last few years, new research and mass protests 85 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:47,039 Speaker 3: against racist policing have sparked a popular reckoning with the 86 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:50,640 Speaker 3: Rangers history. In twenty twenty, the city of Dallas even 87 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:55,040 Speaker 3: took down a statue of a Ranger. But now Ranger 88 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:57,960 Speaker 3: supporters are hard at work raising money for new monuments 89 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:02,120 Speaker 3: and next year a milestone in their history, the two 90 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:05,520 Speaker 3: hundredth anniversary, with parties and ceremonies. 91 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:05,719 Speaker 7: All over the state. 92 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:09,520 Speaker 3: It's hard to overstate how important the Rangers are to 93 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:13,600 Speaker 3: some Texans, but to other Texans, that legacy is darker. 94 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:19,000 Speaker 3: In Dahanock communities, old songs goridos tell haunting stories of 95 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:22,360 Speaker 3: Los Rincez, the men in the white hats who kill Mexicans. 96 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:27,080 Speaker 3: My grandma grew up in a Mexican neighborhood in San Antonio. 97 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:30,200 Speaker 3: She told me that growing up, her parents taught her 98 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:34,680 Speaker 3: to fear the Rangers. A white hat meant run. I'm 99 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:37,159 Speaker 3: not from San Antonio, though I grew up on the 100 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:39,159 Speaker 3: West Coast, but I moved here to report on the 101 00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:43,240 Speaker 3: border for Texas Monthly. I may be yet another Galifornian 102 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:46,520 Speaker 3: in Texas, but I'm drawn to this state for specific reason. 103 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:50,080 Speaker 3: My family has been on this land longer than Texas 104 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:53,760 Speaker 3: has been Texas. Heras have lived in South Texas since 105 00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 3: the seventeen hundreds in Laredo and San Antonio. And when 106 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 3: I think of what the Rangers mean to people here, 107 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:04,800 Speaker 3: I think about my grandfather yet Amada at home in 108 00:07:04,839 --> 00:07:07,440 Speaker 3: San Antonio or out on his ranch in Falls City. 109 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,640 Speaker 3: My memories of him have the soundtrack of an old Western. 110 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:15,840 Speaker 6: Movie when things look bad and it looks like you're 111 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 6: not gonna make it, and you gotta give. 112 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 3: Me, because that's usually what he had on. 113 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 7: When a man with a forty five meets a man 114 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 7: with a rifle. 115 00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:24,880 Speaker 3: You said, the man with a pistol is a dead man. 116 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:27,680 Speaker 3: A fistful of dollars, the good, the bad, and the 117 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:36,280 Speaker 3: ugly job. His favorite was the Outlaw Josie Way, like you're. 118 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:38,240 Speaker 7: Gonna pull those pistols, Whistle Dixie. 119 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:41,840 Speaker 3: That one ends with a pair of Texas Rangers riding 120 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:45,280 Speaker 3: off out of town. That was my first time learning 121 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 3: about who they were, and the Rangers appeared in plenty 122 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:49,240 Speaker 3: of other movies too. 123 00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:50,280 Speaker 7: Rangers. 124 00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 3: Actually, when you start looking for them. 125 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:53,960 Speaker 6: Our mission is to stop the outlaw. 126 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,240 Speaker 3: You start seeing the Rangers everywhere. That's right, I'm a 127 00:07:57,280 --> 00:07:58,040 Speaker 3: Texas Ranger. 128 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:03,560 Speaker 5: The Texas Ranger freshis alone. Render Pull it in. 129 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 3: You're sitting on my Grandpa's living room couch. I remember 130 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:14,640 Speaker 3: feeling excited when he told me that the Rangers still existed. 131 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:18,120 Speaker 3: I'd come from the suburbs in California, and I was 132 00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:21,080 Speaker 3: amazed to think that some version of that old Texas 133 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:24,360 Speaker 3: still existed, a place of six shooters and horses and 134 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:31,040 Speaker 3: adventure and grit. The Ranger's charisma is undeniable. They offer 135 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:34,160 Speaker 3: a vision of Texans who are righteous and self reliant, 136 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:37,600 Speaker 3: principled and powerful. I think we'd all like to think 137 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:40,240 Speaker 3: of ourselves that way. But as much as I want 138 00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:43,199 Speaker 3: to believe in that legend, it's been hard to live 139 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:47,360 Speaker 3: here today and not feel some ambivalence about the Rangers. 140 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:50,960 Speaker 3: One of the most consistent fantasies in old Westerns is 141 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,800 Speaker 3: the idea of good guys and bad guys. I've been 142 00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:57,160 Speaker 3: a reporter long enough to know that a story is 143 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:00,280 Speaker 3: pretty much never that simple. While the Rangers really have 144 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:04,040 Speaker 3: saved lives and have shown singular bravery, their history is 145 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 3: also complicated and bloody. In their history, the Rangers killed 146 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:13,320 Speaker 3: hundreds of Mexicans and Mexican Americans. In one particularly brutal 147 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:16,960 Speaker 3: massacre in Far West Texas, Rangers executed a group of 148 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:20,880 Speaker 3: fifteen men in the village of Porvenier, including some teenage boys. 149 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:24,680 Speaker 3: Earlier this year, I traveled out to the desert to 150 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:28,520 Speaker 3: stand on the ground but Porvenir once stood. On a 151 00:09:28,559 --> 00:09:31,120 Speaker 3: small marker on the highway near the site, I read 152 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,240 Speaker 3: the names of the dead. Three of them shared my name, 153 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:42,600 Speaker 3: Pedro Errera, Vivian Errera, and Severiano Errera. I don't think 154 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:46,160 Speaker 3: those Erreras were my ancestors, but reading their names on 155 00:09:46,200 --> 00:09:50,360 Speaker 3: the marker made me realize something. My grandfather, Yedemo, who 156 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:53,079 Speaker 3: always dreamed of being a cowboy or a lawman out 157 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 3: on the range, probably would not have been the ranger 158 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:59,600 Speaker 3: holding that gun. He would have been the man staring 159 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:04,440 Speaker 3: down the other side of the barrel. This is episode 160 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:15,360 Speaker 3: one Rangers and Riches. This show started with a former 161 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:19,600 Speaker 3: colleague of mine here at Texas Monthly, Kat Caranas. When 162 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:22,679 Speaker 3: I moved to Texas, Kat completely changed the way I 163 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:26,000 Speaker 3: understood the Texas Rangers. There was a whole hidden history. 164 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:29,040 Speaker 3: I had never heard about a history of Rangers murdering 165 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 3: people with names like Carnas, and I needed to get 166 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:36,319 Speaker 3: my head around this to see how the official story 167 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:39,240 Speaker 3: of the Rangers compares the stories I've heard from families 168 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:42,679 Speaker 3: in the Rio Grande Valley and I'll passo. We decided 169 00:10:42,679 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 3: to start at a museum. 170 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:47,200 Speaker 8: I mean, you have to like make conscious choices when 171 00:10:47,240 --> 00:10:52,040 Speaker 8: you are curating a museum. Yeah, so, I mean I 172 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:55,280 Speaker 8: think it'll say a lot about how they view themselves 173 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:57,120 Speaker 8: or what they've chosen to put on display. 174 00:10:57,160 --> 00:11:00,160 Speaker 3: Here, Cat and I drove to the Texas Ranger All 175 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:03,920 Speaker 3: of Fame and Museum in Waco starting The museum houses 176 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 3: the Rangers official archives, but it's also a roadside attraction 177 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:08,959 Speaker 3: built for kids and tourists. 