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Everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is a
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Study as Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin
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American history. Sometimes it's horrible and deals with heavy topics
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like racism, corruption, and genocide. But more than that, it's
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also by resistance, power and community. And today we're just
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continuing with a very depressing topic. In the last two episodes,
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I talked about the history of lynching, mostly focusing on California,
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with like some sprinkles of New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas.
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And I did mention, like the number of official lynchines
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of Mexicans in the US from eighteen forty eight to
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nineteen twenty eight is five hundred and forty eight. And
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that's for all of the US. When using the official
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definition of lynching from the Tuskegee Institute, there must be
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legal evidence that a person was killed. That person must
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have met death illegally. A group of three or more
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persons must have participated in the killing, must have acted
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under the pretext of service to justice, race, or tradition.
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And that's the number that you know if all was
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under that definition. But like I said, when you expand
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that definition to what are still considered legal lynenes. Today,
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that number grows in insane amount, especially in one state,
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TXs Yes, Texas, and that's thanks to one group, Texas Rangers.
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That's right. Sorry, it sound like for this gump you do,
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and I love it. Don't ever change my coworkers may
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fund me for my text and accent. Yeah, I mean, okay, yeah,
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it's not good. Okay, I can't do one either, That's
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why I didn't try. The years from nineteen ten to
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nineteen twenty were especially brutal, and this time period is
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known by a couple names. Do you know them? I
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don't think so. La Matanza. Oh my god, I was
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gonna say that popped in my head and I was,
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but I was guessing, and I was like, but I
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don't think I've ever heard that before. I was just
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gonna guess you would have been right, damn. Yeah, this
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is a lesson. Don't doubt me to me, Yeah, from
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me to me, don't doubt me. Never doubt Carmen or
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you know in English, the Massacre or Laura de Sangre
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the Hour of Blood. Oh okay, I think you mentioned
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that last episode. This violence was committed by state police, vigilantes,
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and military, and that includes the Texas Rangers. The time
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period that the Texas Rangers enacted the most violence in
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those years was nineteen fifteen to nineteen nineteen. Estimates from
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nineteen ten to nineteen twenty of Mexicans that were killed
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during that time period ranges from three hundred to five thousand. Wow.
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But this number is not exact because so many murders
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went unreported. But let's start with the enactors of the
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majority of this violence that Mexican were facing, and of
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course also indigenous people, the Texas Rangers. While so many
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vid them as heroes, especially in Texas, others as monsters
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and evil. What's evil incarnated? Evil incarnate, Yes, that evil incarnate,
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especially the the sentence of those murdered by the Texas Rangers.
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But you wouldn't know it. You wouldn't know they did
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these things when you hear about them, and how amazing
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and heroic they are, and how revered they are. Bevered, Yes,
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thank you. In eighteen twenty three, Stephen F. Austin, one
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of the early Anglo settlers in the land that would
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become Texas, organize a small group of men to protect
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other settlers and their property. They call themselves Rangers. After
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Texas claimed the independence from Mexico in eighteen thirty six.
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These rangers worked to keep Anglo settlers safe in the
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new Republic of Texas. But the safety was at the
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expense of others, of course, who they deemed enemies of
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the republic, the Kamanche, the Tonkawas, the Apaches, the Kiowa,
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I mean, all indigenous people and Mexicans. Right, And it's like, okay,
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yes there was violence, but there wouldn't be violence if
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you weren't there where you shouldn't have been in the
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first place, you know, right, Yeah, this is the epitome
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of te la buscastes pendejo. Right, yeah, like you were
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looking for it, but real not like what no, but
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really really Terran people say it too. Yeah, and their yeah,
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their enemies. They literally declared their enemies. Quote Indian warriors
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and bacqueros, that's what they said their enemies were. And
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Texas Rangers also worked to preserve the enslavement of black people.
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This was instrumental to their work. They tracked down and
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punished enslaved black people who were trying to cross the
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Rio Grande into Mexico for their freedom, and the Texas
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Rangers broke existing laws that forbade them from crossing into Mexico.
