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Hi everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is
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Estodia's Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin American history.
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Sometimes it's horrible until the tavy topics like critcism, corruption
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and genocide, but more than that, it's also by resistance,
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power and community. And today Chico Cano. Oh okay, Like
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two episodes ago, I was gonna say, do you want
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to talk about how you got here? Yes? I am
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doing that right now. Two episodes ago, in the Porvened
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massacre episode, I mentioned this name, but there was so
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much to cover in the episode that I just I
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just said his name and I didn't, you know, go
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into detail because it was already so heavy. But like
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I said, in that episode, before a company B of
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the Texas Rangers executed fifteen Mexican men and boys in Borvened,
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they asked each one are you Chicocano? And then I'm like,
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why did I This needs to be explained. It feels
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unfinished if I don't say more about Chico Kano, right.
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I think all you said then was that he was
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like a bandit, right, and he had just stolen I
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don't know what from where, and it was wanted basically
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he was wanted. Yes, So who was Chico Kano? That's
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what I'm answering today. You tell me, okay, tell me
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so it And sorry before I get into that, this
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is going to be a shorter episode because there's not
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a lot of information out there on him. You know
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what short episodes are arcade to mix in. Yeah, they are,
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they are and we need them. Yeah. So who was
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Chico Kano? It depends what you ask. If you ask
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the Texas Rangers Loz rien Chez, los Rinchez, Yeah, the
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Texas Rangers, he was a deranged Mexican bandit who led
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a band of one hundred Mexican bandits and stole cattle
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and killed in discriminately along the US Mexico border. WHOA.
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And actually, if you ask most white Texas history enthusiasts today,
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they would give you the same answer because they love
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the Texas Rangers. They love vigilancy, justice, they love the
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stories of white men upholding the law. And I say
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that in quotation marks. They love all this. Yeah, they
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really do. So if you ask them, they would tell
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you the same thing about Chico Kano. But us here
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I started as ant known, that's not what we're about right,
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we're about the opposite. Yeah, So who was Chicokano? Why
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were the Texas Rangers so obsessed? Are you so obsessed
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with me? Thank you? I was waiting for that and
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I knew you were delivered, like I had no question
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of course. Yes. Fanancis Cocano was born in Mexico in
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the eighteen eighties and in his very young adulthood, like
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I don't know, probably eighteen nineteen. It's hard because there's
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no exact years or ages right, any of this. But
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at some point in his young adulthood he ran a
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ranch with his brothers Manuel, Jose Antonio and Robe Larvo.
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And this branch of layers was near San Antonio del Bravo,
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across the river from Candelaria, Texas, but in Mexico, right,
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But again the border was made up, a line was drawn,
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and these places that were once the same place are
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no longer the same place now it was split. Yeah,
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but that's how close like they were. They could see Gandelaria,
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Texas from their ranch, and so the Gano brothers were
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very successful cattle ranchers. But like I couldn't stress enough
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in the five episodes that we did about mob violence,
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toward Mexicans. We know, this was a very tumultuous time period,
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especially along the border. And yes there was violence on
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both sides, but nothing like the violence Mexicans faced. The
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violence and prejudice Mexicans face right from white people during
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this time period. It was like not matched at all,
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Like one side was defending themselves. Yes, and again, five thousand,
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at least five thousand Mexicans died during this time period.
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And that's a Texas alone, without counting everywhere else. You know,
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so there was a lot of cattle theft and ranch
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raids during these years. I don't want to discount that
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that did happen, Okay, but one man, Joe Sitter, who
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was a Texas Ranger for a while and then at
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some point he was a US Customs Person officer or whatever.
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But it's hard to tell when he stopped being a
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ranger and then became a US Customs person because he
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was doing the same thing. He was often riding out
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with the Texas Rangers on missions and like literally doing
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the same violent shit to Mexicans. Again celebrated by the whites,
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by those that love the Texas Rangers, like this is
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a very celebrated man me, I don't know. So one man,
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Joe Sitter, who owned a ranch near Valentine, Texas, over
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one hundred miles away from the Gano brothers ranch in Mexico.