178 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 9: That's that's where this process of deciding who we are 179 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:13,319 Speaker 9: and what our history is like, it becomes this very 180 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:16,120 Speaker 9: overt and obvious like here, here's who the heroes are, 181 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:17,480 Speaker 9: Here's where the bad guys are. 182 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:22,600 Speaker 8: It's undeniable how important the Texas Rangers are to the 183 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,920 Speaker 8: legend of Texas, into the history of Texas. I want 184 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:30,120 Speaker 8: to learn more about how that has impacted the Mexican 185 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:32,520 Speaker 8: American community, and I want to learn more about the 186 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:36,199 Speaker 8: people that we didn't get to learn about in school. 187 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:40,319 Speaker 3: Moving to Texas, It's been easy to learn about the Rangers, 188 00:11:40,679 --> 00:11:43,640 Speaker 3: their museums built for them, but it's been much harder 189 00:11:43,679 --> 00:11:46,199 Speaker 3: to learn about the history of people like my ancestors 190 00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:49,040 Speaker 3: or cats. My grandfather said something to me once, like 191 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:51,640 Speaker 3: when he's talking about the family history, where he says 192 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:53,640 Speaker 3: like he's like, you know, that's. 193 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:57,199 Speaker 10: Very much like a meal moment, you know, like I don't. 194 00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,959 Speaker 9: Care like if they were horse thieves or they were noble, 195 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:01,360 Speaker 9: Like I really just want to know who they were. 196 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:04,480 Speaker 8: I think that's just kind of the overarching feeling of 197 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:09,600 Speaker 8: growing up here and being a Mexican American is that 198 00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 8: you like simultaneously feel such an attachment to this place 199 00:12:13,679 --> 00:12:16,640 Speaker 8: and then you just feel such a disconnect because you're 200 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:19,800 Speaker 8: not really given the same amount of information on your 201 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:22,280 Speaker 8: own people. And it's such a great state, but it's 202 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:23,680 Speaker 8: like where am I and all this? 203 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:33,439 Speaker 3: When I swung open the heavy door at the Ranging Museum, 204 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:35,679 Speaker 3: one of the first things I noticed were these mannequins 205 00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:39,319 Speaker 3: dressed in broadcloths and boots stand ins for the Motley 206 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 3: uniform that the early rangers wore. 207 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:44,480 Speaker 10: We're turning with the tens of monthly meeting with the 208 00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:45,080 Speaker 10: firing nts. 209 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:50,920 Speaker 3: Kids and their parents were wandering around the different rooms 210 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:53,040 Speaker 3: and I could hear them calling out to each other 211 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:54,240 Speaker 3: from the different exhibits. 212 00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:56,280 Speaker 8: I feel like I should have a backback right now. 213 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:03,040 Speaker 3: We had an appointment for a tour with the museum's director. 214 00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:07,000 Speaker 5: All right, you want to come back, and we can 215 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:10,200 Speaker 5: tire about where they need to then we can go through. 216 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:13,000 Speaker 3: We sit down in his office, which is kind of 217 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,760 Speaker 3: a museum of its own. The walls are wood paneled, 218 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:18,559 Speaker 3: and it has the shabby charisma of a farmhouse or 219 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:19,080 Speaker 3: a cabin. 220 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:23,120 Speaker 5: This was the old Ranger headquarters here, this was the 221 00:13:23,160 --> 00:13:25,719 Speaker 5: captain's office. We haven't done a whole lot to it, 222 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:28,920 Speaker 5: because long after I'm gone, they may decide in the 223 00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:31,040 Speaker 5: future they want to turn this back into what a 224 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 5: Ranger office look like in the nineteen sixties. 225 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:36,520 Speaker 3: Byron doesn't come out of the Rangers' ranks. He spent 226 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:39,199 Speaker 3: his career in museums like this one. Before he came 227 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:41,839 Speaker 3: here in the nineties, he ran local history museums in 228 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:45,200 Speaker 3: Albuquerque and Tampa. He takes a long view of this 229 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:48,160 Speaker 3: history and he wants the museum to tell the whole 230 00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:51,720 Speaker 3: story of the Rangers, even the difficult parts. But that's 231 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:53,960 Speaker 3: a tough line to walk because this place isn't just 232 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:56,920 Speaker 3: a museum. It's also a hall of fame, and it's 233 00:13:56,960 --> 00:13:59,200 Speaker 3: been attracting tourists since nineteen sixty eight. 234 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:02,920 Speaker 5: When I thirty five was being built, the city wanted 235 00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:06,640 Speaker 5: a high quality attraction to get people off the freeway. 236 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:10,160 Speaker 5: You know. They didn't want to see what you usually 237 00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:12,960 Speaker 5: saw in Arizona, which is something that said stop see 238 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:16,200 Speaker 5: the live snakes or something like that. They wanted something 239 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:17,080 Speaker 5: of importance. 240 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:19,960 Speaker 3: Byron says that people still come from as far as 241 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:22,120 Speaker 3: Kyrgyzstan to learn about the Rangers. 242 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:24,880 Speaker 5: And since the doors have opened, we've had over four 243 00:14:24,880 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 5: and a half million people. 244 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:29,840 Speaker 3: Four and a half million people to a roadside museum. 245 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:33,240 Speaker 3: What are all those people coming for. It's interesting to 246 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:36,280 Speaker 3: have a history museum for an agency that still exists. 247 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:40,200 Speaker 3: Real life Texas Rangers still walk the earth today, solving 248 00:14:40,280 --> 00:14:44,080 Speaker 3: murders and missing person cases in white collar crimes. I've 249 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:46,600 Speaker 3: heard people say they're a lot like the FBI, but 250 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:49,640 Speaker 3: for Texas today there are one hundred and sixty six 251 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:52,800 Speaker 3: Rangers serving the state's two hundred and fifty four counties. 252 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:56,840 Speaker 3: Company f the Ranger division that covers Central Texas is 253 00:14:56,880 --> 00:15:00,760 Speaker 3: actually headquartered just behind where we're sitting. But I think 254 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:03,240 Speaker 3: most people come to the museum for the Rangers history, 255 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:07,320 Speaker 3: the wild West, allure of their earliest days, both real 256 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:08,640 Speaker 3: and imagined. 257 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 5: One of the things that I asked rotary clubs and 258 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:14,480 Speaker 5: quantis clubs and things like that that I'm speaking to 259 00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:19,640 Speaker 5: is what is the largest entertainment franchise out there? And 260 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:21,520 Speaker 5: of course right now, everybody says, oh. 261 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:22,040 Speaker 6: It's Marvel. 262 00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:25,040 Speaker 5: You know they have twenty eight movies, and I said, well, 263 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:29,480 Speaker 5: not quite. There have been over two hundred and thirty 264 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:32,720 Speaker 5: movies made about the Texas Rangers with a major character 265 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:34,400 Speaker 5: going back to nineteen ten. 266 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:38,360 Speaker 3: There weren't many movies made about anything before nineteen ten. 267 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:41,400 Speaker 3: The first Lone Rangers show aired on the radio in 268 00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:44,920 Speaker 3: nineteen thirty three and on TV in nineteen forty nine. 269 00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:47,920 Speaker 3: In other words, pretty much as soon as we started 270 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:51,240 Speaker 3: telling stories in any new medium, there were stories about 271 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:54,280 Speaker 3: the Texas Rangers. Byron told us that there are as 272 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:57,400 Speaker 3: many as four thousand books about the Rangers, and the 273 00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:00,760 Speaker 3: first was printed in the eighteen forties. That's just two 274 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:04,880 Speaker 3: decades after they were created. The Rangers have always had fans, 275 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:07,560 Speaker 3: which you see in the flashiest part of the museum, 276 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:11,120 Speaker 3: a room filled with Rangers memorabilia. 