To the reader: This entry into the blog is very detailed and includes information that, while true, is not commonly known. We have followed one line to build an understanding of Mexico and Texas during the time just before and during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 - 1917. There is, of course, a vast amount of equally important, directly, and indirectly relevant material that accompanies this period that must be included to further the understanding of those times. We shall publish on the 25th of November, 2018 a further advanced primer concerning those times.
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This submission is made in order to address the matter of the "caravanas" of "migrants" who are trudging up to the Mexico / United States frontier…just searching for a better life (?). This article will tend to be among the longest and most detailed we have submitted to the OROG community and other visitors…now found in over forty foreign countries.
The level of understanding by the American Obsolete Press edges up to the point of pointlessness. Their best work has been in the area of providing purposeful misinformation and pro-marxist, anti-American propaganda. Their allies in the various Spanish language networks, both Mexican and Americn like UniVision and such, have been complicit by outright lying about the nature of the "Caravana" and the composition of the participants.
For instance…and it is a valid example of the entirety of the reporting, a Univision reporter explained to a FOXNews anchor that the "migrantes" were "all women pushing baby strollers, just looking for a better life…". This was in spite of the fact that any dolt with a negative IQ could tell that the broad mass…very broad mass…from beginning to end, has been composed of males, aged 15 - 35, unaccompanied by anything that looked like a "family" with baby strollers or the like.
Mexican and American authorities have concurred that they have identified some 750 individuals, up from Honduras, who have criminal precedents and, in many cases, wants and warrants in the United States and/or Mexico. The number of young females have been interviewed who very frankly state that their quest is to arrive into the United States before "my time" so as to deliver the baby in the United States. It is known that the baby becomes the magic key to AFDC, Section 8, food stamps, Medicaid, etc. etc. etc.
We have stated this many, many times and perhaps to some who do not believe or do not wish to believe that this is a reality. Believe it.
The tales of South of the Border and such are, perhaps, an almost incomprehensible jumble of wars, intrigues, corruption, violence, and disorder. And, do you all know what? Much of it is very true. However; Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras…combined…have a total Gross National Product of a little less than 200,000,000,000 (two hundred billion) dollars. The population of the three nations is right at 33,000,000 (thirty-three million) souls.
Mexico has a little more than ten times the Gross National Product and a little less than four times the population of the three Central American nations being herein considered. One can consider readily what the level of social comfortability might be when comparing the one nation to the other three. Also, even with the obvious problems Mexico has had with "Cartel Violence", the other three countries make Mexico look like a Convent during quiet hours…although Guatemala is considerably less violent and anarchistic than Honduras and El Salvador.
So, here we go. We shall have to walk back to the past…nearly to the year 1900…and write a little bit about knowledge, conception, misconception, and ignorance about the Mexican - American - Texas Frontier during recent and not-so-recent times.
Ask any reasonably informed South Texan or Texan about border problems between Texas and Mexico and, lamentably during these times, one will receive a response that ranges from "What means border?" to, "Yeah, my grandad told my father about Pancho Villa riding in and shooting everything up and stealing all the cows."
Mexico has a little more than ten times the Gross National Product and a little less than four times the population of the three Central American nations being herein considered. One can consider readily what the level of social comfortability might be when comparing the one nation to the other three. Also, even with the obvious problems Mexico has had with "Cartel Violence", the other three countries make Mexico look like a Convent during quiet hours…although Guatemala is considerably less violent and anarchistic than Honduras and El Salvador.
So, here we go. We shall have to walk back to the past…nearly to the year 1900…and write a little bit about knowledge, conception, misconception, and ignorance about the Mexican - American - Texas Frontier during recent and not-so-recent times.
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BORDER TROUBLES - 1900 through 1920
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| Don Porfirio Diaz Mori This, I believe, was the last official photograph of Porfirio. He was, obviously, nearing the end of his service to Mexico in May of 1911. |
It seems reasonable, but…it never really happened that way.
Towards the end of the rule of Mexican President Porfirio Diaz Mori, who served from 1884 - 1911, the left-wing movements around the world gradually seeped into the Mexican political and social construct. We might mention that the estimable Don Porfirio also served an earlier term from 1876 through 1880. He placed a puppet, Manuel Gonzalez (a good president in any regard), to serve for one term, up until Don Porfirio's re-election, essentially by national acclamation in 1884. This means, of course that Don Porfirio's presidential service to Mexico totalled 30 years.
