University of Texas at El Paso DigitalCommons@UTEP Open Access Theses & Dissertations 2018-01-01 Chicano Revolt and Political Response: Grassroots Change in the South Texas Town of Pharr After the 1971 Riot David Robles University of Texas at El Paso, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Robles, David, "Chicano Revolt and Political Response: Grassroots Change in the South Texas Town of Pharr After the 1971 Riot" (2018). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 1529. https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd/1529 This is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CHICANO REVOLT AND POLITICAL RESPONSE: GRASSROOTS CHANGE IN THE SOUTH TEXAS TOWN OF PHARR AFTER THE 1971 RIOT DAVID ROBLES Doctoral Program in Borderlands History APPROVED: Yolanda Chávez Leyva, Ph.D., Chair Jeffrey Shepherd, Ph.D. Charles Martin, Ph.D. Guillermina Gina Núñez-Mchiri, Ph.D. Albert Rodriguez, Ph.D. Charles Ambler, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School Copyright © by David Robles 2018 Dedication The completion of this dissertation would not have been possible without the love and support of my wife Maria, the emotional support from my father Juan and brother Abram, and the memory of my mother Andrea (1940-2011)—a strong woman who taught me to never give up. CHICANO REVOLT AND POLITICAL RESPONSE: GRASSROOTS CHANGE IN THE SOUTH TEXAS TOWN OF PHARR AFTER THE 1971 RIOT by DAVID ROBLES, A.A., B.A., M.A. DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at El Paso in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO May 2018 Acknowledgements There are many people and institutions to thank for helping me complete this project. First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation chair and advisor, Yolanda Chávez Leyva, for her guidance, and mentorship during this process. I would also like to thank the members of my committee: Jeffrey Shepherd, Charles Martin, Guillermina Gina Núñez-Mchiri, and Albert Rodríguez. With their advice and support, I was able to make it through graduate school and I am deeply grateful to them. Likewise, I want to acknowledge all the other professors from the history department that not only influenced me as a researcher, but also as an academic: Ignacio Martinez, Manuel B. Ramirez, Joshua Fan, and Michael Topp. In the Borderlands History Ph.D. program, I was lucky to meet and become great friends with future scholars such as Danny Santana, Mayra L. Avila, María Lulú Espinoza-Schrock, Raúl Isaí Muñoz, Gene T. Morales, Aurelio Saldaña Jr., Ian Lee, RaeAnn Swanson, Chantra Vanna Potts, and Timothy E. Nelson. Our thought-provoking conversations during our gatherings will always influence me to make a difference in the field and classroom. There are also a number of people I would like to thank from the various archives I visited in the past four years in South Texas while doing research. Romeo Rosales Jr. from the Pharr Memorial Library Archives, Phyllis Kinnison from the Margaret H. McAllen Memorial Archives in the Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg, the staff of the Special Collections and Archives at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and Lori Atkins and her staff at the South Texas Archives in Kingsville. I would also like to express my gratitude to Maria Magallan, A.C. Jaime, and Rick Diaz, for taking the time to meet with me and allowing me to conduct oral history interviews with them. In addition, I thank Ned Wallace for allowing me to use his original copies of the many oral history interviews he conducted from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, and the Civil Rights in Black and Brown project website for making various oral histories available to the public. v Abstract “Chicano Revolt and Political Response: Grassroots Change in the South Texas Town of Pharr After the 1971 Riot,” is a study that focuses on the history of Pharr and how one event in the early 1970s, the riot, prompted change for citizens living in the city. Since the city’s founding in the early twentieth century, Anglos and ethnic Mexicans were segregated from one another, and those in power used the railroad tracks as the physical color line to keep both groups separated. Months before the riot, ethnic Mexicans living in the barrios located on the north side of the city attempted to bring attention to their horrid living conditions as well as allegations of police brutality by petitioning the mayor and city commissioners to act. However, the inaction of the local leaders strained relations between them and the people of in the barrios. This inaction, along with the death of an innocent bystander, had a role on why the riot occurred and the changes that followed in the weeks, months, and years after. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................v Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vi Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. ix List of Illustrations ...........................................................................................................................x Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Into the Brush Country: The Creation of the “Magic Valley” and Early Days of Pharr, Texas, 1900-1930 .......................................................................................................27 Chapter 2: The Rise of the Chicano in South Texas and the Arrival of Chicano Ideology in Pharr ......................................................................................................................................76 Chapter 3: “Mas Justicia y Menos Garrotazos:” The Struggle for Social Justice in Pharr, Texas ...................................................................................................................................115 Chapter 4: “El Pleito No Es Con Los Animales, Sino Con el Dueño del Circo:” The Aftermath of the Pharr Riot ................................................................................................141 Chapter 5: The Party of Unity: The Election of the First Mexican-American Mayor in Pharr and the Years of Progress that Followed, 1972-1978 .........................................................186 Afterwards: Pharr on the Rise ......................................................................................................232 Conclusion: Far from Heaven ......................................................................................................241 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................254 Appendices ...................................................................................................................................260 Appendix A: Alfonso Loredo Flores’ death certificate ...............................................................260 Appendix B: Indictment against Efraín Fernández and others that was signed on March 11, 1971.....................................................................................................................................261 Appendix C: Efraín Fernández’s “Not Guilty” verdict. ...............................................................262 Appendix D: Population of Selected Valley Cities in 1960 & 1970 ...........................................263 Appendix E: 1969 Income and Poverty Status of Persons Spanish Language or Spanish Surname ..............................................................................................................................264 vii Appendix F: 1970 Social Characteristics for Selected Counties in South Texas ........................265 Vita 266 viii List of Tables Table 1: List of Irrigation and Canal Companies in the Lower Rio Grande Valley from 1900-10 ....................................................................................................................................................... 41 Table 2.1: 1970 Demographics and Population of Selected Cities ............................................. 120 Table 3.1: Votes for various precincts in Pharr’s 1972 Special Election ................................... 203 ix List of Illustrations Illustration 1.1: Map of the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas ................................................... 30 Illustration 1.2: Map of the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway line and connections in South Texas. .................................................................................................................................. 34 Illustration 1.3: Portrait of John H. Shary. .................................................................................... 37 Illustration 1.4: J.C. Murff.