277 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:13,720 Speaker 11: A bunch of lunchboxes with Lone Ranger on it, Lone 278 00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:19,920 Speaker 11: Matter flashlights, little figurines, or rubber ducky Hio silver kerchief 279 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:22,359 Speaker 11: with a certificate of authenticity. 280 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:25,560 Speaker 3: It's a whole fandom. It reminds me of a friend 281 00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:28,720 Speaker 3: I know who collects Star Trek action figures. There are 282 00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:32,440 Speaker 3: toy badges from the old Lone Rangers Kids Club, even 283 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,040 Speaker 3: a doll of Shirley Temple dressed as a Texas Ranger. 284 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 5: This case is on Walker Texas Ranger, which everybody knows. 285 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:43,560 Speaker 5: We have a pair of Chuck Norris's theatrical pistols which 286 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:45,320 Speaker 5: are cast resin. 287 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:48,040 Speaker 3: He pointed out the belt buckle that Chuck Norris wore 288 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:50,360 Speaker 3: in the show, which he said came from the museum's 289 00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:54,560 Speaker 3: gift shop. But I could hear in Byron's voice, And honestly, 290 00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:56,680 Speaker 3: this has come up a lot in my reporting that 291 00:16:56,760 --> 00:16:58,640 Speaker 3: as someone who's concerned with the real history of the 292 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:02,560 Speaker 3: Texas Rangers, he has a complicated relationship with Hollywood. 293 00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:05,800 Speaker 5: We wound up working with them on how to real 294 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:09,000 Speaker 5: Texas Rangers actually operate and what do they do, et cetera, 295 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:12,399 Speaker 5: et cetera. Well, like most theatrical productions, they listened to 296 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,359 Speaker 5: us very politely and then basically did what they wanted 297 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:15,760 Speaker 5: to do. 298 00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:19,119 Speaker 3: Hollywood has been obsessed with telling Ranger stories for a 299 00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:22,680 Speaker 3: long time, and here's the thing. So of the Rangers, 300 00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:25,359 Speaker 3: they've always loved telling their own tall tales. 301 00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:29,399 Speaker 5: This is probably the most treasured single item we have 302 00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:32,320 Speaker 5: in the museum. With one of the more interesting stories. 303 00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:34,240 Speaker 3: Of this Byron led us to a large framed oil 304 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:37,000 Speaker 3: painting of a young man in a brown animal skin 305 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:40,200 Speaker 3: FRONTI your shirt and he's sitting on these rocks, reclining 306 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:42,520 Speaker 3: on a scenic precipice with his rifle at the ready. 307 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:47,119 Speaker 5: This is Jack Hayes, who was the best arguably the 308 00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:50,480 Speaker 5: best known Ranger commander in the eighteen forties. 309 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:55,879 Speaker 3: The stories about Jack Hayes are wild. He once charged 310 00:17:55,920 --> 00:17:59,200 Speaker 3: headlong into a whole group of Commanson Warriors running side 311 00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:02,479 Speaker 3: by side with the by Apachi Chi Flacco. There are 312 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:06,120 Speaker 3: other tall tales, including a famous shootout where Hayes apparently 313 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:10,080 Speaker 3: fended off four score of Commanche warriors entirely by himself 314 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:13,560 Speaker 3: by get this, climbing to the top of a huge rock. 315 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:17,919 Speaker 3: Hayes commissioned this portrait of himself, which shows him in 316 00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:20,359 Speaker 3: the midst of that shootout and the rugged country outside 317 00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:23,960 Speaker 3: of San Antonio. Here, I gotta be honest. My producer 318 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:26,600 Speaker 3: Patrick and I cracked up when we saw it. There's 319 00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:29,600 Speaker 3: what looks like a giant ocean behind Hayes, as if 320 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,480 Speaker 3: he's standing on a cliff in northern California, where Patrick 321 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:35,399 Speaker 3: and I both grew up. Unless there have been a 322 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:38,200 Speaker 3: biblical flood in the Texas Hill country in eighteen forty one. 323 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:43,080 Speaker 3: The painting takes some liberties. Hayes made a name for 324 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:46,119 Speaker 3: himself fighting not just for Texas but for the US. 325 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,360 Speaker 3: When the Mexican American War broke out in the eighteen forties, 326 00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:54,239 Speaker 3: the Mexican army was formidable, well trained, well equipped, and 327 00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:58,680 Speaker 3: backed by mercenaries from Europe. This was rugged frontier warfare, 328 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:01,200 Speaker 3: just the kind of war for Hayes and the other 329 00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:05,960 Speaker 3: Rangers in Texas. They developed a novel strategy. Instead of 330 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:09,200 Speaker 3: lugging a cannon behind them, the rangers rode on horseback, 331 00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:12,959 Speaker 3: traveling light with state of the art repeating guns, and 332 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:16,560 Speaker 3: they volunteered to join the fight. In Mexico. Military leaders 333 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:19,480 Speaker 3: like Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee saw them 334 00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:23,000 Speaker 3: in action. It would revolutionize the way the US fought wars. 335 00:19:24,119 --> 00:19:29,840 Speaker 5: Hayes because it was the first war with embedded reporters anywhere, 336 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:35,280 Speaker 5: Hayes became literally a household name in the United States. 337 00:19:35,320 --> 00:19:38,040 Speaker 5: He was in every newspaper and everything else. 338 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:42,360 Speaker 3: After the war, Hayes kept on chasing adventure, which took 339 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:45,320 Speaker 3: him to the California Gold Rush. He ran for sheriff 340 00:19:45,359 --> 00:19:48,159 Speaker 3: of San Francisco County, and that's where this painting in 341 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:50,399 Speaker 3: front of us came from. It was sort of his 342 00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:54,399 Speaker 3: campaign boaster, which might explain why the background looks so Californian. 343 00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:57,880 Speaker 3: But Byron sounded a little skeptical. 344 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:00,720 Speaker 5: And he fought off eighty comanches with the single shot 345 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:03,040 Speaker 5: pistol and a rifle, which if you believe that, when 346 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:04,439 Speaker 5: I have some swamp land for you. 347 00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:08,280 Speaker 3: But it became whatever he was selling, San Franciscans bought it. 348 00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:11,679 Speaker 3: Look it up. The first sheriff of San Francisco County 349 00:20:12,119 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 3: and a founder of the city of Oakland, by the way, 350 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:15,639 Speaker 3: was a Texas ranger. 351 00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:19,040 Speaker 5: It's amazing. Let's go over here and talk about one 352 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:22,440 Speaker 5: of the more interesting modern twentieth century rangers. 353 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:25,760 Speaker 3: A few months before our visit, the museum received a 354 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:28,960 Speaker 3: collection of artifacts from another ranger with his own dramatic stories. 355 00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:32,880 Speaker 5: We have two of his pistols. They have gold inlay 356 00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:36,840 Speaker 5: over them, they have ivory handles. They have in large 357 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:40,119 Speaker 5: gold letters his initials MTG. 358 00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:43,280 Speaker 3: It's almost funny how over the top of these guns look. 359 00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:47,520 Speaker 3: They look like movie props, every gangster's dream, but they're 360 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:51,879 Speaker 3: the actual guns of Texas Ranger Manuel Lone Wolf Gonzalez. 