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Of course they did. They weren't allowed to, but they
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were doing it all the time. And when they did this,
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they not only did it to capture the person that
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was trying to escape, but also to terrorize Mexican towns
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helping them. Of course, like you know, last episode, I
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mentioned one of the claims that were done to that board.
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I don't remember the name of the board anymore, or
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a group or committee whatever it was called. Yeah, but
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one of the claims was the majority of those claims
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that were approved. It was all from one incident by
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the Texas Rangers in Guahila. This was one of those
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instances where they went into capture someone trying to escape
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enslavement and then they burned the whole town down. My goodness.
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And one Texas Ranger described Mexicans as black as n
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words and ten times as treacherous. Wow. And this is
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a group very celebrated by some. Yeah, they as an
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organization today barely barely recognize their racial terror they enacted
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on anyone who was their enemy. Shocking. Some historians state
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that the Texas Rangers was one of the first prominent
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Western vigilantes to be endowed with legal authority, the other
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being actual comps who, as we all know, probably by now,
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their jobs started as capturers of enslaved people that were
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trying to away. Yes, and that's their legacy, you know,
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like if that's their beginnings, yikes, how can we even
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like trust them? Right, like, that's what that's my thing,
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you know, No, for real. And one law that made
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it so easy for them to go around killing and
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the name of justice was the lay the fuga or
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the law of flight or law of escape. Both have
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been used. Is it like fugitive fuga fuga? Yeah, So
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the Texas Rangers would release prisoners and order them to run.
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Then they would shoot prisoners while they ran, because once
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they were running, then they were they had all the
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right to kill them. Oh my god, that was le fuga.
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And in their reports they would just say prisoner was
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killed to prevent escape or for resistant arrest. Just like now,
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how they plant weapons and shit like that. Right Like again,
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presidential times, nothing changes, Everything is the same. One man
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who was fighting back and led a rebellion against the
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New Republic and the Texas Rangers. His name was Juan
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Nepo Museno Cortina who will be his own episode because
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I had no idea about this. They were called the
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Cortina Wars. But yeah, he's gonna be his own episode.
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But he described the Texas Rangers as vampire guys's of
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men who rob property and hunted and murdered Mexican men
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like wild beasts. Did you send me a screenshot of
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this this vampire quote? Yes, I did. I just send
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you a screenshot of this. Yeah, okay, okay. Immediately immediately
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I thought of vampires, and I was like, oh my gosh.
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She said that gayas did her research. She really did. Also,
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the whole time that we were reading that book, I
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it took me too long to realize Rinchez was people
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trying to say rangers in Spanish. Are you serious? It
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took me a very long time. Yeah, but I know
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that now. Yeah. But seeing Cortina here described them as vampires,
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and then like reading the book just gives it a
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whole new yeah, real meaning like litreal, which was wild too.
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This wasn't some metaphor that even just made up. Like
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back then, they were referring to them, yes, yeah, as vampires,
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vampiric but the revolt of eighteen fifty nine didn't accomplish
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what could I wanted within ten years land that was
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one Mexican and of course indigenous Like that goes without saying.
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It decreased and decrease. As the years went by, violence
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and technology was on the side of the Anglo settlers.
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Their favorite technology and tool for colonization was barbed wire.
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Barbed wire. Barbed wire, Yes, and I wasn't surprised to
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learn barbed wire. It's a tool of the enemy. From
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its inception was a tool of colonization. I remember trying
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to jump fences and getting stuck numbers skidding. No, that
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never happened. No, we did jump fences, but there's not
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really broadwire. I feel like it came more out of
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use by the time we were jumping fences because of
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how dangerous it is. Yes, yeah, baradwire was patented in
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eighteen seventy four by a man named JF. Glinden, and
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with it, Anglo rnchers were able to fence in areas
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to claim as their own. They put down bombed wire
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to block access to rivers and streams, public rivers and
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beacause all land was basically public back then, exactly. They
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placed bart wired down on places that were for communal
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farming or communal like grazing, like you know, cattle would graze.
