What's Amiss in Tejano History?: the Misrepresentation and Neglect of West Texas Author(S): Arnoldo De León Source: the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol

What's Amiss in Tejano History?: The Misrepresentation and Neglect of West Texas Author(s): Arnoldo De León Source: The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 120, No. 3 (January, 2017), pp. 314-331 Published by: Texas State Historical Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44647125 Accessed: 02-05-2021 04:02 UTC

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This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The counties and a few notable settlements of the Edwards Plateau and Trans Pecos regions of Texas. Map drawn for the author courtesy of Brittany Wollman and Mykisha Hampton.

This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms What's Amiss in Tejano History ?: The Misrepresentation and Neglect of West Texas

By Arnoldo De León*

Scholars standing toScholars toTéjanos Téjanos ofin havethe standing in sizable Tejano theregion contributed ofthat sizableTejanois West history, Texas. regionhistory, As but a consequence,they that butmuch have they is West tohave paid advancing paid Texas. only As fleeting fleeting a consequence, theattention attention under- Tejano historical scholarship has salient faults. First, it has favored South Texas over other regions of the state. Second, the historiography has pos- ited that the same historical forces, developments, and encounters that molded Tejano life in South Texas shaped the lives of West Texas Téjanos. That literature is amiss as it ignores the fact that circumstances particular to West Texas shaped Tejano circumstances there. Third, most works assume that West Texas is an extension of the rest of the state and noth- ing is distinctive about Tejano life there. Few works suppose that West Texas history has unique features and that differences separate West Texas Tejano history from South Texas Tejano history. Considering the discernible characteristics of West Texas, it cannot be affirmed that forces similar to those that determined the broader Mexican American narrative configured the West Texas Tejano experience. To correct the record, new works should portray West Texas Tejano life as shaped by connectedness to place. The distortion of West Texas Tejano history is most pronounced in the chronicling of the time period stretching from the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848 to about the mid-twentieth century. During that century's span, West Texas differed from the eastern section of the state in its history, its development, and its character. Not recognizing this

* Arnoldo De León has published widely in the field of Tejano history. Presently, he is Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Angelo State University. For helpful suggestions in conceptualizing and preparing this essay, the author thanks Ty Cashion, Sam Houston State University, author of the forth- coming intellectual history of Texas, "The Lone Star Mind"; Glen Sample Ely, independent scholar from Fort Worth; and Randolph B. Campbell and Ryan R. Schumacher, editors of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.

Vol. CXX, No. 3 Southwestern Historical Quarterly January 2016

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peculiarity, historians assumed the Mexican American presence in West Texas to have been not much more than a mirror reflection of Tejano life elsewhere. Sometime around the 1950s, however, West Texas began to resemble more closely other parts of the state. West Texas Tejano history seems to have followed the same trajectory, aligning itself with what occurred in Mexican American history throughout the rest of Texas. No broad consensus exists on the boundaries outlining West Texas. For some historians, West Texas begins along the 98th longitude, continues along this coordinate towards San Antonio, and there the line takes a turn westward in the direction of a point somewhere between Eagle Pass and Del Rio, then follows the Rio Grande to El Paso. Others perceive West Texas as embracing the breadth of land stretching from the 1 ooth meridian and extending from there toward El Paso County in Far West Texas.1 A more narrow designation is applied in this essay however. Herein, the region is delineated as encompassing the larger parts of the Edwards Pla- teau and Trans-Pecos.2 Under this configuration, the region's northern boundaries stretch from modern-day Runnels County, to Midland and Ector Counties and continue west to the New Mexico boundary at El Paso County. Its southern boundary is the Rio Grande extending from El Paso to Kinney County, then north from the border back to Runnels County. Just as scholars disagree on the exact margins that identify West Texas, so do they differ on what lines demarcate South Texas. In this essay, South Texas is considered to encompass an expanse from Brownsville on the Rio Grande, west to Eagle Pass in Maverick County, northeast to San Antonio, then southeast to about Corpus Christi, and from there back to the Lower Rio Grande Valley.3 With some exceptions, much of the scholarship on Téjanos focuses on this part of the state to the comparative neglect of areas such as West Texas. It stands to reason that major attention would be given to Téjanos in South Texas for developments, traditions, and significant incidents there

1 Ty Cashion, "What's the Matter with Texas?: The Great Enigma of the Lone Star State in the Ameri- can West," Montana The Magazine of Western History 55 (Winter 2005): 10; Glen Sample Ely, Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2011), 11, 15-17. See also "Introduc- tion: West Texas, an Overview" in Paul H. Carlson and Bruce A. Glasrud (eds.), West Texas: A History of The Giant Side of the State (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014), 1. 2 Excluded in coverage are the Old Northwest Texas and the Panhandle regions, both of which gener- ally fall under the designation of "West Texas." This was done for a variety of reasons. First, the author takes a deep personal interest - as a long-standing resident of San Angelo and as professor of history at Angelo State University - in the history of the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos areas. Equally important are considerations of article length and scope. To cover Northwest Texas and the Panhandle adequately required taking into account a magnitude of dynamics that stretch time frames, economic currents that follow different paths, and demographics particular to that vast expanse of the state. 3 Adapted from Daniel D. Arreóla, Tejano South Texas: A Mexican American Cultural Province (Austin: Uni- versity of Texas Press, 2002), 20. A discussion of the varying boundaries that the scholarship has given to South Texas may be found in Martha Menchaca, Naturalizing Mexican Immigrants: A Texas History (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011), 13-14.