361 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,320 Speaker 5: And Manuel Gonzalez was arguably one of the most famous 362 00:20:55,400 --> 00:21:00,480 Speaker 5: rangers of the twentieth century. He served in East Exis 363 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,800 Speaker 5: during Prohibition, and in many cases he was the only 364 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:05,679 Speaker 5: law enforcement in the entire area. 365 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:09,440 Speaker 3: Gonzalez was born in Spain and served about a quarter 366 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:12,280 Speaker 3: century in the Rangers before going on to Hollywood, where 367 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:14,600 Speaker 3: he taught movie stars how to walk and talk like 368 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:18,560 Speaker 3: a ranger. In nineteen seventy, when Gonzalez was nearly eighty 369 00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:21,840 Speaker 3: years old, a wax museum in Dallas debuted a life 370 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:26,200 Speaker 3: size statue of him. The local TV station WFAA came 371 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:28,840 Speaker 3: out to cover it, and Gonzales treated them to some 372 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:29,720 Speaker 3: old war stories. 373 00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:32,600 Speaker 12: As I put my hand on him, he was playing 374 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:35,199 Speaker 12: possum and he had his right hand laying down alongside 375 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,400 Speaker 12: of him, and he raised it up and he had 376 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:41,480 Speaker 12: a thirty eight and he shot me, and the bullet 377 00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:46,399 Speaker 12: hit me dis above the heart and ranged up and 378 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:49,960 Speaker 12: tore my good suit of clothes. But it scared the 379 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:54,040 Speaker 12: hell out of me, and of course I naturally into 380 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:58,159 Speaker 12: self defense. I emptied my left fistol into him. That 381 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:01,440 Speaker 12: was the end of this, All. 382 00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:02,000 Speaker 3: Right, let's go. 383 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:03,920 Speaker 5: I can take you through here. 384 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:07,720 Speaker 3: The Rangers Museum isn't larger fancy. There's nothing in it 385 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:10,199 Speaker 3: that will truly take your breath away, but there's a 386 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:13,199 Speaker 3: romance to it all, from the leather saddles to the 387 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,160 Speaker 3: old paintings of Southwest landscapes. Byron showed us different Ranger 388 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:20,720 Speaker 3: badges from over the centuries, the famous silver stars, which 389 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,199 Speaker 3: to this day get hammered out from Mexican sincopeso coins. 390 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,040 Speaker 3: I even got the hold a replica of an old 391 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:28,080 Speaker 3: Colt Walker revolver. 392 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:32,040 Speaker 5: They're kind of the holy rail for firearms collectors these days. 393 00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:33,120 Speaker 10: Did you pick one of those? 394 00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:36,480 Speaker 6: Yeah, they're pretty heavy. 395 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,280 Speaker 10: Yeah, that is two of those in your hand like 396 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 10: in the movie. 397 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:42,000 Speaker 7: That a rifle. 398 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,320 Speaker 3: But we weren't just there for fun. Kad had a 399 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 3: question for Byron earlier when. 400 00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:52,399 Speaker 8: You mentioned, like all law enforcement agencies, there are, you know, 401 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:54,600 Speaker 8: these big achievements that they have and then also darker 402 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:57,760 Speaker 8: aspects of their history. How does the museum go about 403 00:22:58,000 --> 00:22:59,880 Speaker 8: kind of incorporating both of those. 404 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,240 Speaker 3: Cat and I had wondered whether they'd get into the 405 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:04,840 Speaker 3: rangers violence against Mexicans. 406 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:07,800 Speaker 5: We have some excebbits up on things like the Porvenir 407 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:09,960 Speaker 5: massacre and some of the other things that happened on 408 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,679 Speaker 5: the border now, but they're not what they should be 409 00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,560 Speaker 5: in size about Porvenir. 410 00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:19,240 Speaker 3: They only have one placard in an otherwise positive exhibit 411 00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,440 Speaker 3: about Rangers on the border. A cart inside that exhibit 412 00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:25,840 Speaker 3: said it's not clear whether Porvenir was a massacre or 413 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:29,040 Speaker 3: a firefight. It says, it's also unclear if it was 414 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:31,960 Speaker 3: rangers who fired the shots that killed those men, including 415 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:35,560 Speaker 3: those three eras, but there is no doubt it was 416 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,560 Speaker 3: the rangers. It felt like the museum was shying away 417 00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:41,399 Speaker 3: from telling the whole story, maybe even letting the Rangers 418 00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:45,080 Speaker 3: off the hook. Byron says it's been hard to figure 419 00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:48,040 Speaker 3: out how to fit these brutal stories about the Rangers 420 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:51,159 Speaker 3: into a museum that's also a hall of fame, a 421 00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:52,200 Speaker 3: place of celebration. 422 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:55,399 Speaker 5: When I got here in nineteen ninety six, there was 423 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:57,840 Speaker 5: none of the balance in place. I mean, the place 424 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:01,800 Speaker 5: basically was just it was told one side of the 425 00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:02,880 Speaker 5: story and that was it. 426 00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 3: Byron says they have plans to expand and he wants 427 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:08,919 Speaker 3: to use the new space to tell a more balanced history. 428 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,480 Speaker 3: But as of today, pretty much every inch of the 429 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:16,000 Speaker 3: museum celebrates the Rangers, and there's almost no mention of 430 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:17,800 Speaker 3: their violence against Mexican Americans. 431 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:21,240 Speaker 9: And I just good to hear him say, like, you know, 432 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:23,439 Speaker 9: is he doing Is the museum doing enough to reflect 433 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 9: that now? 434 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:23,960 Speaker 11: No? 435 00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:25,640 Speaker 10: And I think that I'm. 436 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:27,760 Speaker 9: Glad he knows that, because it's very obvious to me 437 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:30,800 Speaker 9: that this museum is really focused on the heroes and 438 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:34,160 Speaker 9: the exploits which do exist and are you know, fascinating 439 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,560 Speaker 9: to read about as a museum goer, But it really 440 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:38,480 Speaker 9: isn't the full picture of the Texas Rangers. 441 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:43,359 Speaker 3: Yeah, we talked more on the way home. It hadn't 442 00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 3: been surprising that the museum ignored stories of Texans who 443 00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 3: had been terrorized by the Rangers, the stories of the 444 00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:53,320 Speaker 3: Hanos and Mexicanos like my family, but I was surprised 445 00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:55,960 Speaker 3: by how it made me feel Gott and I were 446 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:57,360 Speaker 3: in bad moods on the drive back. 447 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:02,679 Speaker 8: I think when you're a little kid, there's generally like 448 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:07,600 Speaker 8: the narrative of like good guys versus bad guys, and 449 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:09,960 Speaker 8: like when you're playing pretend and you're doing like little 450 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:14,879 Speaker 8: sharp shooter things like knocking cans over whatever. Like that's 451 00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:17,440 Speaker 8: like a fun thing for kids to think about because 452 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:19,919 Speaker 8: it's very binary and easy to understand good versus evil, 453 00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,439 Speaker 8: And the Rangers Museum feels like it doesn't really go 454 00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:27,200 Speaker 8: past that very much of like, these are the good guys. 455 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,680 Speaker 8: Let's not ask too many questions about the bad guys, 456 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:33,280 Speaker 8: quote unquote, and let's not ask too many questions about 457 00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:35,200 Speaker 8: if the Rangers were ever the bad guys. 458 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:47,760 Speaker 7: Yeah, when you. 459 00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:50,520 Speaker 3: Can go straighter love, This is Trinidad, Gonzales. 