As the days grew short for Don Porfirio's service, activists such as Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magon and his two brothers, Enrique and Jesus were committed anarchist / socialist / marxists. They were active especially in the mining districts of northern Chihuahua State in the north of Mexico and even in places like the fabled Real de Catorce, from whence 15% of all the silver that went to Spain during the colonial period was extracted and refined.
These three men, along with various intellectuals and small newspaper / bulletin publishers numbering into the hundreds joined to damn Don Porfirio to blazes and to support an upper-class hacienda owner (as a family member) from Paras de la Fuente…an oasis of grapes, cotton, and fine vegetables within a rocky desert. The name? Don Francisco Madero, a scion of one of the top ten most wealthy, influential, and capitalist families in Mexico…and perhaps in the top 100 families in all the Americas in terms of wealth, influence, and agricultural / industrial proficiency.
Don Francisco, well-travelled and learned in France, England, and the United States (Berkeley of all things), quite brilliant and industrious, had also converted to a religious philosophy known as spiritism. He communicated with everyone from Benito Juarez Garcia (the first and only Indian President of Mexico, dead before Francisco's birth) to his four year old deceased brother who guided him daily during times of indecision. Madero became more involved in State-wide as well as local politics, learning by failures and successes.
Finally, making connections with leftist intellectual powerhouses in Mexico such as Luis Cabrera Lobato, and especially Aquilas Serdan and Jose' Vasconcelos there came that moment in time when Francisco received his "inner calling" to run for election to the Presidency of Mexico. When 1910 arrived, Francisco would make certain his name would be on the ballot for Presidente.
As one might imagine, President Diaz decided that 'just one more term' would be enough. In late 1908 an article was published by a noted reporter by the name of Creelman, a Brit, that indicated Diaz was speaking of retirement and such, "...if it appears as though the Mexicans are prepared to govern themselves…". The publication of this very lengthy interview, along with the rise of two large factions of a Mexican leftist imperative began a political domino effect that would have repercussions that affect affairs even unto this date.
Intellectual leftists who opposed even the merest existence of the Mexican "hacienda aristocracy"also levelled their ire against the Roman Church as well as the stable Mexico City Central Government. The leftists also detested the State governments and their "Rurales", famous and ruthless rural police…well trained, paid, and frequently brutal. They were noted for being tough but dependable and responsible in a strange way. All those forces and dynamics came together in a kind of Death Match of the Serpents in 1910.
To show the nature of the risk being taken by Porfirio Diaz in stretching his "service" to Mexico for another four years, we include a brief paragraph concerning an historic, difficult, and complex Meeting of the Presidents. To wit:
Towards the end of the rule of Mexican President Porfirio Diaz Mori, who served from 1884 - 1911, the left-wing movements around the world gradually seeped into the Mexican political and social construct. We might mention that the estimable Don Porfirio also served an earlier term from 1876 through 1880. He placed a puppet, Manuel Gonzalez (a good president in any regard), to serve for one term, up until Don Porfirio's re-election, essentially by national acclamation in 1884. This means, of course that Don Porfirio's presidential service to Mexico totalled 30 years.
As the days grew short for Don Porfirio's service, activists such as Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magon and his two brothers, Enrique and Jesus were committed anarchist / socialist / marxists. They were active especially in the mining districts of northern Chihuahua State in the north of Mexico and even in places like the fabled Real de Catorce, from whence 15% of all the silver that went to Spain during the colonial period was extracted and refined.
These three men, along with various intellectuals and small newspaper / bulletin publishers numbering into the hundreds joined to damn Don Porfirio to blazes and to support an upper-class hacienda owner (as a family member) from Paras de la Fuente…an oasis of grapes, cotton, and fine vegetables within a rocky desert. The name? Don Francisco Madero, a scion of one of the top ten most wealthy, influential, and capitalist families in Mexico…and perhaps in the top 100 families in all the Americas in terms of wealth, influence, and agricultural / industrial proficiency.
Don Francisco, well-travelled and learned in France, England, and the United States (Berkeley of all things), quite brilliant and industrious, had also converted to a religious philosophy known as spiritism. He communicated with everyone from Benito Juarez Garcia (the first and only Indian President of Mexico, dead before Francisco's birth) to his four year old deceased brother who guided him daily during times of indecision. Madero became more involved in State-wide as well as local politics, learning by failures and successes.