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Map drawn for the author courtesy of Brittany Woilman and Mykisha Hampton

Map 1 : Texas, with the counties of West Texas (for the purposes of this essay) and South Texas shaded.

appeal to the historian's inquisitiveness.4 It is a cultural "Tejano homeland," in the words of geographer Daniel Arreóla.5 Noteworthy aspects of the region such as community building traceable to the colonial period attract study, and the continued spread of Spanish-speaking communities since has kept South Texas in scholarly focus.

4 Due to space constraints, the scholarship on South Texas is not discussed herein at great length. Readers might gain an acquaintance, however, by reading: Arnoldo De León, 'Texas Mexicans: Twentieth- Century Interpretations," in Texas Through Time: Evolving Interpretations, eds. Walter L. Buenger and Rob- ert A. Calvert (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991), 20-49; Arnoldo De León "Whither Tejano History: Origins, Development, and Status," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 106 (January 2003), 349-364; and Arnoldo De León, "Mexican Americans," in Discovering Texas History, ed. Bruce A. Glasrud, Light Townsend Cummins, and Cary D. Wintz (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014), 31-48. 5 Arreóla, Tejano South Texas, 58-62. As of 2010, Hispanics living in South Texas counties outnum- bered Hispanics living in West Texas counties by three to one: 2,891,806 to 931,124. Of Hispanics living in greater West Texas, however, almost two-thirds resided in El Paso County. Source: 'Texas Popu- lation, 2010 (Historical Race Ethnicity Categories)," [Accessed March 19, 2015].

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Considering that Tejano historiography is weighted in favor of South Texas, the impression can be readily taken that the history of Téjanos in the "homeland" represents the history of Téjanos elsewhere in the state. But West Texas must be considered a discrete zone with its own geography, culture, and history. It follows, then, that the history of Téjanos in West Texas cannot be a replica of the history of Téjanos in the South Texas "homeland." While too much diversity exists in West Texas for a simple portrayal of Tejano life therein, so does diversity typify South Texas. Geo- graphically and topographically, South Texas contains varying subareas such as the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the Coastal Bend, assorted kinds of vegetation, and different rates of precipitation. Agriculturally, South Texas is a region of mixed farming and ranching. Industry fares well in many of its towns and larger cities, among them San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Laredo, McAllen, and Brownsville.6 Heterogeneity aside, a "common" Tejano narrative emerges from the region. Similarly, West Texas has its variations. Economically, it is suited primarily for livestock raising, though pockets within it lend themselves to agriculture. During the twentieth century, West Texas became a boom setting for petroleum exploitation. While largely rural in orientation, West Texas possesses an urban dimension. Cities such as Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, Del Rio, and El Paso and smaller towns such as Fort Stockton and Alpine have been magnets for industry. Of these West Texas cities, El Paso throughout the twentieth century most closely resembled the larger South Texas cities in size, in its diversified economy (that included an industrial arm), and in its sizable Mexican residential areas ( barńos ). Despite its heterogeneity, aridity sets West Texas apart from other sections of the state. Due to this important physiographic factor, West Texas relies heavily on ranching. For decades its grasslands helped support the raising of cattle, sheep, and goats. Despite depletion of these grasslands during the last few decades, prospects for the region as ranch country appear promising, according to historian Glen Ely. He observes: "Properly managed and in balance with available resources, rangeland grazing of cattle, like the grazing of bison centuries before, is a historic and 'natural' use of the region's ecosystem."7 Farming in many parts of West Texas did not gain traction as a thriving enterprise until after World War II, when new irrigation methods permitted the growing of cotton and sorghum,

6 Arreóla, Tejano South Texas, 16, 19-20, and 1 2 1-160. See also data for Brownsville, McAllen, and Lar- edo the Texas Almanac, 2014-2015 (Denton: Texas State Historical Association, 2014), on pages 255, 312, and 404, respectively. For the same cities, see the articles in Ron Tyler, Douglas E. Barnett, Roy R. Barkley, Penelope C. Anderson, and Mark Odintz (eds.), The New Handbook of Texas (6 vols.; Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996), I, 776-779 (Brownsville); IV, 75-77 (Laredo), and IV, 362-363 (McAllen). 7 See Ely, Where the West Begins, 1 10-119.

This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 2 o 1 7 What 5 Amiss in Tej ano History f 319 but the enterprise presently appears not to have the same prospect for long-term survival as does ranching due to a drop in the region's water table.8 Many counties in West Texas since World War II have found pros- perity in oil and gas production, but therein the landscape remains over- whelmingly rural with ranch spreads punctuating the expanse all the way to El Paso city.9 Particular traits and characteristics tie West Texas to the American West, making it an identifiable region distinct other parts of Texas. Histo- rians such as Ty Cashion and Glen Ely have called on fellow historians to accept West Texas as forming part of the broader western United States.10 West Texas, they argue, comes under the force of western historical currents, which influence the region's Tejano communities.11 This standpoint places sections of the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos in a wider western regional context and urges a rethinking of the understanding scholars have of Tejano history. Further bonding West Texas to the American West is geography, especially aridity. Rugged terrain, desert-like flora, and average annual rainfalls of twenty inches or less are ecological features of the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos that make it more western than eastern.12 West Texas, a product of its environment and a distinctive place that must be considered on its own terms, is fertile ground for research that recognizes variance in West Texas Tejano history going back to colonial times. The tale of eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century Mexican- descent colonizing of West Texas waits to be told. Early on people from Mexico established communities in West Texas and some still bear Spanish names: examples include Ysleta, Socorro, San Elizario, El Paso, Presidio, Saragosa, Lajitas, and Porvenir. In those frontier settlements of the Trans- Pecos and others in the region, Mexicans improvised by relying on indig- enous physical resources. Adobe structures became the preferred housing style for families. The native flora flavored dishes put on the table. To live in a land characterized by water scarcity, people devised methods for re- directing watercourses.13 Obviously, Mexican-descent pioneers everywhere have been adept at managing nature's staples in their attempt to over-