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Joe Sitter, this man blamed Chico Gano for every single
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raid in the region. And I cannot find anywhere why
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Joe Sitter was doing this. I don't know. I don't
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know why or where their past first cross, Like, I
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couldn't tell you. I searched and searched, and I just
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I don't know. At some point in his life, Chico
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did have several run ins with the Texas Rangers. There's
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even a very famous picture of him with two Texas Rangers,
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but they're just standing there. They're just like chatting with him.
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They're not arresting him. He was a very well known
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person during this time period. He had legendary marksmanship skills,
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like people would go up to him and tell him, like, hey,
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can you shoot this from this far away? And he
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would do it. And also he was very well known
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for his ranch and his like you know, raising animal
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cattle whatever, Right, So he was a very well known Mexican.
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I just don't know when he and Joe Sitter crossed paths,
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but he did have several run ins with the Texas Rangers.
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They knew who he was even before his official indictment. Again,
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he was never charged with anything. He was never arrested
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at all during the time period that Joe Setter was
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out here accusing him of every single raid in the region.
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Maybe he was just jealous, right, That's what it seems like,
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because he was not yet supposedly leading a band of
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one hundred bandits like that wasn't a thing yet, but
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he was still out here accusing of every single rat
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that was happening. And Juan Sanchez, nephew of Chico, stated
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in an interview published in the book Bandilo, The Story
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of Chico Kano, the Last Western Bandit Side not that
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book is very expensive. I could not get it for
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this episode. How much was it? Oh my god, like
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one hundred dollars. I guess it's very limited. I don't know.
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But in that book, his nephew says that Chico had
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it in for Joe Sitter because Joe Sitter had beaten
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him with the lasso even as he sat captured a
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top of Joe Sitter's horse. Okay, but this where I'm
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talking about right now. This has not happened yet. Joe
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Sitter was already accusing Chico of banditry. Okay, so he
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hated him before that. Yeah, he already hated him before this, Okay,
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So again I can't figure out what the cause was. Again,
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I just think he was jealous, honestly. So during this time,
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Chico had not yet done any actual banditry. And I
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say that in quotations always because I don't believe it.
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But he was very well known. Like again, him and
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his brothers were so successful. He was legendary and his
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shooting skills, and there was one incident before. Actually, I
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can't figure out when this incident happened because again it's
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very hard to find dates of when anything happened. So
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I don't know if this happened before or after Joe
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Sitter was officially after him. But at some point Chiko
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Kano did accidentally kill another man, and some people, the
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way they tell it make him out to be some vicious, crazy,
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deranged Mexican. It doesn't seem that that's the case from
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like anecdotal accounts of this incident. But someone said, okay,
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we'll shoot the bottle off this guy's head from some
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distance away, and he missed and the guy died, damn.
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And so that seems like the real version. But again
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if you look at these I don't know, I'm making
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website names up, but like Texas History or Border History
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Texas and it's like ran by someone white. That's not
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the way they would tell the story. But from what
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I can find, that's how it happened. So maybe that's
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that was another reason why he was out for him,
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like Joe Sitter so against Chico. But I don't know
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because I can't tell when this happened. I can't find dates. Weird,
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but well not weird because how long ago, right, So yeah,
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I'm not sure when this happened. But in nineteen thirteen,
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Joe Sitter, along with customs inspector Jack Howard and cattleman
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Ja Harvest, set out on a journey to apprehend Chico
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for his supposed crimes that again he was not committing.
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He was not charged with like at all. But they
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were like, we need to apprehend this bandit even though
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again at this point, no official crimes, no, no known crimes, right,
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no evidence of anything. But they set out to catch
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him and they found Chico at the wake of a
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family friend. Oh wow, what kind of shit is that?