Finally, making connections with leftist intellectual powerhouses in Mexico such as Luis Cabrera Lobato, and especially Aquilas Serdan and Jose' Vasconcelos there came that moment in time when Francisco received his "inner calling" to run for election to the Presidency of Mexico. When 1910 arrived, Francisco would make certain his name would be on the ballot for Presidente.
As one might imagine, President Diaz decided that 'just one more term' would be enough. In late 1908 an article was published by a noted reporter by the name of Creelman, a Brit, that indicated Diaz was speaking of retirement and such, "...if it appears as though the Mexicans are prepared to govern themselves…". The publication of this very lengthy interview, along with the rise of two large factions of a Mexican leftist imperative began a political domino effect that would have repercussions that affect affairs even unto this date.
Intellectual leftists who opposed even the merest existence of the Mexican "hacienda aristocracy"also levelled their ire against the Roman Church as well as the stable Mexico City Central Government. The leftists also detested the State governments and their "Rurales", famous and ruthless rural police…well trained, paid, and frequently brutal. They were noted for being tough but dependable and responsible in a strange way. All those forces and dynamics came together in a kind of Death Match of the Serpents in 1910.
To show the nature of the risk being taken by Porfirio Diaz in stretching his "service" to Mexico for another four years, we include a brief paragraph concerning an historic, difficult, and complex Meeting of the Presidents. To wit:
In a show of U.S. support, Díaz and William Howard Taft planned a summit in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua for 16 October 1909, a historic first meeting between a Mexican president and an president of the United States of America. It would also be the first time a U.S. president would cross the border into Mexico.
At the meeting, Diaz told John Hays Hammond, "Since I am responsible for bringing several billion dollars in foreign investments into my country, I think I should continue in my position until a competent successor is found." The summit was a great success for Díaz, but it could have been a major tragedy. On the day of the summit, Frederick Russell Burnham, the celebrated scout, and Private C.R. Moore, a Texas Ranger, discovered a man holding a concealed palm pistol along the procession route and they disarmed the assassin within only a few feet of Díaz and Taft.
The combined crowds, along with 4,000 American and Mexican soldiers, almost 300 reporters, scores and scores of police of various types, totalled over 100,000 souls before the events were done.
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Everything seemed great, wonderful, and hopeful. It lasted almost 12 months. Large factions with very divergent positions, wants, and requirements trundled into various offices of the new government that were staffed either with firebrand socialists or Harvard, Yale, and Mexico City educated snoots or engineers and agriculturalist big-wigs. An agreement here in this office would be overturned in that office…and neither Madero not his very capable Vice-President Jose Maria Pino Suarez could keep putting the pieces back together again before another bunch of angry petitioners would arrive to demand This and That…RIGHT NOW!!!
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The statue commemorates the Spanish
king, Carlos IV found on the elegant
Paseo de la Reforma Boulevard
that runs through the middle ofMexico City. The revellers are celebrating the arrival of the new President, Francisco Madero 1911
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As Mexico went into election mode, it was apparent that this could not be another sham election wherein the electorate would vote 1,134,000 to 429, nationwide, and Porfirio Diaz Mori would be declared the winner. While the results were not as bad as above stated, there was still a wide gap between credibility and possibility. Various interpretations, at there closest, show Diaz defeating the "ghost talker" Madero by a 9 to 1 margin. Too many people knew too much, however, and disorders of the first order began almost overnight. In remarkably short order the "Presidente Permanente"became the "Adios, Sr. ex-Presidente Diaz", and he was deported to Spain.
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| Two images of Cavalry deployed at Fort Brown (top) outside of Brownsville, Texas and (lower) a unit stationed in Rio Grande City, Texas at Fort Ringgold. At that time there were several score thousand personnel deployed on the Border. |
There was no general platform. There had been no construction of a small set of major objectives. During these stressful times, Francisco Madero would telephone his father. Upon arrival in the Presidential Palace (Chapultepec), Francisco had ordered and obtained a direct telephone connection from the Palace to his father's home in Parras de la Fuente…far, far, far away in northern Mexico's Coahuila State. He would take counsel from his ever domineering father…the older man who came from a mindset that was from two centuries past could not provide for a son who needed much more than consolation via long-distance telephone.
He needed the advice and direction from his Vice-President Pino Suarez, who had served as Governor of the Yucatan and had been highly admired by all sectors in that wildly divergent State. Before long, it would make no difference. The populace was quickly turning on Madero. The very bloody and capable General Orozco and other military units were marching on the way to Mexico City. A month or two turned into a few days which turned into a matter of hours and then it turned into the incarceration of both Madero and Pino Suarez.