8 Ibid., 15, 108-1 10. 9Arnoldo De León, "Mexican Americans in the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos Region, 1900-2000: A Demographic Study," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 112 (October 2008): 163-164. 10 Among works noting a West Texas distinctiveness are Cashion, "What's the Matter with Texas?"; Ely, Where the West Begins-, Carlson and Glasrud (eds.), West Texas; Arnoldo De León, "Region and Ethnicity: Topographical Identities in Texas," in David M. Wrobel and Michael C. Steiner (eds.), Many Wests: Place, Culture, and Regional Identity (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997), 259-274; and Arnoldo De León, Tejano West Texas (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2015). 11 Cashion, "What's the Matter with Texas?," 8; Ely, Where the West Begins, 11, 1 24, 1 28. 12 Ely, Where the West Begins, 7-8, 1 1, 15-16, 102-1 10. 13 De León, Tejano West Texas, 3-11, 25-27.

This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 320 Southwestern Histońcal Quarterly January come problems in a hinterland, but little has been written on how Téjanos engaged in community building on the West Texas frontier. Studies ought to focus on this process, identifying differences between the Tejano settle- ment of West Texas and the peopling the southern regions of the state. It rests with scholars to launch inquiries into whether survival techniques developed in arid states in Mexico such as Chihuahua produced ways of life distinguishable from areas of the state settled by pioneers with origins in Tamaulipas and Coahuila. Racial prejudice, de facto segregation, and threats of violence have plagued Téjanos, whether residents of South Texas or West Texas.14 Schol- ars expectedly take note that South Texas has been the center of a dispro- portionate number of Anglo-Tejano conflicts, many of them attributable to race thinking rooted in the Deep South.15 But according to historian Glen Ely, racial attitudes toward ethnic minorities in the western sections of Texas have more closely resembled those of the American West than the South. In eastern parts of the state, Mexican Americans and African Americans have been an enduring component of the population. Com- paratively, in West Texas like in many regions of the rural West, Mexican Americans became a minority by the late nineteenth century and did not recover demographically until the later decades of the twentieth century (African American communities, also, were less common in West Texas until they expanded in more recent times) . Anglo West Texans thus did not enact rigid southern-style Jim Crow laws targeting Téjanos; discrimination, prejudice, and segregation rested on social traditions.16 Nor did West Texas Anglos turn as frequently to violent deeds such as lynching.17 Texas Ranger conduct, police intimidation, and Border Patrol harassment consistently distressed Tejano communities. However, while South Texas scholarship depicts the Texas Rangers ("los rinches ') and the Immigration and Naturalization Service ("la migra) as acting as enforcement arms of

14 The existence of racism in West Texas can be easily substantiated, but one recent publication docu- ments it in Pecos and other West Texas communities when Tejano sports teams in the 1 950s visited from El Paso. See R. Gaines Baty, Champion of the Barrio: The Legacy of Coach Buryl Baty (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2015), 155-156. 15 David Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987), 82-83, 220-228. 16 Ely, Where the West Begins, 75, 87-88. 17 Ibid., 17, 21, 23-24, 75, 86-97; Cashion, "What's the Matter with Texas?," 12-13. The subject of lynching is discussed in "State of the Field: American Lynching History," Journal of American History 101 (December 2014). Michael J. Pfeifer writes: "The Midwest and West were not as directly burdened by the legacy of antebellum racial slavery, and the trajectory of rough justice and lynching took different forms in those regions." But he cautions that geography, local culture, and the historical moment could produce different levels of violence in the American West. Michael J. Pfeifer, Lynching Beyond Dixie: American Mob Violence Outside the South (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013), 4, 5. William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb's Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), details no Mexican lynchings in West Texas.

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white society in the control of Mexicans, these two bodies do not appear to weigh frightfully on the historical memory of West Texas Téjanos.18 In the face of oppressive conditions, many segments within the Tejano community - both in South Texas and West Texas - attempted inclusion into mainstream society, pursuing it through accommodation or resis- tance activities. South Texas has historically produced major struggles for justice and equality, and so biographers gravitate to the region, find- ing many of the "great men" in Tejano history hailing from there.19 The most significant politically engaged organizations representing Téjanos, among them the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the American G.I. Forum (AGIF), the Raza Unida Party (RUP), and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) , trace their origins to South Texas.20 Like their South Texas counterparts, West Texas Téjanos established LULAC councils in El Paso, San Angelo, Del Rio, Fort Stockton, and other West Texas towns shortly after the organization was founded in South Texas in 1929. These West Texas councils