460 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:54,280 Speaker 6: In fact, my grandfather, my grandmother, and my dad are 461 00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:57,640 Speaker 6: buried over here at this side of the cemetery. My 462 00:25:57,640 --> 00:25:59,119 Speaker 6: my brother's ashes were spread. 463 00:25:58,840 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 5: There as well. 464 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:03,439 Speaker 3: He teaches history in Mexican American Studies at South Texas College. 465 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,720 Speaker 3: Today we're in a cemetery in Edinburgh, about twenty miles 466 00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:11,000 Speaker 3: from the Mexican border. Journey specializes in the history of 467 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,000 Speaker 3: this area the Borderlands where he was born and raised. 468 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:17,359 Speaker 3: On the way to the cemetery, we drove through his 469 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,239 Speaker 3: old neighborhood. He pointed out the park where he used 470 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:23,480 Speaker 3: to get into fights, and as we got closer, he 471 00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:25,600 Speaker 3: showed me the field where he used to play baseball. 472 00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:28,680 Speaker 3: He says, when a hearse would drive by Keen, his 473 00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:31,280 Speaker 3: friends would pause the game and hold their hats over 474 00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:37,440 Speaker 3: their hearts. As a funeral procession slowly passed here among 475 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,320 Speaker 3: the headstones on a hot morning in Edinburgh, he wanted 476 00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:44,439 Speaker 3: to tell me about his own history. 477 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:49,880 Speaker 6: We're at Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery in Edinburgh, Texas, and we're 478 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:54,160 Speaker 6: in the section where my great grandmother, Sometle Scumball is buried, 479 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,359 Speaker 6: as well as my grandmother and my mother are here 480 00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:56,720 Speaker 6: as well, and. 481 00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,280 Speaker 3: Some walth as and aunts among all of his family here, 482 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:03,640 Speaker 3: it's this Santo's gamboa who connects to our story about 483 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:04,320 Speaker 3: the Rangers. 484 00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:05,080 Speaker 10: Yeah, right here. 485 00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:08,840 Speaker 6: This is my great grandmother, right Santo's gumbo. This is 486 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:14,480 Speaker 6: her second husband, Juan Gatza. She remarried after my great 487 00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:17,840 Speaker 6: grandfather was killed by the Rangers and his father as well. 488 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:21,199 Speaker 3: The death of his great grandfather and step grandfather, is 489 00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:23,760 Speaker 3: why I'm standing here with Trinny. So much of his 490 00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,760 Speaker 3: family's buried in the cemetery, but those two men are not. 491 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:31,000 Speaker 3: Trini grew up hearing about them though in the afternoon, Mariendez, 492 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:33,479 Speaker 3: he'd sit down with the grown ups and listen as 493 00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:35,320 Speaker 3: they drank coffee and a pandolce. 494 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:37,080 Speaker 6: And he was a kid. They used to send me 495 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:38,920 Speaker 6: to get the sweet read right, here's twenty five cents, 496 00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:39,720 Speaker 6: go get yeah, fine. 497 00:27:40,119 --> 00:27:42,719 Speaker 3: He learned about how his great grandmother's husband had been 498 00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:45,760 Speaker 3: murdered and how Santos fought to keep her family together. 499 00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:49,600 Speaker 3: One day at a barbecue, Trinny's dad told him the 500 00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:52,359 Speaker 3: story of what actually happened the violent break in their 501 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:54,600 Speaker 3: family tree in the year nineteen fifteen. 502 00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:58,080 Speaker 6: So I would hear the story about how my great 503 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:02,159 Speaker 6: grandfather Paulinos was killed by the rangers and then his 504 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,800 Speaker 6: father were killed. They were killed on the same day 505 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,439 Speaker 6: she was there. The rangers were apparently talking to her. 506 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:11,639 Speaker 6: They pulled her, her husband and her fall off to 507 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:14,239 Speaker 6: the side. I guess she couldn't see them, but then 508 00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:17,120 Speaker 6: she heard the gun shot and she ran to them. 509 00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:18,959 Speaker 6: Of course, she probably knew what was going on. 510 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:23,360 Speaker 3: Their deaths would shape everything that came after. His great grandmother, 511 00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:26,160 Speaker 3: who was thirty five years old at the time, packed 512 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,320 Speaker 3: up her kids and moved here to Edinburgh to start over. 513 00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:31,960 Speaker 6: And so a lot of stories I heard from my 514 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,400 Speaker 6: mother about my great grandmother was about how she came 515 00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,879 Speaker 6: here and then her life after that. So she has 516 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,200 Speaker 6: her own cattle brand. My great grandmother had her own cattle, 517 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:43,280 Speaker 6: had Derrek cattle that she would produce milk for and 518 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:45,600 Speaker 6: she'd also ran out. She had a store that was 519 00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,800 Speaker 6: close to where my grandmother lived. And so those stories 520 00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:54,320 Speaker 6: were always in conjunction with my resiliency my great grandmother 521 00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:58,560 Speaker 6: and my family in response to to what had happened. 522 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,160 Speaker 3: Right in some ways, maybe there was much more to 523 00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:05,080 Speaker 3: say about the family's resilience than the murders themselves, which 524 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:06,160 Speaker 3: were honestly senseless. 525 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:09,520 Speaker 6: They were living out around Laguna Seca area, which is 526 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:11,280 Speaker 6: a large ranch where a lot of my family members 527 00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:15,120 Speaker 6: have worked as vot Kato's yeah, and my great grandfather 528 00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:17,760 Speaker 6: was the person who had the keys for all the 529 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:20,720 Speaker 6: gates for the ranches. 530 00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:25,400 Speaker 3: Nineteen fifteen was a violent gear across the border. Mexico 531 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 3: was in the midst of a revolution and At the 532 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:31,360 Speaker 3: same time, a group of separatists in South Texas began 533 00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:35,600 Speaker 3: fighting to return Texas to Mexico. It's a largely forgotten rebellion. 534 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:40,160 Speaker 6: And apparently the insurgents needed to get through the ranches, 535 00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:41,520 Speaker 6: and they came to him because they knew he had 536 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:43,920 Speaker 6: the keys, and so, I mean, what was it gonna 537 00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:45,240 Speaker 6: do say no to these guys. 538 00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:47,000 Speaker 10: So he then don't get through. 539 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:51,240 Speaker 3: Terrified about the prospect of armed Mexicans on US soil, 540 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:53,440 Speaker 3: the States sent in the Texas. 541 00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:55,840 Speaker 6: Rangers, and as a result of, you know, trying to 542 00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,640 Speaker 6: avoid conflict with those individuals, the Texas Rangers took them 543 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:03,040 Speaker 6: for quote a bandit, simple Zizor, and they arbortunity killed him. 544 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:05,600 Speaker 6: But at that time, anybody who's a Mexicano was considered 545 00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:07,480 Speaker 6: an insurgent or a bandit or a bad person. 546 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:08,280 Speaker 10: I mean, you see this, and. 547 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:11,680 Speaker 3: This is the understanding that training grew up with of 548 00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,239 Speaker 3: how his family fit into the state and of what 549 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,840 Speaker 3: role the Rangers played in his own family's story. And 550 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:20,440 Speaker 3: then he gets to seventh grade, and if you went 551 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,080 Speaker 3: to school in Texas, you know exactly what that means. 