Quickly, from February 9th through February 19th of the year 1913, bad things happened. There was even a bit of collusion on the part of the United States State Department, although the Ambassador to Mexico denied it, as well as the venerable Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.
On the morning of the 19th of February 1913, Madero and Pino Suarez were put in an automobile and, with a considerable but discreet guard, were being conducted to the train station, about 25 blocks to the northwest of the Presidential Palace. Before much distance had been covered a group of men began shooting with pistols at the auto with the two detainees inside.
There are so many stories about how this unfolded, but suffice it to say that Madero and Pino Suarez were put out and in short order, they both had been shot to death. Before the episode was over, some ninety people had been killed, along with numerous police and Army mounts. Many of the dead were innocent civilians, male and female.
Now we begin to move into the matters that begin to affect not just Mexico, but rather Texas and the general frontier Mexico shares with Texas. Other issues would come into play all along the international boundary before these matters played out. The disorders begin more or less around 1908 and gradually build to a peak of activity in 1916.
During these times, starting with the Cananea Mine Strike and civil disorder in northern parts
of the northern State of Chihuahua, miners at first struck, and then milled around, and finally just left in fairly large numbers. The strike, a rarity in Mexico, had not been passive. Many had been hurt and there were a number of dead. The strikers were demanding 5 pesos per day plus certain emoluments (medical, retirement, vacation time, etc.). The leaders of this particular strike were the Flores Magon boys we referenced above. It should be considered that the disorders began in 1908 and steadily became worse as the election of 1910 caused all kinds of upheaval in terms of the socio-political order. It became steadily worse as various elements vied for the Presidential Throne, either by force or by another (and very improbable) election.
Unemployed miners drifted into Chihuahua City and Cd. Juarez up on the border. From other mines, more in the middle of Mexico's highlands, more miners were experiencing arbitrary layoffs and unpleasant working conditions. Some of these men went up to Monterrey and others thought about crossing over into Texas where they had heard of men being paid two dollars per day, doing irrigation canal building, tending crops of cotton and vegetables and at times the citrus.
There were people all along the border, on both sides, disposed to take advantage of ethnic and/or racial comfortability that the social environment tolerated. As one who grew up in this type of social and cultural environment, albeit forty or fifty years later…it was the same in many ways. One could generalise that about 80 per cent of the Latins could speak English and about 15 per cent of the "Anglos" could speak Spanish…with quality ranging from proficient to eloquent.
Because of the disorder brought on by the Madero administrative failure and the rising tide of banditry and, in some places anarchy, there were more and more people coming towards Texas to seek refuge and also to seek booty. There was an abundance of men who were willing to join bandit gangs which at times espoused political and/or philosophical motivations, but who were actually committed to rustling, stealing, shake-downs, and other nefarious activity.
The border on the Texas side was not an idyllic monument to clean and honest government. It seems as though the sprouting towns…Donna, Weslaco, Edinburg, McAllen, Ed Couch, Elsa, Mercedes, and other smaller places did pretty well with their administrations and internal politics. The County government, however, always seemed to be contaminated, especially by favouritism, pilfering of treasury, covering friends through favours by the Sheriff, and a hundred other sins of commission and omission.
The Vera Cruz Incident:
One of the most troubling and stunning events during this time was caused by a minor incident involving a small bunch of insects being allowed to grow into an 1,800 pound gorilla. The American Navy would dock in the Panuco River harbourage, adjacent to downtown Tampico. This was fine and convenient, except that there was a "decent district" with nice saloons and restaurants where many of the upper-drawer people from Tampico and the area would dine, listen to nice live music, perhaps dance a little, and have a monster smorgasbord of a seafood platter and then go home.
The problem is that American sailors on shore leave, at times, seem to misplace their book of etiquette at times. There was some kind of discord, and a couple of the sailors…six were in attendance…had a bit of an accident when they threw their beer mugs and rum bottles into the 6 X 20 foot special order mirror that backed up the bar. Many bottles of mediocre and fine liquor, along with the mirror, were lost. The police came, the sailors went to the lock-up downtown, save for one who was to go and inform the officer of the guard on the American warship in port that the comisario would like to speak to an officer concerning some of the sailors of the said ship.