18 Certainly, the Texas Rangers and other law-enforcement authorities, including the U.S. military, perpetrated similarly coercive acts upon West Texas Téjanos. The is documented effectively in Miguel Antonio Levario, Militarizing the Border: When Mexicans Became the Enemy (College Station: Texas A&M Uni- versity Press, 2012). This work mainly focuses on the period of the Mexican Revolution; a final chapter offers a general treatment of the Border Patrol as it conducted border surveillance during the period of Prohibition. Overall, the scholarship is lean on experiences West Texas Téjanos had with police bodies such as the Texas Rangers and the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the period between the 1920s and the 1950s. One finds passing references to Border Patrol involvement in El Paso for this time period, but then finds a spike of activity in more recent times, such as in Operation Blockade/Hold the Line. See for instance, Timothy J. Dunn, Blockading the Border and Human Rights: The El Paso Operation That Remade Immigration Enforcement (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009). 19 David McDonald, José Antonio Navarro: In Search of the American Dream in Nineteenth-Century Texas (Denton: Texas State Historical Association, 20 10); Jerry Thompson, Cortina : Defending the Mexican Name in Texas (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007) ; Elliott Young, Catarino Garza's Revolution on the Texas-Mexican Border (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004); Jane Clements Monday and Fran- ces Brannen Vick, Petra' s Legacy: The South Texas Ranching Empire of Petra Vela and Mifflin Kenedy (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007); J. Gilberto Quezada, Border Boss: Manuel B. Bravo and Zapata County (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999); Maria Eugenia Cotera, Life along the Border: A Landmark Tejana Thesis (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2006); Félix D. Almaraz, Knight without Armor: Carlos Eduardo Castañeda, 1896-1958 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999); Louise Ann Fisch, All Rise: Reynaldo G. Garza, the First Mexican American Federal Judge (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1996); Ignacio M. García, Hector P. García: In Relentless Pursuit of Justice (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2003). 20 The scholarship on these organizations is extensive. On the League of United Latin American Citi- zens: Benjamin Márquez, LUI AC: The Evolution of a Mexican American Political Organization (Austin: Uni- versity of Texas Press, 1993); Cynthia Orozco, No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed: The Rise of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009) ; and Mario T. Garcia, Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1950-1960 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 62-83. On the American G.I. Forum: Carl Allsup, The American G.I. Forum: Origins and Evolution (Austin: Center for Mexican American Studies, the University of Texas at Austin, 1982); Garcia, Hector P. Garcia. On the Raza Unida Party: Ignacio M. García, United We Win: The Rise and Fall of the Raza Unida Party (Tucson: Uni- versity of Arizona Press, 1989); Armando Navarro, The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998), and José Angel Gutierrez, The Making of a Chicano Militant: Lessons from Cristal (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998). On the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund: Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, Texas Mexican Americans and Postwar Civil Rights (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015), 65-1 18.

This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 322 Southwestern Historical Quarterly January certainly established a record of political involvement by the mid- 1930s. Both the El Paso and San Angelo LULAC councils, for instance, registered written protests in 1936 against the Social Security Board's instructions that Téjanos applying for social security identify themselves as "Mexicans" instead of "white."21 Still, West Texas chapters did not engage in strident crusading to the degree of their South Texas colleagues. It was the leadership of South Texas LULAC that took charge of the famous Independent School Distńct et alv. Salvatierra case in 1 93 1 , which called for desegregating the Del Rio schools.22 In need of some historiographical explanation then is why West Texas Tejano civil rights struggles lagged behind the animated movements traceable to earlier times in South Texas. Historians could account for this irregular pace by noting the existence of a multiplicity of movements in history (and that different ones possess their own motivating forces and character) , allowing that the human experience is complicated and that discrete surroundings produce disparate energies. On the other hand, historians can turn their attention to neglected areas and demonstrate that in fact regions such as West Texas did produce incidents of collec- tive community action, as well as daring, albeit lesser known, leaders such as Maria Cardenas in San Angelo, Pete Gallego in Alpine, and Salvador Guerrero in Odessa.23 In addition to considerations of the ways West Texas Tejano history diverged from the larger Texas epic, many other questions remain unan- swered. Historians, for instance, have not explained why the Catarino Garza war of 1891 against Porfirio Díaz did not galvanize Tejano communities in West Texas as it did in South Texas. After all, there existed reasons among Mexican-descent inhabitants in West Texas to despise Diaz as well as to distrust los ameńcanos against whom Garza also railed. Why, furthermore, did parts of greater West Texas such as Presidio County, with its majority Hispanic population since the nineteenth century, not spawn political bossism as did counterpart South Texas counties like Starr and

21 On activism in El Paso in 1936, see Mario T. Garcia, "Mexican Americans and the Politics of Citi- zenship," New Mexico Historical Review 59 (April 1984): 187-204; and Mark Overmyer-Velásquez, "Good Neighbors and White Mexicans: Constructing Race and Nation on the Mexico-U.S. Border "Journal of American Ethnic History 33 (Fall 2013): 23-24. On San Angelo, Arnoldo De León, San Angeleños: Mexican Americans in San Angelo, Texas (San Angelo: Fort Concho Museum Press, 1985), 52. 22 Guadalupe San Miguel Jr., "Let All of Them Take Heed": Mexican Americans and the Campaign for Educa- tional Equality in Texas, 1910-1981 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987), 77-81; Jennifer R. Nájera, . The Borderlands of Race: Mexican Segregation in a South Texas Town (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015), 60. 23 Arnoldo De León, "Blowout 1910 Style: A Chicano School Boycott in West Texas," Texana 12 (1974): 1 24-140; Arnoldo De León, "María Cárdenas, San Angelo Chicano Era Activist," in Invisible Tex- ans: Women and Minorities in Texas History, ed. Donald Willett and Stephen Curley (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2005): 226-236; Rivas-Rodriguez, Texas Mexican Americans and Postwar Civil Rights, 13-44; Marty Beard, 'The Right to Learn: Desegregation in a West Texas Tomi," Junior Historian 52 ( 1 992) : 9-1 2; and Salvador Guerrero, Memorias: A West Texas Life (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1995).