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It feels rude, right, And the way they tell this story,
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and I'm just like, I can never trust anything these
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people say, right, But the way they tell the story
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is that Chico asked them to let the women at
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the funeral go because they're innocent. They're women, right, And
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the very kind Texas rangers agreed. Wow generous. Again, I'm
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not sure Joe Sitter was a ranger at this point,
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or if he was already to go there. Yeah, but
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he was there doing the work of a Texas ranger anyway,
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even in this incident of him trying to apprehend Chico
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for no reason. It was something that a ranger should
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have been doing. But I don't know if he was
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or was not one at this point. So the very
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kind white men agreed and they let the women leave,
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But among them were Mexican bandits dressed as women to escape,
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and all of them, every single one, got away, except
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for Chico because he was unusually tall for a Mexican
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in this time period, and so he stood out in
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a dress. They were like, that's not a woman, that's
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a man. Yes, yes, So that's the story they tell.
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So they detained him, put him on one of the
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horses they had to transport him. And now this is
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where the incident that I mentioned earlier, this is where
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that takes place, where Chico was beaten with a lasso
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by Joe Sitter while tied up on Jositer's horse. And
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so someone that knew Chico and his brothers saw this
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from across the river, and they went out to tell
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Chico's or and they rode out to tell Chico's brothers
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what was happening that some men had Chico, and they
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his brothers fearing that it's not an unfounded fear of
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theirs that that Chico wasn't going to make it to
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any jail like that that they killed. Yes, because this
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was so common, like discussed in all those episodes about
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mob violence towards Mexicans. So yeah, very very valid fear
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of theirs that that they were just going to harm Chico.
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And so they made a plan to rescue him, Yeah,
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fearing he wasn't going to make the jail, and so
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Roberlarvo and Manuel Gano rode out and ambushed Joe Sitter
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and the two other men and Jositter received a bullet
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to his head and somehow s arrived which is that
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time period. Yeah, the Harvest guy Ja Harvest was shot
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in the leg and he lived too. Howard that one
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he died several days later from a bullet wound from
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a stomach. And so the brothers and Chiko they escape together.
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And so this is the event that made Chico an
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official bandit. They officially declared him a bandit widely like
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they would put out newspapers that said Kano's Bunch is
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believed to be part of a gang of one hundred
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Mexicans or so formally followers of General Orosco in the
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Mexican Revolution, who are now engaged wholly in the outlawry
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and attached to neither the Granta or the Via factions.
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They steal cattle on the Mexican side and then smuggle
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them into Texas or vice versa. They steal horses on
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the Texas side and smuggle them into Mexico. They have
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had a number of clashes with the state and government officers,
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and only two weeks ago two of the Mexicans were
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killed like that that was titled one hundred men in gang.
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Another one Chiko Kano's band of one hundred outlaws terrorized
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border like, so they were putting things out like this.
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But he at this point hadn't hadn't up until them, right,
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he hadn't done anything like this. But so when they
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pulled up at the wake, and that's when he tried
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to get away by dressing it was a woman, and
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he was caught, right, and then the brothers took him
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from basically detainment with the rangers. Right, what was the
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reason they went to the wake? And no reason? No?
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Okay again for no and I so he at this
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point he was wanted for no reason because he had
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been detained for no reason. Right, Joe Sitter kept blaming
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him for every single raid, but but tying him to
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that there was really no reason to suspect that at all. Yes,
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Joe Redders were or setter my band SI, Yes, sorry, Yeah,
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I don't care. I said it for you. Yeah. At
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that point of them going to apprehend him, he hadn't
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done anything, okay, except that Joe Sitter kept accusing him
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of these raids. But yeah, so I mean to me,
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they're just rescuing their brother from yeah, probable death. Yeah,
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and if that's a crime then I don't know, but
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that's when they declared him a bandit officially. They would
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put out newspaper articles like this that I just read.
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And so after that is when he joins the Mexican Revolution.
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But he had like no ties to anyone but his family.
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Even as part of the Mexican Revolution, he switched sides
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a lot. He was with uh Garanza and then later
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with Pancho VI. Yeah, like you know, he was switching
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sides a lot. And during this time he had a