To make a four day story as brief as possible, the American counsel came, declaring that Washington was very distressed that American sailors were imprisoned for no known reason, and that there would be no blackmail paid for their release. An American naval officer of said ship then spoke to the counsel to advise him that everyone present that evening, Mexican and foreign, were certain that the six American sailors had acted violently without provocation. Finally, the President of the United States of America sent a declaring that money had been secured to cover the damages, and that he demanded the return of the sailors, post haste. Also, the President demanded that General Victoriano Huerta, provisional President of Mexico, would be required to fire a cannon salute to the ship's flag as it left harbour.
Huerta telegraphed the White House declaring that all matters had been complied with, except that it would require that the American ship fire a military salute to the Mexican flag that flew over the Harbour Master's Headquarters, first. Everyone in Washington, D. C. was furious.
Some days later, an American flotilla pulled into Vera Cruz's harbour. There was one battleship, and two destroyer class ships, and various other ships under American flags. In fairly short order, the centre of the city of Vera Cruz had been reduced to rubble, with many buildings, even from the colonial era, destroyed and left as heaps of rock, brick, and cement and plaster dust. The number of dead and wounded…mostly civilians…was significant. In the many hundreds.
The American ships then extracted a German cargo ship from the harbour, and off loaded a score thousand of German Mausers and tonnes and tonnes of ammunition and other necessities that were bound to the Armies of General Victoriano Huerta to aid in his fight against Villa and company.
Please find a copy of the book, "A Diplomat's Wife in Mexico" by Edith O'Shaughnessy. It recounts the days immediately after the assassination of Madero and Pino Suarez and the Bombardment of Vera Cruz and a million other glimpses into life in Mexico City and Mexico "during Revolution". It is not the work of a hysterical woman or activist. She is solid as a block of copper. (the book is truly worth purchasing)
The Plan de San Diego:
This is where the Past begins to speed up and becomes Prologue. With the disorders in Mexico and the fervour some, perhaps many, Mexicans had concerning everything from the loss of Texas and the American Southwest to real and imagined mistreatment by the Gringos, a cauldron was put to boil, and it began to spill over fairly quickly.
We shan't burden the reader with the names of a hundred principals that might still pertain to families living in or around the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It must suffice to say that Mexican and Mexican American radicals wrote up a "Plan" that initially called for the assassination of all Anglo American males, aged 16 or more residing in Texas and other "territories annexed by the Imperialist Yanquis". People to be spared would be women and children, and all Mexican people except those Mexicans who sided with the Anglo element. Also, Negros and Indians were to be exempt from these reprisals.
During the early part of 1915 it is estimated that between 90 and 140 people were murdered by activists taking the measures required in the "Plan". That document was essentially a Declaration of War by people who did not have legal standing or authority from any source. While the extreme lower Southern tip of Texas bore most of the carnage, there were assassinations up to Del Rio and Eagle Pass, as well as San Antonio, Karnes and Kenedy cities southeast of San Antonio, and in the ranch country north of McAllen / Brownsville and west of Corpus Christi.
Excesses and over-reaction brought on an ugly period in the history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley's four counties (Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, and Willacy) specifically and southernmost Texas generally. The State of Texas sent down 90 Texas Rangers, only about a third of them qualified, astute, and intelligent enough to determine who was a "bad" Mexican, a "good" Mexican, an itinerate Mexican, or an American citizen Mexican. The other two-thirds were essentially white-trash, big-badge and big belt-buckle thugs…known as "Special Rangers".
Governor Jim Ferguson was a real pill, and came late to the party in terms of the goings-on on the Border. He also had legal challenges and problems with the State Legislature that would result in his impeachment and removal from office (in perpetuity) in 1916. During all of this, Texas's two United States Senators and the legislature petitioned the United States Army's infantry and cavalry units to be pressed into service along the border. They wanted, at a minimum, coverage from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the twin cities of Laredo…about 165 miles of badlands, rattlesnakes, and danger.
Couple that with the fact that there was actionable information that the Germans, co-ordinating with President Venustiano Carranza had circulated a note recommending an insurgence by Mexican people against the "occupiers" of previously Mexican territory. Many analysts to this day believe that there is a certainty that the Germans wanted to establish a full alliance with Carranza's government…encourage him to make bellicose postures against the Americans…and also be supplied with all necessary armament and materiel. That would tie down a large portion of the American military and weaken any possible joining of the Americans with British forces on the Continent during World War I.
The "Plan de San Diego (Texas)" was, in fact, the document / movement that caused the folks in Washington, D.C. to mobilise many thousands of infantry and cavalry, both Regular Army and National Guard units, to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, the San Ygnacio area between Fort Ringgold in Rio Grande City and Laredo, and other places on the border, in Texas. An example of exercises and parades can be seen photographs we have provided up a few paragraphs.