552 00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:25,840 Speaker 3: Seventh grade is Texas history class. 553 00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,520 Speaker 6: And of course in nineteen was it eighty two? Seventh 554 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:31,040 Speaker 6: grade history? The textbook about the text Rangers was one, 555 00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:34,600 Speaker 6: Texas Rangers good, Mexican's engines bad, right, they helped settle 556 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 6: the frontier and pacified and dealt with So you're reading 557 00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:39,960 Speaker 6: that as a Mexicano and I'm reading about the Texas Rangers, 558 00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:44,960 Speaker 6: and as a twelve thirteen year old, you know, you're 559 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,480 Speaker 6: going through the psychological tension of like, Okay, my family 560 00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:53,200 Speaker 6: has told me these stories about those rnches and how 561 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:55,880 Speaker 6: they killed my great grandfather and his father. But I'm 562 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,320 Speaker 6: reading in the official state book textbook of Texas saying 563 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:03,560 Speaker 6: Mexicans are bad, and so that poses a question to 564 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,760 Speaker 6: you know, training at that age is like are my 565 00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,760 Speaker 6: family lying to me? Or maybe my ancestors were bad? 566 00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:13,200 Speaker 6: You know, how do I deal with this? How do 567 00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:15,440 Speaker 6: I reconcile what I'm being told at home and what 568 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:16,600 Speaker 6: I'm reading in the textbook. 569 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:18,840 Speaker 3: I asked him if he tried talking about it with 570 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,240 Speaker 3: his family, if they tried to help him make sense 571 00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:21,520 Speaker 3: of it. 572 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:23,760 Speaker 6: Well, this is you know, this is early eighty seventies 573 00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,160 Speaker 6: generation X, right, having conversations with your family about the 574 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:30,360 Speaker 6: psychological dilemmas you're dealing with is not very common. 575 00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:33,200 Speaker 3: So he wasn't sure what to say when he got 576 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:33,880 Speaker 3: back to class. 577 00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:37,040 Speaker 6: And my teachers was a mister Gatza, and of course 578 00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:39,239 Speaker 6: he's mimicking you know what the tech book says. Well, 579 00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:41,040 Speaker 6: the Rangers were good, the Mexicans were bad. They were 580 00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:44,560 Speaker 6: bad Metsians, right, And of course I'm not participating because 581 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,320 Speaker 6: I don't know how to participate in that conversation. He goes, well, 582 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:49,760 Speaker 6: don't believe everything you're reading the textbooks. The old people 583 00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:51,520 Speaker 6: call them little inches, right. So the first time I 584 00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:53,280 Speaker 6: heard an educator tell me that, or a teacher told 585 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:56,400 Speaker 6: me that, right, and there was such an affirmation to like, oh, okay, 586 00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,240 Speaker 6: you know, you know my family's not crazy. I haven't 587 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:00,200 Speaker 6: been lied to you, right. 588 00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:03,280 Speaker 3: Triny says he felt lucky to have a teacher who 589 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:06,280 Speaker 3: could say that mister Garza had come up during the 590 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:09,440 Speaker 3: Chicano movement in the sixties and seventies in South Texas. 591 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,080 Speaker 3: He could talk about this history in a way the 592 00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:12,920 Speaker 3: textbooks didn't. 593 00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:16,320 Speaker 6: And of course that was the first sort of critical 594 00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:18,400 Speaker 6: understanding I think all of us got in that class 595 00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:22,800 Speaker 6: that textbooks lie, you know, and their interpretations of our 596 00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:25,440 Speaker 6: community and regards what the state of Texas is. 597 00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:26,600 Speaker 3: And we just. 598 00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:29,240 Speaker 6: Learned as you grow up and you build it into 599 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 6: your sort of resiliency of living in the United States 600 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:34,640 Speaker 6: that there people officially are going to lie about our 601 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:38,440 Speaker 6: communities and neither us are really clearly seal US as American. 602 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 3: Years later, in two thousand and two, Trini was in 603 00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:46,959 Speaker 3: graduate school. He was studying history, in some ways his 604 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:51,320 Speaker 3: family's history. In his research, Triny was trying to figure 605 00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:54,320 Speaker 3: out how people in the Rio Grande Valley described themselves 606 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:58,800 Speaker 3: before terms like Latino or Hispanic or even Mexican American existed. 607 00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:02,160 Speaker 3: So he would read old newspaper articles. 608 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:04,600 Speaker 6: This was at the University of Houston, at the AFT 609 00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:07,640 Speaker 6: Publico Archive there on the campus. 610 00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:11,480 Speaker 3: He'd spend entire days in a small room in that library. 611 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,840 Speaker 6: So it looked like a closet. So I just repurposed 612 00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:16,160 Speaker 6: like a big closet that had probably had bookshelves with 613 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:18,640 Speaker 6: that was repurposed to be able to be a viewing room. 614 00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:21,720 Speaker 3: And he's sitting for hours and hours in this room, 615 00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:25,320 Speaker 3: just him in this big microfilm machine. And while he's 616 00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:28,280 Speaker 3: scanning these old papers, he finds one article that stops 617 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:32,040 Speaker 3: him in a newspaper called El Defensor, which. 618 00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:37,000 Speaker 6: Was a newspaper published out of Edinburgh, Texas by Santiago Guzman. 619 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:41,280 Speaker 3: Guzman was an early leader of LULAC, the Hispanic and 620 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,520 Speaker 3: Latino civil rights group. And he writes an editorial about 621 00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:47,040 Speaker 3: a race for share where one of the candidates is 622 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:52,200 Speaker 3: a local political boss named A Y Baker Satpo. Baker 623 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:54,480 Speaker 3: was a former Texas ranger. 624 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:59,880 Speaker 6: And he points out that why should we support a 625 00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 6: why Baker when a hy Baker as a ranger had 626 00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:04,800 Speaker 6: killed Mexicanos? 627 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:05,000 Speaker 7: Right? 628 00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:07,960 Speaker 6: And then I'm reading So I'm reading this and I 629 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:11,239 Speaker 6: understand all that history, right, and I get to, uh, 630 00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:13,480 Speaker 6: the paragraph where he talks about like, you know, why 631 00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:16,720 Speaker 6: should we support Baker? You know, how can we forget 632 00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:19,360 Speaker 6: the matanza? Now that's the first time I come across 633 00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:20,560 Speaker 6: I know the term, but that was the first time 634 00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:22,120 Speaker 6: I came across the term in this context. 635 00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:26,200 Speaker 3: La matanza means something like massacre. It comes from the 636 00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:27,680 Speaker 3: Spanish word for pig slaughter. 637 00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:30,080 Speaker 6: And you know, how can we forget the madanza? How can 638 00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:34,240 Speaker 6: we forget the you know hosas, the baisons, the longoias, 639 00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:37,680 Speaker 6: the satada. Right now, I stopped and wait a minute, 640 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:41,560 Speaker 6: they say, sata sata, that was Stada writte and down 641 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:43,680 Speaker 6: in that did you know right away that it was 642 00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:46,799 Speaker 6: your like that there wasn't any sort of speculation as 643 00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:47,920 Speaker 6: like could it be or not be? 644 00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:49,520 Speaker 3: This was any It was my family. 