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Zapata, which sustained machine rule under Mexican American bosses (the Manuel Guerra family and Manuel Bravo, respectively) into the i95°s? Compared to their counterparts elsewhere, women in South Texas seemingly have demonstrated greater agency as local community organiz- ers, labor activists, teachers, and literary figures, and so students focusing on gender topics lean understandably toward South Texas.24 Certainly, though, Mexican American women in the West Texas region were historical actors. Scholars know something about Paula Losoya Taylor, the founder of Del Rio, as well as some early West Texas colonizers such as Ramona Alderete, wife of Pablo Alderete, of San Angelo. But it is evident (at least at this stage of research) that as a group, West Texas Tejanas have not matched the record of their South Texas or big-city counterparts. In the region no notable counterpart to ajovita Idar of Laredo, who advocated better working conditions for Tejanas, or of a labor organizer such as Emma Tenayuca of San Antonio can be found. Mario T. Garcia in "The Chicana in American History: The Mexican Women of El Paso, 1880-1920," published in 1980, documented women-led labor activity in El Paso city for the late 1910s, but the wider scholarship makes practically no mention of similar movements for the area spanning from San Angelo to rural El Paso County.25 Labor historians have discovered a high level of union involvement as well as strike activity in South Texas, and thus like their colleagues special- izing in other fields, perceive the region as research rich.26 West Texas,

24 Orozco, No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed ; Gabriela Gonzalez, "Two Flags Entwined: Transbor- der Activities and the Politics of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in South Texas, 1900-1950" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 2005); Adriana Ayala, "Negotiating Race Relations through Activism: Women Activists and Women's Organizations in San Antonio, Texas, during the 1920s" (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2006); Julia Kirk Blackwelder, Women of the Depression: Caste and Culture in San Antonio, /929-7939 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1984), 130-151; Zaragosa Vargas, "Tejana Radical: Emma Tenayuca and the San Antonio Labor Movement During the Great Depression," Pacific Historical Review 66 (November 1997): 553-580; Zaragosa Vargas, "Emma Tenayuca: Labor and Civil Rights Organizer of 1930s San Antonio," in The Human Tradition in America Between the Wars, 1920-1945, ed. Donald W. Whisenhunt (Wilmington, Del.; Scholarly Resources, 2002), 169-184; Gabriela Gonzalez, "Carolina Munguia and Emma Tenayuca: The Politics of Benevolence and Radical Reform," Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 24 (2003): 200-229. 25 Mario T. Garcia, "The Chicana in American History: The Mexican Women of El Paso, 1880-1920," Pacific Historical Revieiv 49 (May 1980): 315-337. 26 Emilio Zamora, The World of the Mexican Worker in Texas (College Station: University of Texas Press, 1993); Roberto R. Calderon, Mexican Coal Mining Labor in Texas and Coahuila, 1880-1930 (College Sta- tion: Texas A&M University Press, 2000). Recent works include Timothy Paul Bowman, "What About Texas?: The Forgotten Cause of Antonio Orendain and the Rio Grande Valley Farm Workers, 1966-1982" (M.A. thesis, University of Texas at Arlington, 2005); Bowman, "From Workers to Activists: The UFW in Texas's Lower Rio Grande Valley, "Journal of the West 47 (Summer 2008): 87-94; Bowman, "Revising 'la huelga': Antonio Orendain, César Chávez, and the South Texas Farmworkers, "Journal of South Texas 26 (Spring 2013): 20-49; Mary M. McAllen Amberson, "'Better to Die on Your Feet, Than Live on Your Knees': United Farm Workers and Strikes in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, 1966-1967 Journal of South Texas 20 (Spring 2007): 56-103.

This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 324 Southwestern Historìcal Quarterly January however, has not been as deeply marked by labor agitation among Téja- nos. As students of the American West recognize, many in the region's sub-sections (including West Texas) have long staked their livelihood on the livestock industry. Would a western ranching economy explain the absence of labor unionization in West Texas? Mexican Americans under- took numerous strikes in the farms, mines, and industries of the Southwest (as well as South and Central Texas) after the 1920s, but few occurred in the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos regions.27 An important exception was the Sheep Shearers' Strike, which broke out in the Concho country in 1 934. But this strike was more reflective of West Texas's connection to the ranching West (where the Sheep Shearers' Union was among the most active unions); it involved mainly Mexican American tasinques (sheep shearers) walking out to protest unfair labor arrangements with crew cap- tains ( capitanes ) and sheep owners who allowed them not much beyond a passable living.28 Episodes such as this one bring up questions about the connections between ranching West Texas and other range subsections in the American West. Determining the general absence of labor protest in the farms, industries, and mines of greater West Texas obliges scholars to borrow insights that, alternately, help explain labor discontent elsewhere in Texas. In speaking of the South Texas Mexican workforce, historians find dual-wage systems, reserve labor pools, and various forms of labor controls used to exploit workers. What type of jobs and employment opportunities were available to the Mexican working class in ranching West Texas? Was the economic system race-based? Posing such questions generates curiosity as to why Téjanos in South Texas responded to their oppression through strike activity and Mexican Americans in West Texas did not. Did West Texas's ranching economic system mute the perceived oppression South Texas Téjanos felt in working in the more diversified and oppressive economy of South Texas? Very little research has been done on town living in largely rural West Texas compared to investigations undertaken on the urban barrios of Central and South Texas. What of the way that Téjanos in West Texas went about adjusting life within their respective enclaves? Certainly, as common throughout the state, they established small business districts, built homes, erected churches, observed Mexican holidays, and engaged in lei- sure activities. But yet to be illuminated is what difference, if any, separated

27 Several strikes did take place in El Paso city. See Garcia, Desert Immigrants , 1 10-126; Garcia, Mexican Americans, 175-198; and Perales, Smeltertown, 131-136. Also, there would be the cotton pickers' strike of 1933 in the El Paso area. Zaragosa Vargas, Labor Rights are Civil Rights: Mexican American Workers in Twentieth-Century America (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005), 68-70. 28 Stuart Jamieson, Labor Unionism in American Agriculture (New York: Arno Press, 1976), 225-229; Arnoldo De León, " Los Tasinques and the Sheep Shearers' Union of North America: A Strike in West Texas, 1934," West Texas Historical Association Yearbook 55 (1979): 3-16.