Before that deployment was done, there would be around 100,000 personnel and they would have had numerous minor but significant engagements, with casualties on both sides. Although many already know this fact, my own father served in the 1st Army, 12th Regiment (mounted) for apparently about four years, leaving the service in 1933. He spoke little about his service but did indicate that it became a bit rough at times because of the anarchists, Russian and German spies, and Italian and other European anarchists and saboteurs. He thought it was fascinating that they could receive information from informants in Mexico and get the word down to an "end of the world"place like Rio Grande City in such a manner as to frequently make a detention.
In those years, the mescaleros (liquor transporters) were also arrieros (donkey and mule load bearers), and they would go from the border to San Antonio…some 200 miles by trail to deliver liquor to speak-easies in San Antonio. Sometimes the liquor was not up to snuff and a lot of folks came down with damage to their systems…some even died.
But the Cavalry maintained and mounted and large mission up to and including 1935, built around the 12th Regiment and other elements.
The famous "Zimmermann Note" is actually pictured to the right. It detailed propositions to the Mexican high command and, if need be, to the Mexican Nation in toto. It is said that Pancho Villa was given this note by one of his spy / informants when it came out in 1917. Villa had already noticed a considerable increase in the number of Japanese folks in the central and western parts of Mexico. Germans had always been around, especially during the time of Porfirio Diaz, who had specialised in bringing Euro-technology and money into Mexico, especially for the exploitation of the oil riches in the east and south of the Republic. The Japanese began a brewery that morphed into what would later become "Corona" after several reincarnations.
In spite of the melodrama of "Black Jack" Pershing's chase after Villa in Chihuahua, Villa was essentially an Amerophile and had been heard several times explaining that he simply wanted his homeland to be more like Texas. How much of that was to please the Gringos, I do not know. But what is known is that Villa was very comfortable around them and he even considered "Black Jack" Pershing to be his friend.
Another point that seems salient when considering affairs of the day and of the place, is that Carranza's army had greater reliance on German arms and munitions, while Villa's armaments were primarily American and British.
Also, the note was forwarded in 1917, and with the Americans going in to fight, it was improbable that anyone in the Mexican power panoply would have wanted to take the risk of letting the Germans use Mexico as a floor mat and bullet catcher.
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| This photograph shows President Fransisco Madero (short with cane) and Vice-President Pino-Suarez (to Madero's right, also with cane) with various authorities in the Presidential Palace in downtown-most Mexico City. The two politicians have been arrested and are awaiting a transfer to a holding jail, from whence they were to be taken to the train station on the 19th of February and transferred to Vera Cruz and then banished from Mexico in perpetuity. Unfortunately, such was not to be the case. The manat furthest right is the Clerk of theCongress and he is holding the Congressional Order of Expulsion from Office. ___________________________________________ |
There are so many stories about how this unfolded, but suffice it to say that Madero and Pino Suarez were put out and in short order, they both had been shot to death. Before the episode was over, some ninety people had been killed, along with numerous police and Army mounts. Many of the dead were innocent civilians, male and female.
Now we begin to move into the matters that begin to affect not just Mexico, but rather Texas and the general frontier Mexico shares with Texas. Other issues would come into play all along the international boundary before these matters played out. The disorders begin more or less around 1908 and gradually build to a peak of activity in 1916.
During these times, starting with the Cananea Mine Strike and civil disorder in northern parts
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| President (Gen.) Victoriano Huerta |
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| Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magon Labour leader, brilliant thinker, but marxist ________________________ |
There were people all along the border, on both sides, disposed to take advantage of ethnic and/or racial comfortability that the social environment tolerated. As one who grew up in this type of social and cultural environment, albeit forty or fifty years later…it was the same in many ways. One could generalise that about 80 per cent of the Latins could speak English and about 15 per cent of the "Anglos" could speak Spanish…with quality ranging from proficient to eloquent.
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| Madero and his wife shortly after taking the oath of office and settling in at a relatively modest "downtown flat". Both Madero and Sara Perez de Madero were very, very wealthy. Very kind people but no children. |
Because of the disorder brought on by the Madero administrative failure and the rising tide of banditry and, in some places anarchy, there were more and more people coming towards Texas to seek refuge and also to seek booty. There was an abundance of men who were willing to join bandit gangs which at times espoused political and/or philosophical motivations, but who were actually committed to rustling, stealing, shake-downs, and other nefarious activity.
