A lonely historical marker stands in the desert winds of Presidio County in far West Texas, telling of the 1918 Porvenir Massacre, when 15 Mexican American members of a farming and ranching settlement were murdered by a company of Texas Rangers.
The marker is the result of efforts by San Antonio-based nonprofit Refusing To Forget working with the Texas State Legislature to give a more complete historical picture of life along the Texas borderlands.
Saturday morning at Our Lady of the Lake University’s Sueltenfuss Library, Refusing To Forget will seek stories from the public for its ongoing oral history project Historias de la Gente, collecting the history of Mexican Americans in San Antonio and South Texas as told by residents.
The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and features a 10:30 a.m. panel discussion with City Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) and civil rights activist Rosie Castro and a noon discussion with Refusing To Forget staff. It is free and open to the public.
A historical exhibition, Life and Death on the Border: 1910-1920, will also be on view, with photographs, postcards, court documents and rare artifacts that give glimpses into daily life in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas and reexamine Texas historical events of the early 1900s.
La Matanza
Christopher Carmona, OLLU visiting associate professor of Mexican American studies and English, compared the Historias de la Gente project to National Public Radio’s StoryCorps, which collects the life stories of everyday Americans.
Carmona said stories collected through the project have contributed to the Life and Death on the Border: 1910-1920 exhibit, which originated in 2016 at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin. Not all recount such tragedies as the Porvenir Massacre, though violence is a part of the history and ancestry of the region, the Rio Grande Valley native said.
“I grew up with these stories from my grandfather who lived during this time period,” Carmona said, referring to the early part of the 20th century, “and he would tell me the stories of what they call the rinches.”
The term is a derogatory reference to the Texas Rangers used by Mexican Americans who maintain a connection with stories of state-sanctioned violence perpetrated on their communities. The period of violence is collectively known as La Matanza, which translates as “The Massacre,” when thousands of ethnic Mexicans disappeared or were killed amid tensions between ranchers on each side of the border.
“A lot of descendants have these stories, that we’ve been able to start to identify what happened here,” Carmona said of oral history contributions by the public.
Artifacts welcome
But despite ongoing aggression, Mexican American communities continued to thrive throughout the region, and those positive stories are also included in the Historias de la Gente archives and the Life and Death on the Border: 1910-1920 exhibit.
The civil rights efforts of the South Texas Chicano movement are a prominent part of the regional history, from the Crystal City student walkouts of 1969 to the attempt by Texas state Rep. José Tomás Canales to call the Texas Rangers to account in 1919.
Artifacts are also welcome in the archives, Carmona said. One contributor donated a wedding dress worn by an ancestor, and other objects include an accordion and a saddle from the period.
To celebrate the culture of the region, the Saturday event at OLLU will also feature festive elements including the Danza Azteca dance team and mariachis, and lunch will be served during the noon panel discussion.
The event will be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person. The Life and Death on the Border: 1910-1920 exhibit will be on view through March 31, then travels to the Houston Holocaust Museum in late 2024.