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That pisses me off so much. Yeah, and that's what
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they used it for. I'm not surprised. As the decade
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went by, ranch lands were all private and the Mexicans
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that once farmed it as ranch owners where now the
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manual farm labor were shaking our heads. This of what
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you're talking about just reminded me like when I read
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the book about King Leopold, because not only Belgium, but
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also the British and other European powers did the same
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shit all over Africa, and King Loopold specifically in the Congo,
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he really fucked shit up there, yeap. And like land
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was communal, shit did not work the way they made
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it more and forced it to be, and they killed
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hundreds and hundreds and thousands for their greed. I'm just like,
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oh my god, yeah, okay, insidious truly yus. There was
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even a same that grew from this go on, el
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a lambre rino, el lambre wow. With the barbed wire
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came hunger wow. And of course it sounds better in
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Spanish because it rhymes, it says, it rhymes. Yeah, this
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is your sign to learn Spanish. Okay, Yeah, everything sounds cooler,
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it really does. And of course barbed wire was used
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for this because even you know now you could still
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say it was a tool of like the oppressor, because
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like what's used against the un House. Yeah yeah, And
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so I was not shocked to see this, but I
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didn't know it. And just reading that saying was like,
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I just say, you know, every time I wrote another sentence,
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I was more angry. Yeah. Yeah, no, It's like infuriy
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and like eye opening it at the same time exactly.
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And the King Ranch was one of the first to
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be fenced with barbed wire. This ranch was made up
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of two million acres of land and was seen as
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the greatest symbol of Anglo domination in the borderlands. Two
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a million acres. Wow. That again was communal land stolen
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with barbed wire. A town formed around this King Ranch,
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and the town was called Kingsville, and the King Kleburg
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families owned this town. Basically they operated everything in the town,
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the Keebrig Bank, the kings In, the Kingsville Ice Rink,
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the Kingsville Ice End Milling Company. I thought it was
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an ice rink. And what a fitting name, kings because
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this bears a resemblance to the feudal system. Oh yeah, yeah,
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the Kingsville Power Company. Oh my god, Oh my god.
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I could go on and on and on. Everything was
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King's or Keburg. Wow. This is also where the Texas
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Rangers ended up building their headquarters, and the Texas Rangers
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were often referred to as king Ranches private security. Of
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course they were, yeah many times. I don't know actually
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if we have said it a lot or not, but
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I think it's something that we talk about a lot
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and read stuff about all the time or listen to
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stuff about it all the time. But like the police
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is here to protect businesses, the rich property? Yeah, property, Yeah,
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they're not here to keep you safe. Now, And look
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at that goes all the way back, Oh yeah, from
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the beginning. And of course yes, because what were in
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slave people considered property? What was their first job to
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catch those and slaves people? It's all connected, those are
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the lines. All of this paired with Texas laws that
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were growing and growing targeting Mexican property owners, all of
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this increased racial tensions. In eighteen ninety one, there was
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another revolt, this one led by Kariano erasmo Garza. And
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this group was made up of hundreds of Mexicans on
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both sides of this new made up border people of
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all classes. Rich merchants, farmer landowners, lower middle class workers,
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poor farmers, and landless ranchers made up this group that
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was now revolting. Nothing united them more than revenge. Yes,
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they rode into battle with this motto on their hat bands,
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free border people, lebres front Theriso. I like that me too,
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and yeah. Among them was mostly Mexican and Mexican Americans,
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but also a few Italians that had married into Mexican families. Okay,
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well they are the white Latinos yeah, before Spaniards actually yeah,
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and now the Irish, well no, I think they're saying Irish. No, no,
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that's redheaded people. On TikTok they're saying red headed people
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are black. Yeah, I remember see that. Yeah, and what's
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the actress? Ao? Is? I? How say your name? She's Irish? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
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you don't know. Just go to TikTok and look this up. Right,
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none of this makes sense unless you're on TikTok and
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the Army and Texas Ranger tactics to put down this
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rebellion were especially brutal. The US Army captain in charge
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of this effort, Captain John Gregory Burke, wrote the following
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about the situation. The cheapest thing to do is to
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shoot them down wherever they are found skulking about with
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arms in their hands, and to burn down some of
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the ranchos which gave them shelter. So killing the rebels
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was not enough. They also needed to devastate the surrounding community.
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This is repeated even now. Yeah, this is this is
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what we're seeing in Gaza, yes, and what we saw