The border on the Texas side was not an idyllic monument to clean and honest government. It seems as though the sprouting towns…Donna, Weslaco, Edinburg, McAllen, Ed Couch, Elsa, Mercedes, and other smaller places did pretty well with their administrations and internal politics. The County government, however, always seemed to be contaminated, especially by favouritism, pilfering of treasury, covering friends through favours by the Sheriff, and a hundred other sins of commission and omission.
The Vera Cruz Incident:
One of the most troubling and stunning events during this time was caused by a minor incident involving a small bunch of insects being allowed to grow into an 1,800 pound gorilla. The American Navy would dock in the Panuco River harbourage, adjacent to downtown Tampico. This was fine and convenient, except that there was a "decent district" with nice saloons and restaurants where many of the upper-drawer people from Tampico and the area would dine, listen to nice live music, perhaps dance a little, and have a monster smorgasbord of a seafood platter and then go home.
The problem is that American sailors on shore leave, at times, seem to misplace their book of etiquette at times. There was some kind of discord, and a couple of the sailors…six were in attendance…had a bit of an accident when they threw their beer mugs and rum bottles into the 6 X 20 foot special order mirror that backed up the bar. Many bottles of mediocre and fine liquor, along with the mirror, were lost. The police came, the sailors went to the lock-up downtown, save for one who was to go and inform the officer of the guard on the American warship in port that the comisario would like to speak to an officer concerning some of the sailors of the said ship.
To make a four day story as brief as possible, the American counsel came, declaring that Washington was very distressed that American sailors were imprisoned for no known reason, and that there would be no blackmail paid for their release. An American naval officer of said ship then spoke to the counsel to advise him that everyone present that evening, Mexican and foreign, were certain that the six American sailors had acted violently without provocation. Finally, the President of the United States of America sent a declaring that money had been secured to cover the damages, and that he demanded the return of the sailors, post haste. Also, the President demanded that General Victoriano Huerta, provisional President of Mexico, would be required to fire a cannon salute to the ship's flag as it left harbour.
Huerta telegraphed the White House declaring that all matters had been complied with, except that it would require that the American ship fire a military salute to the Mexican flag that flew over the Harbour Master's Headquarters, first. Everyone in Washington, D. C. was furious.
Some days later, an American flotilla pulled into Vera Cruz's harbour. There was one battleship, and two destroyer class ships, and various other ships under American flags. In fairly short order, the centre of the city of Vera Cruz had been reduced to rubble, with many buildings, even from the colonial era, destroyed and left as heaps of rock, brick, and cement and plaster dust. The number of dead and wounded…mostly civilians…was significant. In the many hundreds.
The American ships then extracted a German cargo ship from the harbour, and off loaded a score thousand of German Mausers and tonnes and tonnes of ammunition and other necessities that were bound to the Armies of General Victoriano Huerta to aid in his fight against Villa and company.
Please find a copy of the book, "A Diplomat's Wife in Mexico" by Edith O'Shaughnessy. It recounts the days immediately after the assassination of Madero and Pino Suarez and the Bombardment of Vera Cruz and a million other glimpses into life in Mexico City and Mexico "during Revolution". It is not the work of a hysterical woman or activist. She is solid as a block of copper. (the book is truly worth purchasing)
The Plan de San Diego:
This is where the Past begins to speed up and becomes Prologue. With the disorders in Mexico and the fervour some, perhaps many, Mexicans had concerning everything from the loss of Texas and the American Southwest to real and imagined mistreatment by the Gringos, a cauldron was put to boil, and it began to spill over fairly quickly.
We shan't burden the reader with the names of a hundred principals that might still pertain to families living in or around the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It must suffice to say that Mexican and Mexican American radicals wrote up a "Plan" that initially called for the assassination of all Anglo American males, aged 16 or more residing in Texas and other "territories annexed by the Imperialist Yanquis". People to be spared would be women and children, and all Mexican people except those Mexicans who sided with the Anglo element. Also, Negros and Indians were to be exempt from these reprisals.
During the early part of 1915 it is estimated that between 90 and 140 people were murdered by activists taking the measures required in the "Plan". That document was essentially a Declaration of War by people who did not have legal standing or authority from any source. While the extreme lower Southern tip of Texas bore most of the carnage, there were assassinations up to Del Rio and Eagle Pass, as well as San Antonio, Karnes and Kenedy cities southeast of San Antonio, and in the ranch country north of McAllen / Brownsville and west of Corpus Christi.
