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The Problem of Identity in a Changing Culture: Popular Expressions of Culture Conflict Along the Lower Rio Grande Border

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The Problem of Identity in a Changing Culture: Popular Expressions of Culture Conflict Along the Lower Rio Grande Border The Problem of Identity in a Changing Culture: Popular Expressions of Culture Conflict Along the Lower Rio Grande Border A merico Paredes Excerpted from Folklore and Culture on the Texas­ circumstances of their creation. In this respect, Mexican Border. 1993. Austin: CMAS Books, Cen­ the Lower Rio Grande Border was especially suit­ ter for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas. ed for smuggling operations. To appreciate this fact, one has only to con­ Conflict- cultural, economic, and physical sider that when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - has been a way of life along the border officially settled the conflict over territory between Mexico and the United States, and it is between Mexico and the United States, a very in the so-called Nueces-Rio Grande strip where well defined geographic feature - the Rio its patterns were first established. Problems of Grande itself- became the international line. identity also are common to border dwellers, But it was a line that cut right through the mid­ and these problems were first confronted by peo­ dle of what had once been the Mexican province ple of Mexican culture as a result of the Texas of Nuevo Santander. Friends and relatives who Revolution. For these reasons, the Lower Rio had been near neighbors- within shouting dis­ Grande area also can claim to be the source of tance across a few hundred feet of water - now the more typical elements of what we call the cul­ were legally in different countries. If they wanted ture of the Border. to visit each other, the law required that they Life along the border was not always a mat­ travel many miles up or down stream, to the ter of conflicting cultures; there was often coop­ nearest official crossing place, instead of swim­ eration of a sort, between ordinary people of ming or boating directly across as they used to both cultures, since life had to be lived as an do before. It goes without saying that they paid everyday affair. People most often cooperated in little attention to the requirements of the law. circumventing the excessive regulation of ordi­ When they went visiting, they crossed at the most nary intercourse across the border. In other convenient spot on the river; and, as is ancient words, they regularly were engaged in smug­ custom when one goes visiting loved ones, they gling. took gifts with them: farm products from Mexico Borders offer special conditions not only for to Texas, textiles and other manufactured goods smuggling but for the idealization of the smug­ from Texas to Mexico. Legally, of course, this gler. This sounds pretty obvious, since, after all, was smuggling, differing from contraband for political boundaries are the obvious places where profit in volume only. Such a pattern is familiar customs and immigration regulations are to anyone who knows the border, for it still oper­ enforced. But we must consider not only the ates, not only along the Lower Rio Grande now existence of such political boundaries but the but all along the boundary line between Mexico and the United States. Unofficial crossings also disregarded immi­ Ammco Paredes is Dickson, Allen, and Anderson Centenni­ gration laws. Children born on one side of the al Professor Emeritus ofAnthropology and English at the river would be baptized on the other side, and University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at A ustin, and has taught folklore there thus appear on church registers as citizens of the since 1957. In 1989, theNationalEndowmentforthe other country. This bothered no one since peo­ Humanities honored Paredes with the illustrious Charles ple on both sides of the river thought of them­ Frankel Prize. In 1990, the government of Mexico bestowed selves as mexicanos, but United States officials on him its highest award to citizens of other countries: La were concerned about it. People would come Orden Mexicana del Aguila Azteca. across to visit relatives and stay long periods of U.S.