Mexican Americans faced racial terror from 1910-1920

[Judi Lynn]

Russell Contreras and Cedar Attanasio, Associated Press
Updated 12:21 pm CDT, Friday, July 26, 2019

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Twenty years ago, a knock on the door opened the past for Arlinda Valencia.

A relative had come to pay his respects on the death of Valencia's father. He then revealed a shocking secret: The family was descended from survivors of a 1918 massacre along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In an account later confirmed by Valencia's 96-year-old great-uncle, the Texas Rangers and U.S. soldiers killed her great-grandfather and 14 other men and boys. The massacre that all but wiped the town of Porvenir, Texas, was part of a campaign of terror that largely targeted Mexican Americans.

"But the older people never said anything to us. Not a word," Valencia said. "We couldn't believe it."

As the U.S. prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of "Red Summer" — a period in 1919 when white mobs attacked and murdered African Americans in dozens of cities across the country — some historians and Latino activists say now is the time to acknowledge the terror experienced by Mexican Americans around the same period.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Mexican-Americans-saw-own-racial-terror-before-14168861.php