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West Texas barrios from ones in the world of South Texans? Instructive for ascertaining possible variations is historian Monica Perales's exemplary study of Smeltertown in El Paso; the monograph shows how residents in that segregated quarter fashioned a social world that came to satisfy them as bicultural Mexican Americans.29 Research similar to Perales's might point to differences or resemblances between barrio life in greater rural West Texas and barrio life in South Texas towns such as San Antonio, Lar- edo, Corpus Christi, or Brownsville. Can the geography of a region have a neutralizing effect on literary and artistic expression? South Texas, for instance, has long been a stimu- lating setting for writers of fiction. A cluster of effervescent communities lie along the South Texas border from Brownsville to Eagle Pass; they offer prospective authors infinite possibilities for plots, a motley array of characters for judgment, and themes of every sort for their stories. Urban areas such as San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Houston, and El Paso have pro- vided a similar context for creative works. Certainly, Mexican Americans throughout the state share common values, customs, family traditions, experiences and much more. Yet, rural West Texas Téjanos have produced little comparable to the novels, short stories, and poetry pouring from South Texas. Studies should be undertaken to ascertain the causes behind this lack of literary production. Along the Rio Grande between Del Rio and El Paso, only the town of Presidio (population 5,106 as of the 2010 U.S. census) is to be found as the setting for about the only Tejano novel in greater West Texas: Aristeo Brito's El Diablo en Tejas.30 To explain this imbalance, scholars might study whether factors such as greater distance between towns and small municipalities, the physical features of West Texas, or the slower cadence of rural life therein curtail intellectual expression or simply thwart storytelling?31 On the other hand, perhaps historians should question the idea that West Texas Téjanos have not been as creative as South Texas Téjanos. In recent years, solid studies have appeared reversing the long held-notion that Mexican Americans have no literary heritage. Among other tomes, works by Raúl Coronado

29 Perales, Smeltertown, 3. :w Aristeo Brito, El Diablo en Tejas (Tempe: Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 1990). M West Texans such as Elmer Kelton found the region an inspirational place to write from and write about. Although an outsider, Chicagoan Nelson Algren wrote about racial injustice in Brewster County during the 1930s; see Todd M. Michney, "White Racial Identity in the 1930s Big Bend: The Texas Writ- ings of Nelson Algren," Journal of Big Bend Studies 13 (2001): 235-252. Easterner Edna Ferber saw West Texas a proper setting for her novel Giant (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1952), which included West Texas Téjanos. Comparatively, however, other regions of the state have produced a greater number of fiction writers and a larger volume of works. Lou Halsell Rodenberger, Laura Payne Butler, and Jacqueline Kolosov (eds.), Writing on the Wind: An Anthology of West Texas Women Writers (Lubbock: Texas Tech Univer- sity Press, 2005) indicate few authors from the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos area and almost none of the contributions feature a plot with the region as its locale.

This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 326 Southwestern Historical Quarterly January and John Moran Gonzalez serve as templates for those interested in recovering overlooked literary scripts in West Texas and chronicling the Tejano literature tradition there.32 Several imaginative approaches can be employed, among them the insightful "new" histories, to inquire of the many neglected components of the West Texas Tejano story.33 The "New Religious History" urges historians to peer into the more intimate aspects of Mexican American religious life. Investigations take historians into looks at traditions common among the laity such as the pledging of promesas (vows or promises) , erecting of altarcitos (home altars) , holding of posadas (reenactments of Mary and Joseph's search for a resting place) and jamaicas (bazaars), the observance of a young woman's coming of age ( quinceañeras ) , as well as to the involvement of church members in parish societies such as the Guada- lupanas or even to inquire as to attitudes on birth control, divorce, and gay unions.34 The extent of the Tejano Protestant presence and of Protestant proselytizing among Téjanos in the West Texas region remains unstudied. The "New Military History," instead of focusing on battlefield exploits, asks pertinent questions about how groups and communities respond to their country's overseas struggles. Did towns and rural settlements in West Texas rally to endorse a war effort? Young men from West Texas towns and ranches fought in every World War II theater, as recent studies have shown. The New Military History also investigates the more personal aspects of the war experience, looking into post-traumatic stress disorder, faith and trust in God under fire, and into the secondary consequences war duty has on loved ones left at the home front (including the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos region).35 Historians ought not continue over- looking these aspects of the region's Mexican American history. The "New Sports History," a relatively new field in Mexican Ameri- can scholarship, no longer stresses team drama or individual exploits on the gridiron, baseball field, basketball court, and elsewhere. Instead, it

32 Raúl Coronado, A World Not to Come: A History of Latino Writing and Print Culture (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2013), and John Moran González, Border Renaissance: The Texas Centennial and the Emergence of Mexican American Literature (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010). 33 Grounded works on Mexican Americans in the region include De León, Tejano West Texas. See also De León, San Ange leños; García, Desert Immigrants *, and María Eva Flores, 'The Good Life the Hard Way: The Mexican American Community of Fort Stockton, Texas" (Ph.D. diss., Arizona State University, 2000) . A listing of related publications may be found in Bruce A. Glasrud and Arnoldo De León, Téjanos in West Texas: A Selected Bibliography, "Journal of Big Bend Studies 15 (2003): 239-256. 34 On Catholic religious life in Houston, see Roberto R. Treviño, The Church in the Barrio: Mexican Ameri- can Ethno-Catholicism in Houston (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006). 35 José A. Ramirez, To the Line of Fire: Mexican Texans and World War I (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009), pp. xv-xviii; Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez and Emilio Zamora (eds.), Beyond the Latino World War II Hero : The Social and Political Legacy of a Generation (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009), 1 25-i 55; Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez and B. V. Olguin (eds.), Latina/os and World War II: Mobility, Agency, and Ideology (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014); and Arnoldo De León, "Wartime USA: West Texas Téjanos in World War II and Korea," in De León, Tejano West Texas, 1 27-155.