Excesses and over-reaction brought on an ugly period in the history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley's four counties (Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, and Willacy) specifically and southernmost Texas generally. The State of Texas sent down 90 Texas Rangers, only about a third of them qualified, astute, and intelligent enough to determine who was a "bad" Mexican, a "good" Mexican, an itinerate Mexican, or an American citizen Mexican. The other two-thirds were essentially white-trash, big-badge and big belt-buckle thugs…known as "Special Rangers".
Governor Jim Ferguson was a real pill, and came late to the party in terms of the goings-on on the Border. He also had legal challenges and problems with the State Legislature that would result in his impeachment and removal from office (in perpetuity) in 1916. During all of this, Texas's two United States Senators and the legislature petitioned the United States Army's infantry and cavalry units to be pressed into service along the border. They wanted, at a minimum, coverage from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the twin cities of Laredo…about 165 miles of badlands, rattlesnakes, and danger.
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| Scene from the area around Tlaxcalantongo, Puebla, truly a wondrous place. This scene is at or very near where Carranza either was slain by his own guards, or where he took his own life after fleeing the train taking him to Vera Cruz, and then to forced exile in Cuba. His ultimate destination was to be Spain. _________________________________ |
The "Plan de San Diego (Texas)" was, in fact, the document / movement that caused the folks in Washington, D.C. to mobilise many thousands of infantry and cavalry, both Regular Army and National Guard units, to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, the San Ygnacio area between Fort Ringgold in Rio Grande City and Laredo, and other places on the border, in Texas. An example of exercises and parades can be seen photographs we have provided up a few paragraphs.
Before that deployment was done, there would be around 100,000 personnel and they would have had numerous minor but significant engagements, with casualties on both sides. Although many already know this fact, my own father served in the 1st Army, 12th Regiment (mounted) for apparently about four years, leaving the service in 1933. He spoke little about his service but did indicate that it became a bit rough at times because of the anarchists, Russian and German spies, and Italian and other European anarchists and saboteurs. He thought it was fascinating that they could receive information from informants in Mexico and get the word down to an "end of the world"place like Rio Grande City in such a manner as to frequently make a detention.
In those years, the mescaleros (liquor transporters) were also arrieros (donkey and mule load bearers), and they would go from the border to San Antonio…some 200 miles by trail to deliver liquor to speak-easies in San Antonio. Sometimes the liquor was not up to snuff and a lot of folks came down with damage to their systems…some even died.
But the Cavalry maintained and mounted and large mission up to and including 1935, built around the 12th Regiment and other elements.
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| The famous Zimmermann note. Please take note that it was routed through Galveston, Texas ________________________ |
In spite of the melodrama of "Black Jack" Pershing's chase after Villa in Chihuahua, Villa was essentially an Amerophile and had been heard several times explaining that he simply wanted his homeland to be more like Texas. How much of that was to please the Gringos, I do not know. But what is known is that Villa was very comfortable around them and he even considered "Black Jack" Pershing to be his friend.
Another point that seems salient when considering affairs of the day and of the place, is that Carranza's army had greater reliance on German arms and munitions, while Villa's armaments were primarily American and British.
Also, the note was forwarded in 1917, and with the Americans going in to fight, it was improbable that anyone in the Mexican power panoply would have wanted to take the risk of letting the Germans use Mexico as a floor mat and bullet catcher.
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What we have tried to do with this missive is to demonstrate the complexities of what led up to putting Military people, en force, on the border…not by a few hundred or two thousand disarmed National Guard specialists. Eighty years ago the deployments were in the scores of thousands and they consisted of Regular Army and very competent National Guard units from Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania.
As is normal for your humble servant, we shall probably decide to "extend our remarks" concerning these times and other times that might be relevant to the interests of our readers. Until that moment, perhaps to-morrow or the day after, I shall begin that process.
In a subsequent post, we shall reach back just a bit, and fold in more supporting information concerning this post, and include a bit about the "magical disappearing Presidents and Heroes" syndrome that lent an air of cultural depression throughout Mexico for two generations.
In a subsequent post, we shall reach back just a bit, and fold in more supporting information concerning this post, and include a bit about the "magical disappearing Presidents and Heroes" syndrome that lent an air of cultural depression throughout Mexico for two generations.
As usual we deeply appreciate the interest and time each reader invests with us.
EL GRINGO VIEJO
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