Is hatred and violence against Mexicans as American as apple pie?
People of Mexican ancestry in Texas have been reminded of this maligned status by the recent El Paso massacre, and are trying to tell the rest of the country that white-supremacist terrorism targeting their communities is nothing new.
The death of 15 Mexicans in the 1918 Porvenir massacre — a bloodletting that Texas Rangers participated in — was only one of hundreds of such killings committed by white-supremacist gangs during the violent decade of the 1910s.
All the victims were Mexicans and Mexican Americans in living in Texas.
“The pre-El Paso feeling was, if you’re not a citizen, keep your head down. If you are a citizen, watch out, everyone gets lumped together,” Juan Cartagena of LatinoJustice told The Guardian. “Post-El Paso — now everybody’s suspect, and it’s very scary for us to think that you cannot go about your livelihood, your work and your family life.”
Source: The Guardian (United Kingdom), porvenirmassacre.org, Texas Observer