This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 2 o 1 7 What 's A miss in Tej ano History f 327 uses sports as a means to get inside communities as they deal with prejudice, civil rights violations, labor exploitation, and a miscellany of urgent issues such as gender discrimination and the status of immigrants.36Just about every community in West Texas had a baseball team that excelled on summer Sundays; at the same time young athletes stood out in high school sports events. Such feats still lend themselves to the New Sports History. Transnational history offers another perspective for reconstructing West Texas Tejano history. This popular avenue of research examines cross-border zones, and in the case of Téjanos proposes that historical currents unfolding in Mexico ripple across to the state of Texas, affect- ing such matters as Mexican American identity, culture, customs, trade, community building, labor, politics, and, of course, immigration. Taking this approach to West Texas permits asking an assortment of questions, among them ones germane to contemporary times. What effect, for instance, does immigration from northwestern Coahuila or Chihuahua have on the "browning" of the region?37 Despite the lacuna presently existing in West Texas history, materials for writing it abound. There is for everyone's convenience the Internet, with its many wondrous and infinite possibilities. Various sources available online include the Portal to Texas History , based at the University of North Texas Libraries in Denton, Texas; Newspapers.com; Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980, which is compiled by the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project at the University of Houston; and the United States Census. Untapped public records include archival and manuscript collections at the Whitehead Memorial Museum in Del Rio; the West Texas Collection at Angelo State University; the Archives of the Big Bend at Sul Ross State University in Alpine; the Nita Stewart Haley Memorial Library in Midland, the University of Texas at El Paso's Special Collections; and of course those located in Mexico. Traditional sources to be researched include government bulletins and publications, court records, tax rolls, and consulate reports. Also available are newspapers on microfilm, parochial newsletters, church bulletins, and published county

36 Among the works addressing the New Sports History and Téjanos are Ignacio M. García, When Mexi- cans Could Play Ball: Basketball, Race, and Identity in San Antonio, 1928-1945 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013) and scholarly collections such as Jorge Iber and Samuel O. Regalado (eds.), Mexican Ameri- cans and Sports: A Reader on Athletics and Barrio Life (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007); Jorge Iber (ed.) , More than Just Peloteros: Sport and U.S. Latino Communities (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2015); and the special issue, edited by Iber, on "Latinos and Sports in American West ," Journal of the West 54 (Fall 2015). Also of relevance are Richard A. Santillan et al., Mexican American Baseball in the Alamo Region (Charleston, S.C: Arcadia Publishing, 2015) and Santillan et al., Mexican American Baseball in South Texas (Charleston, S.C: Arcadia Publishing, 2016). 37 On the shift in the region west of the 100th meridian by the year 2040, from a minority Hispanic area to a majority Hispanic area due to white outflow and Hispanic influx, see Ely, Where the West Begins, 23-24.

This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 328 Southwestern Histońcal Quarterly January histories, which in some cases reference Hispanic presence. Oral interviews of course can be invaluable in this reconstruction of the West Texas Tejano past, as well as memoirs when available. Such sources would serve scholars well not only for studying the era before the mid-twentieth century when West Texas Tejano history seems to have followed a course somewhat different than that of South Texas, but also for the years after World War II, when the entire Lone Star State shifted course and joined the process of national Americanization, although it obviously maintained a distinctive regional heritage.38 The region of West Texas during that era underwent its own dramatic transfor- mation. New West modernization supplanted the Old West structure and the chronicle of the greater region began to approximate the narrative of the rest of the state. What changes took place in western Texas following the mid-twentieth century? In the rural areas, the livestock industry expanded, although in many parts it was increasingly controlled by large corporations. Most of the advances in the countryside were made in the petroleum industry. Ben- efitting from new recovery technologies for oil drilling, West Texas by the 2010s had become an important region for oil exploration and oil exploitation. In fact, the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos, as constituent parts of West Texas, had helped the region produce most of the state's oil and gas.39 Although West Texas remains primarily rural, its larger cities after the 1950s grew at a quickened pace, just as did other urban areas in the state. Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Odessa, and San Angelo now dis- play twenty-first century amenities and have come to resemble versions of South Texas urban centers such as San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Laredo, McAllen, and Brownsville. The presence of malls and shopping plazas, restaurant chains, airports, up-to-date medical units, and colleges and universities along with an increased interest in arts, entertainment, and organized sports showed that West Texas towns remained in step with developments elsewhere. In these cities, and some of the smaller towns such as Alpine and Fort Stockton, a West Texas version of industrialization mirrored what unfolded elsewhere in the state. Older factories, foundries, and meatpacking plants continued growing or new ones appeared to sup- ply retailers. There occurred expansion in banking, communications, and in the many branches of the service sector. El Paso, the most important of the cities in West Texas, most closely matched strides made in the industrial and commercial sectors of Lone Star state metropolises further east.40

S8 Nancy Beck Young, "Beyond Parochialism: Modernization and Texas Historiography," in Walter L. Buenger and Arnoldo De León (eds.), Beyond Texas Through l ime: Breaking Away from Past Interpretations (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 201 1), 240-252. 39 "Introduction," Carlson and Glasrud (eds.), West Texas, 4, and James T. Matthews, 'The Edwards Plateau and Permian Basin," in ibid., 7 1 . 40 Miguel A. Levario, "The Trans-Pecos-Big Bend Country," in ibid., 85-87.