- MEXICO BORDERLANDS 33 time, and perhaps move inland in search of which the hero defends his rights and those of work. Mter 1890, the movement in search of other Mexicans against the rinches. The first work was preponderantly from Mexico deep into hero of these corridos is Juan Nepomuceno Texas and beyond. The ease with which the river Cortina, who is celebrated in an 1859 corrido could be crossed and the hospitality of relatives precisely because he helps a fellow Mexican. and friends on either side also was a boon to Other major corrido heroes are Gregorio men who got in trouble with the law. It was not Cortez ( 1901), who kills two Texas sheriffs after necessary to flee over trackless wastes, with the one of them shoots his brother; Jacinto Trevino law hot on one's trail. All it took was a few ( 1911), who kills several Americans to avenge his moments in the water, and one was out of reach brother's death; Rito Garda (1885), who shoots of his pursuers and in the hands of friends. If several officers who invade his home without a illegal crossings in search of work were mainly in warrant; and Aniceto Pizana and his sediciosos a northerly direction, crossings to escape the law (1915). Some corrido heroes escape across the were for the most part from north to south. By border into Mexico; others, like Gregorio Cortez far, not all the Mexicans fleeing American law and Rito Garda, are betrayed and captured. were criminals in an ordinary sense. Many were They go to prison but they have stood up for victims of cultural conflict, men who had reacted what is right. As the "Corrido de Rito Garda" violently to assaults on their human dignity or says, their economic rights. Resulting from the partition of the Lower . me voy a la penitencia Rio Grande communities was a set of folk atti­ por defender mi derecho. tudes that would in time become general along the United States-Mexican border. There was a ... I am going to the penitentiary generally favorable disposition toward the indi­ because I defended my rights. vidual who disregarded customs and immigra­ tion laws, especially the laws of the United States. The men who smuggled tequila into the The professional smuggler was not a figure of United States during the twenties and early thir­ reproach, whether he was engaged in smuggling ties were no apostles of civil rights, nor did the American woven goods into Mexico or Mexican border people think of them as such. But in his tequila into Texas. In folklore there was a ten­ activities, the tequilero risked his life against the dency to idealize the smuggler, especially the old enemy, the rinche. And, as has been noted, tequilero, as a variant of the hero of cultural con­ smuggling had long been part of the border way flict. The smuggler, the illegal alien looking for of life. Still sung today is "El corrido de Mariano work, and the border-conflict hero became iden­ Resendez," about a prominent smuggler of tex­ tified with each other in the popular mind. They tiles into Mexico, circa 1900. So highly respected came into conflict with the same American laws were Resendez and his activities that he was and sometimes with the same individual officers known as "El Contrabandista." Resendez, of of the law, who were all looked upon as rinches­ course, violated Mexican laws; and his battles a border-Spanish rendering of "ranger." Men were with Mexican customs officers. The tequi­ who were Texas Rangers, for example, during lero and his activities, however, took on an inter­ the revenge killings of Mexicans after the Pizana cultural dimension; and they became a kind of uprising of 19151 later were border patrolmen coda to the corridos of border conflict. who engaged in gun battles with tequileros. So The heavy-handed and often brutal manner stereotyped did the figure of the rinche become that Anglo lawmen have used in their dealings that Lower Rio Grande Border versions of "La with border Mexicans helped make almost any persecuci6n de Villa" identify Pershing's soldiers man outside the law a sympathetic figure, with as rinches. the rinche, or Texas Ranger, as the symbol of A corrido [ballad] tradition of intercultural police brutality. That these symbols still are alive conflict developed along the Rio Grande, in may be seen in the recent Fred Carrasco affair. The border Mexican's tolerance of smuggling does not seem to extend to traffic in drugs. The 1 The uprising occurred on the Lower Rio Grande Border few corridos that have been current on the sub­ and involved a group of Texas-Mexican rancheros attempting ject, such as "Carga blanca," take a negative view to create a Spanish-speaking republic in South Texas. Pizana endeavored to appeal to other United States minority of the dope peddler. Yet Carrasco's death in groups. [Original Editor's Note] 1976 at the Huntsville (Texas) prison, along with 34 U.S. - MEXICO BORDE RLAN OS Americo Paredes is a folklorist, prize-winning author, and singer of border corridos. Photo by Jane E. Levine, courtesy Texas Folklife Resources two women hostages, inspired close to a dozen but the armored vest he was wearing corridos with echoes of the old style. The sensa­ did not let the bullets through. tional character of Carrasco's death cannot be discounted, but note should also be taken of the En fin de tanto invitarle unproved though widely circulated charges that Leandro los acompaii6; Carrasco was "executed" by a Texas Ranger, who en las lomas de Almiramba allegedly shot him through the head at close fue el primero que cay6.
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