645 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:55,279 Speaker 6: So that that feeling of coming across a document from 646 00:34:55,360 --> 00:35:01,360 Speaker 6: nineteen twenty nine that I understood not as a scholar, 647 00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:05,600 Speaker 6: but as my family history being verified right in print. 648 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:09,560 Speaker 3: Of course, he already knew this story. He'd heard about 649 00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:12,600 Speaker 3: his great grandfather's murder from his dad at family of barbecues, 650 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,359 Speaker 3: and then when they'd visit the ranch where Paulina said 651 00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:16,040 Speaker 3: that was buried. 652 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:18,360 Speaker 6: So this is these stories are always being told to me. 653 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:19,680 Speaker 6: So that's what I say, it's a part of my skin. 654 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:21,480 Speaker 6: I can't remember the first time I was told the story. 655 00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:22,840 Speaker 6: I can't remember the first time I learned history. I 656 00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:25,040 Speaker 6: just have always known this history. But it was like, 657 00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:29,320 Speaker 6: here's the first sort of paper documents I have document 658 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,400 Speaker 6: or sources not in oral history that correlates to my 659 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:33,160 Speaker 6: family's history. 660 00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:33,560 Speaker 7: Right. 661 00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:38,239 Speaker 3: For Trini, it's a turning point, this recognition that even 662 00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:40,919 Speaker 3: when you know your own history, there's a whole other 663 00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:44,160 Speaker 3: kind of power and seeing clearly how your story fits 664 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:48,560 Speaker 3: into something bigger in this case, that his family's tragedy 665 00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:53,480 Speaker 3: is a chapter in the real story of Texas. So 666 00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:56,560 Speaker 3: Drini goes on to get his PhD and becomes an 667 00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:59,560 Speaker 3: instructor at South Texas College, where most of the students 668 00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:04,360 Speaker 3: in Mexican American. Like his seventh grade teacher, mister Garza, 669 00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:09,600 Speaker 3: Trini helps students find their own history in the history books. 670 00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:14,080 Speaker 3: Professor Gonzalez, who early on insisted I call him Trini, 671 00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:17,640 Speaker 3: helped me understand this history, which is also my own 672 00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:22,840 Speaker 3: family's history, in a new way. Before we met, I 673 00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:25,040 Speaker 3: read an article he had written a few years ago 674 00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:27,880 Speaker 3: that really helped me crystallize some of the ideas I 675 00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:30,719 Speaker 3: want to explore with you here in this show. The 676 00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:36,399 Speaker 3: piece that he wrote is called a Border Antigony. Antigony 677 00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:39,319 Speaker 3: is a Greek play written by Sophocles almost twenty five 678 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:43,040 Speaker 3: hundred years ago. It's set in Thebes during the aftermath 679 00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:46,040 Speaker 3: of a brutal civil war between two brothers who each 680 00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:50,200 Speaker 3: wanted to rule the city. The violence was senseless and messy, 681 00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:54,799 Speaker 3: and at the end both the brothers are dead. This 682 00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:58,920 Speaker 3: is how the play opens over their dead bodies. The 683 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,160 Speaker 3: new king of Thebes, Creon says that the city needs 684 00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,760 Speaker 3: a hero, that they need to move on. He declares 685 00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:07,560 Speaker 3: that one of the brothers will be honored as a 686 00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:10,400 Speaker 3: hero of the war. As for the other brother on 687 00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:14,239 Speaker 3: the losing side, whose name was Polynesies, Creon orders that 688 00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:17,960 Speaker 3: the people of Thebes leave his body on the battlefield unburied, 689 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:21,960 Speaker 3: to be consumed by the elements and wild animals that 690 00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:26,400 Speaker 3: would be his dishonor as a trader. Trinny read this 691 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:28,959 Speaker 3: story in high school and it came back to him 692 00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:31,279 Speaker 3: as he learned more about what happened here during La 693 00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:35,160 Speaker 3: Matanza in nineteen fifteen. Over the course of just a 694 00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:37,840 Speaker 3: few months here in the Rio Grande Valley, a shocking 695 00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:41,920 Speaker 3: number of Mexicanodhanos were killed by Texas rangers as well 696 00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:45,640 Speaker 3: as by local officials and Anglo ranchers. It was a 697 00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:48,879 Speaker 3: time of terror, and in the next few episodes we'll 698 00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:52,680 Speaker 3: unpack why this is happening, But first I want to 699 00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:56,280 Speaker 3: tell you one specific story and I think he'll understand why. 700 00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:02,439 Speaker 3: One day in late September nineteen fifteen, two men rode 701 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:04,719 Speaker 3: into a ranger camp to report a horse theft on 702 00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:08,279 Speaker 3: their land. Sixty seven year old Hissus Basan and his 703 00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:11,960 Speaker 3: forty eight year old son in law Antonio Langoria. Bazan 704 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:15,200 Speaker 3: and Langoria, two of the other names that Triny discovered 705 00:38:15,239 --> 00:38:19,880 Speaker 3: in that old newspaper article, both were prominent ranchers. Langoria 706 00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:23,640 Speaker 3: was a county commissioner, so they reported the horse theft. 707 00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,799 Speaker 3: The conversation seemed to have been uneventful, and they got 708 00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:31,200 Speaker 3: back on their horses and started to ride away. But 709 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:34,680 Speaker 3: then the ranger captain his name was Henry Ransom, and 710 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,920 Speaker 3: got in his car with some other men. Antonio and 711 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:40,520 Speaker 3: Jesus would have heard it coming up behind them an 712 00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:45,759 Speaker 3: ominous sound. Rangers back then drove modelty Fords, and Mexicans 713 00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:48,879 Speaker 3: called them cucarachas because their engines made a clicking sound 714 00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:52,600 Speaker 3: as they drove. The car. Noise got louder behind Haesus 715 00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:55,920 Speaker 3: and Antonio, and then one of the men reached out 716 00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:59,960 Speaker 3: the window of the ford and shot them in the back. Ransom. 717 00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:03,960 Speaker 3: The ranger captain ordered witnesses not to move them from 718 00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:08,560 Speaker 3: the spot where they fell. Like polyneses. Their bodies laid 719 00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:12,640 Speaker 3: out to rot in the sun. Four days later, though, 720 00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:16,000 Speaker 3: neighbors went and buried the men exactly where they had fallen. 721 00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:20,040 Speaker 3: Even for the families that could bury their dead, ranger 722 00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:24,080 Speaker 3: killings mark them with the sort of dishonor. Trini's great 723 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:27,400 Speaker 3: grandmother happened to be there when her husband, Paolina Serda 724 00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:32,360 Speaker 3: and his father Donanciano were killed. She was able to 725 00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:34,959 Speaker 3: give them a burial so that Trini could go visit 726 00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:38,359 Speaker 3: them when he grew up. But Trini says that to 727 00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:42,520 Speaker 3: this day, Texas has never recognized their deaths. The state 728 00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:47,279 Speaker 3: has issued no death certificates, no records. That's why at 729 00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:52,560 Speaker 3: the time people called these deaths evaporations, which gets us 730 00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,200 Speaker 3: to what Antigony is about. In the play. Antigony is 731 00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,680 Speaker 3: the sister of the brothers who died fighting each other. 