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Populations of West Texas Cities, 1950 and 2010

1950 2010 Del Rio 14,211 35, 591 El Paso 130,485 649,121 Midland 21,713 111,147 Odessa 24.495 99-94° San Angelo 52,093 93,200

Source for 1950: "Texas Almanac: City Population History from 1850-2000," , [Accessed Sept. 16, 2016]. For 2010: "Population 2000 and 2010," Texas Almanac , 20/2-20/5 (Denton: Texas State Historical Association, 201 2), 42 1-447.

Mass culture brought modernization to the state, including West Texas, at mid-century. Media, including television, the record business, and mov- ies, dispersed to all Texans the latest trends in music, fashions, and fads, in the process altering regional ways and homogenizing culture. The cultural revolutions of the 1960s and subsequent changes to national culture could not but prevail upon West Texans to join the mainstream. Of course, West Texans dictated the terms of their conformity. Too many "Old West" variables stood between parting with old habits and manners of thinking. The geography of the region from San Angelo to El Paso did not change much after World War II. The Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos remained rural, lightly populated, and remote. Water shortages persisted. The setting there thus preserved a western feel, and despite changes, many in the region still identified with an older place. What of Tejano history in West Texas? Did it also experience a transfor- mation due to forces unleashed by Cold War industrialization? Did it now align itself with Tejano history elsewhere? Like other West Texans, did Téjanos in the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos regions pick and choose from elements of modern culture? Before answering such questions directly, it needs to be indicated that the broader state of Tejano history for the period after World War II is not abundant enough to make accurate comparisons. According to a review of the vast scholarship that constitutes Tejano history, only about 30 per- cent of this literature treats the era after the year i960.41 Thus it is difficult to determine if West Texas Tejano history in this era follows the path of

41 The review is based on a survey of works by the author published every October from 1995 to 2016 in the Southwestern Collection section of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.

This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 33° Southwestern Historical Quarterly January the larger Tejano history narrative, or if a particular West Texas Tejano history persists. Still, it can be inferred from this published scholarship that West Texas Tejano history after the mid-twentieth century adhered to a course close to that taken by other Téjanos. Illustrating this confluence were demographic patterns. Reproduc- tion rates and new immigration from Mexico began to change the ethnic face of West Texas. While the region remains predominantly white, Mexican American growth in some counties (and towns) has overturned old majorities. As in South Texas, today in West Texas it is not unusual to find a mingling of Anglos and Mexicans in some counties, while in others Mexican-descent people have become the majority group.42 West Texas Téjanos have also become more politically active after World War II. The record shows that the level of Tejano political activism in West Texas picked up by the 1950s and followed steps taken in campaigns for civil rights in other regions across the state. World War II veterans and their allies now helped expand LULAC councils and AGIF chapters (founded in South Texas, 1948) to protest race-based obstacles still foiling Mexican American goals and ambitions.43 In Alpine in 1969, Mexican Americans parents closed ranks to end segregation in the city's public schools.44 During the 1970s, politicized young leaders in West Texas lent support to South Texas MAYO (the Mexican American Youth Organization) and the Raza Unida Party. Increasingly, community activists launched drives to implement changes locally, such as single member districts. Throughout West Texas, especially where they formed a majority or could effectively forge inter-racial coalitions, West Texas Téjanos won office on school boards, city councils, county commissioners courts, and elsewhere.45 But if Tejano West Texas history began to resemble South Texas Tejano history after the mid-twentieth century, then why not view post- Eisenhower era West Texas Tejano history as belonging to the larger Tejano saga? Certainly it can and should be considered such, but cred- ible reasons may be cited for continually treating it as a history with particular features. First, the field of regional history, while having lost the momentum it had in the 1990s, remains pertinent in the historiography of the American West. It recognizes the existence of innumerable regions and sub-zones within them, appreciates regional realities, and attributes

42 De León, "Mexican Americans in the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos Region," 149-170. 44 Among those to document the era's race problems in West Texas was novelist Edna Ferber in Giant. In 20 1 5, the PBS program VOCES presented producer/director Hector Galán's documentary The Children of GIANT. Galán conducted interviews with Marfa townspeople who recollected the filming of Giant. The documentary also revisited the controversial themes the film explored. 44 Ri vas-Rodríguez, Texas Mexican Americans and Postwar Civil Rights, 13-44. Ely, Where the West Begins, 77, 22-23, 95-97*

This content downloaded from 24.155.117.154 on Sun, 02 May 2021 04:02:15 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 2 o 1 7 What 5 A miss in Tej ano History f 331 historical significance to regions. Thus, West Texas Tejano history stands as a valid field for individual study. West Texas maintains its "uniqueness" despite the changes that have come since the 1 950s. The rugged geography of the expanse from San Angelo to El Paso County still shapes people's lives, as do the traits of the region: livestock, oil wells, small to medium towns, vast distances between population centers, and worries over water scarcities. West Texas Tejano history cannot help but be influenced by such factors. Many Mexican Americans west of the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos (as in the case of their Anglo neighbors) still perceived themselves as "West Texans." That identity could be traced to pre- 1950s historical memory (a remembrance kept by circumstances particular to setting) , to the connection that the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos area has to the American West, and to the loyalty people retain to place. Tejano historiography should recognize regional diversity as it pays attention to the West Texas Tejano experience, or the Tejano narrative will remain amiss.

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