The decade period from 1910 through 1919 is frequently termed “The Bandit Era” by some and is also termed the “Time of the Bandit Trouble,” “Era of the Bandit Wars.” Still others have called it “The Era of Shame.” Southern Methodist University historian Benjamin Heber Johnson goes even further by terming it a forgotten revolution. The reader will learn why all these names are relevant.
The era, by whatever name we call it, is intimately tied in with the major event that occurred south of the Rio Grande in Mexico in the decade 1910-1919. This was the Mexico Revolution as distinct from the Mexican War for Independence from Spain (1810-1821). Following a revolution in 1876 Porfirio Diaz had brought some prosperity and order to Mexico. However the wealth of the country was in the hands of less than 4 percent of the people. Naturally the majority was dissatisfied with the status quo. On the Texas side dissatisfaction also existed among the common men of Mexican ancestry.
Events that were to transpire in the Valley during the 1910-1919 decade did not rise full-blown out of the blue. They had antecedents that had simmered over many decades in the past. Perhaps the first confrontation with the new realities of the situation came to the Nueces Strip occupants was when they, largely Hispanic, found themselves definitely in Texas and the United States after Mexico had finally conceded the territory to the Americans after its loss of the Mexican-American War in 1847. Incursions by Anglo settlers soon followed as did conflicts over old land grants and land ownership. Naturally resentment and resistance were to arise.
They were first exemplified by the actions of Juan Cortina and his War. Historians have made their choices whether he was a hero (starting in 1859) trying to rectify the intolerance and inequality dealt to Hispanics north of the Rio Grande, or a bandit acting without merit to any of his actions, or of a complicated individual whose character lies between the two poles. Certainly, at the time Hispanics needed a leader to defend their dignity and rights.
Following the Civil War, Texas under Reconstruction, and the heavy-handedness of Unionist Governor Ed mund J. Davis, lawlessness had increased throughout the state. The Rio Grande Valley was especially susceptible to cattle thievery by Mexican Bandits. After the Democrats eventually regained control upon the election of Governor Richard Coke in 1873, he quickly commenced efforts to eliminate the banditry. He created two branches of the Texas Rangers, a Frontier Battalion to fight the still-warlike Indians in West Texas, and a designated Special Force commanded by Leander H. McNeeley, a former Confederate officer. This latter force was financed by cattle ranchers. McNelly’s special group had the specific task of bringing order to the Nueces Strip, a hotbed of cattle thievery and banditry, where Juan Cortina, the Mexican military chief for the Rio Grande frontier, was conducting periodic guerrilla operations against the local ranchers.
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