732 00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:03,800 Speaker 3: They both deserve respect and death, and so she defies 733 00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:06,040 Speaker 3: the king and goes out to do what she can 734 00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:10,040 Speaker 3: to honor her brother. She sprinkles dust over his body. 735 00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:15,560 Speaker 6: M and so that's what essentially Tigny is about. 736 00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:15,640 Speaker 3: It. 737 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:18,360 Speaker 6: Tickney is about these moral questions of who do you 738 00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:23,759 Speaker 6: follow the great authority that is divine or the king 739 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:26,640 Speaker 6: and his decree, And of course she violated the king's 740 00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:31,360 Speaker 6: degree and she ends up, you know, being the morality 741 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:32,600 Speaker 6: of the play is that she ends. 742 00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:36,439 Speaker 3: Up being right. Triny, in his own way, is trying 743 00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:38,680 Speaker 3: to sprinkle some dust over his ancestors. 744 00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:43,040 Speaker 6: So you could probably just slip around this way. 745 00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:46,080 Speaker 3: After we left the cemetery, there was one more memorial 746 00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:47,480 Speaker 3: site that I asked Trinia to show me. 747 00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:49,319 Speaker 6: Now we're gonna do is go back to expressway and 748 00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:51,360 Speaker 6: just get on the expressway, and then we're gonna go 749 00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:53,160 Speaker 6: tell us an interchange, and that's going to love us 750 00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:55,000 Speaker 6: to the left and going towards. 751 00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:57,560 Speaker 3: Brownswell, a place that he and a group of historians 752 00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:00,760 Speaker 3: convinced the state to set aside on of the victims 753 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:01,600 Speaker 3: of La Matanza. 754 00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:04,200 Speaker 10: Your lies, which is passing. 755 00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:06,480 Speaker 3: It's easy to miss if you're not ready for it. 756 00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:08,399 Speaker 3: You could walk, you could turn around. 757 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:10,480 Speaker 7: I think it's turned around on here. Yeah, I'm not 758 00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:10,759 Speaker 7: gonna know. 759 00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:13,439 Speaker 3: I'm thinking it's gonna get in trouble. We got out 760 00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:16,640 Speaker 3: to take a closer look, standing on some grass off 761 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:17,960 Speaker 3: the expressway. 762 00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:19,120 Speaker 6: During the day that we don't know who did this, 763 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:22,720 Speaker 6: but somebody left a reef here for the marker. 764 00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:25,400 Speaker 10: So can you describe where we're standing right now and 765 00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:26,120 Speaker 10: what we're looking at. 766 00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:30,720 Speaker 6: So we're standing between San Benito and Brownsville on the highway. 767 00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:33,960 Speaker 10: We're on a parking area where people can rest. 768 00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:36,839 Speaker 3: It was placed here five years ago, and it's here 769 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:39,800 Speaker 3: on the side of the highway because this is where 770 00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:40,879 Speaker 3: many of the victims died. 771 00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:44,480 Speaker 10: Can you read the sign for me the marker? Okay. 772 00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:49,040 Speaker 6: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, racial tensions 773 00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:51,480 Speaker 6: near the United States Medical Border and the Lower roll 774 00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:53,440 Speaker 6: Grand Valley erupted into violence. 775 00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:56,200 Speaker 3: You can come here on the southbound shoulder by sixty 776 00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:57,480 Speaker 3: nine to read the whole thing. 777 00:41:57,880 --> 00:41:59,960 Speaker 6: The section of the highway between San Benito and browns 778 00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:03,800 Speaker 6: was the side of countless killings of prisoners without due process. 779 00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:07,280 Speaker 3: Rangers would show up in San Benito to take prisoners 780 00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:10,120 Speaker 3: away from local cops and THENTO state custody and then 781 00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:14,440 Speaker 3: move them to browns Veille. Supposedly it was for quote questioning, 782 00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:18,759 Speaker 3: but many prisoners never survived the trip. It got so 783 00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:21,880 Speaker 3: bad that the Anglo sheriff of Cameron County told his 784 00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:25,080 Speaker 3: deputies not to turn prisoners over to the rangers he 785 00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:26,800 Speaker 3: knew what they were going to do with them. 786 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:29,800 Speaker 6: It has estimated that one hundreds, possibly thousands of Metsican 787 00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:31,160 Speaker 6: Americans and Mexicans were killed. 788 00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:33,160 Speaker 10: So what does this marker mean to you? 789 00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:36,799 Speaker 6: What this market represents to me is the state of 790 00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:42,879 Speaker 6: Texas finally acknowledging the pasts in an accurate way. Right, 791 00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:46,080 Speaker 6: this is how things occurred, and we should remember those occurrences, 792 00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:50,040 Speaker 6: particularly to respect the dignity of those people who were killed. 793 00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:54,560 Speaker 3: It's just three paragraphs, but it was powerful standing there 794 00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:57,280 Speaker 3: and knowing that this is where the history played out, 795 00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:00,000 Speaker 3: knowing that the drive I just took had been many 796 00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:07,160 Speaker 3: people's last. For Trini, the market provides some solace at last, 797 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:09,480 Speaker 3: a place where people can come and leave a wreath 798 00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:15,239 Speaker 3: that remember the dead. But to some Texans it's a provocation. 799 00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:18,640 Speaker 3: And as the Rangers prepare to mark their bi centennial, 800 00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:22,960 Speaker 3: this fight over how to tell their history. Whose stories 801 00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:27,040 Speaker 3: belong in the Tale of the Texas Rangers is suddenly 802 00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:33,800 Speaker 3: very present again. Next time on white hats. 803 00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:38,600 Speaker 13: All the Quahata relatives I know recognize Kuana and thank 804 00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:43,040 Speaker 13: him for making that decision. And if he had not 805 00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:46,480 Speaker 13: done that, we very well may not be having this 806 00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:49,799 Speaker 13: conversation today. 807 00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:52,840 Speaker 3: Music used in the cold Open is from the nineteen 808 00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:56,680 Speaker 3: fifties TV show Tales of the Texas Rangers archival tape 809 00:43:56,680 --> 00:44:00,200 Speaker 3: in this episode was from WFAATV and the G. William 810 00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:03,759 Speaker 3: Jones Film and Video Collection at Southern Methodist University, and 811 00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:05,880 Speaker 3: I want to give a special thanks to Kat Catanas 812 00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:08,960 Speaker 3: for bringing us this show concept and bringing me into 813 00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:12,920 Speaker 3: this project. White Hats is a Texas Monthly production. The 814 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:15,720 Speaker 3: show is produced and edited by Patrick Michaels and produced 815 00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:18,480 Speaker 3: and engineered by Brian Standeffer, who also wrote the music. 816 00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:23,920 Speaker 3: Additional production is by Isabella Vantrees and Claire McInerney. Additional 817 00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:28,040 Speaker 3: editing by Ray Bartholomew. Our reporting team included Mike Hall, 818 00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:32,720 Speaker 3: Kat Cartness, and Christian Wallace. Will Bostwick is our fact checker. 819 00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:36,520 Speaker 3: Artwork is by Emily Kimbrow and Victoria Milner. I'm your 820 00:44:36,560 --> 00:44:41,520 Speaker 3: host and writer Jack Adrera. See you next week.