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Living Witness

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Reverberations of Racial Violence
This chapter is in the book Reverberations of Racial Violence
Living Witnessnati roMánBecause you were a strong little semillaFull of lifeYou burst forth from the soil that nourished you,Lifted your eyes to the skyAnd let your billowing branches stretch acrossThe rippling silk pasture as if reachingFor the ends of the earth.Because the Earth loved you andThe sky fed you,Your roots burrowed deepAnd your glistening leaves flutteredLike a million tiny wings¿Quien era el primero?Who was the first to look upon yourHandsome, grooved face yourThick, jutting limbsAnd see their potentialTo kill?Those men, pale as stoneInsatiably hungry for landWho draw lines in the dirtLines in the water.They fitted you with cords and ropeThat squeezed your arms like a tourniquet
© 2021 University of Texas Press

Living Witnessnati roMánBecause you were a strong little semillaFull of lifeYou burst forth from the soil that nourished you,Lifted your eyes to the skyAnd let your billowing branches stretch acrossThe rippling silk pasture as if reachingFor the ends of the earth.Because the Earth loved you andThe sky fed you,Your roots burrowed deepAnd your glistening leaves flutteredLike a million tiny wings¿Quien era el primero?Who was the first to look upon yourHandsome, grooved face yourThick, jutting limbsAnd see their potentialTo kill?Those men, pale as stoneInsatiably hungry for landWho draw lines in the dirtLines in the water.They fitted you with cords and ropeThat squeezed your arms like a tourniquet
© 2021 University of Texas Press

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Acknowledgments ix
  5. Introduction: Memory, Violence, and History in the 1919 Canales Investigation 1
  6. Yo Soy de Frank Rabbaté 20
  7. SECTION I LA MATANZA AND THE CANALES INVESTIGATION IN CONTEXT
  8. CHAPTER 1 Refusing to Forget: A Brief History 27
  9. CHAPTER 2 Anglos, Mexicans, and Rangers in Texas, 1850–1900 49
  10. CHAPTER 3 Texas in Four Parts: The Bordered World of 1919 69
  11. CHAPTER 4 La Matanza and the Canales Investigation in Comparative Perspective 92
  12. CHAPTER 5 Representation, Refusal, and Remembrance: Lynching and Extralegal Violence in Mexico and the United States, 1890s–1930s 103
  13. SECTION II J. T. CANALES, RESISTANCE, AND RESILIENCE
  14. CHAPTER 6 The World of Education among Ethnic Mexicans in J. T. Canales’s South Texas 121
  15. CHAPTER 7 Humanizing La Raza: The Activist Journalism of the Idar Family in Early Twentieth-Century Texas 143
  16. CHAPTER 8 José Tomás Canales and the Paradox of Power 158
  17. CHAPTER 9 J. T. Canales’s Contributions in Law, Civil Rights, and Education, 1920–1976 178
  18. SECTION III REFLECTIONS ON RECOVERING A HISTORY OF STATE VIOLENCE AND ITS REVERBERATIONS
  19. CHAPTER 10 Hidden History: A Journey through the Past, with Hard Lessons for the Present 211
  20. CHAPTER 11 Recovering the 1919 Canales Investigation of the Texas Ranger Force: Archival Investigation and Its Consequences, 1975–2010 219
  21. CHAPTER 12 The Legacy of La Matanza, Intergenerational Trauma, and the Writing of El Rinche 229
  22. CHAPTER 13 Stewarding the Personal Narratives of Painful History 244
  23. CHAPTER 14 Reckoning with the Past toward the Here and Now 263
  24. Living Witness 279
  25. Epilogue 283
  26. Contributors 288
  27. Index 295
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https://doi.org/10.7560/322680-019

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Acknowledgments ix
  5. Introduction: Memory, Violence, and History in the 1919 Canales Investigation 1
  6. Yo Soy de Frank Rabbaté 20
  7. SECTION I LA MATANZA AND THE CANALES INVESTIGATION IN CONTEXT
  8. CHAPTER 1 Refusing to Forget: A Brief History 27
  9. CHAPTER 2 Anglos, Mexicans, and Rangers in Texas, 1850–1900 49
  10. CHAPTER 3 Texas in Four Parts: The Bordered World of 1919 69
  11. CHAPTER 4 La Matanza and the Canales Investigation in Comparative Perspective 92
  12. CHAPTER 5 Representation, Refusal, and Remembrance: Lynching and Extralegal Violence in Mexico and the United States, 1890s–1930s 103
  13. SECTION II J. T. CANALES, RESISTANCE, AND RESILIENCE
  14. CHAPTER 6 The World of Education among Ethnic Mexicans in J. T. Canales’s South Texas 121
  15. CHAPTER 7 Humanizing La Raza: The Activist Journalism of the Idar Family in Early Twentieth-Century Texas 143
  16. CHAPTER 8 José Tomás Canales and the Paradox of Power 158
  17. CHAPTER 9 J. T. Canales’s Contributions in Law, Civil Rights, and Education, 1920–1976 178
  18. SECTION III REFLECTIONS ON RECOVERING A HISTORY OF STATE VIOLENCE AND ITS REVERBERATIONS
  19. CHAPTER 10 Hidden History: A Journey through the Past, with Hard Lessons for the Present 211
  20. CHAPTER 11 Recovering the 1919 Canales Investigation of the Texas Ranger Force: Archival Investigation and Its Consequences, 1975–2010 219
  21. CHAPTER 12 The Legacy of La Matanza, Intergenerational Trauma, and the Writing of El Rinche 229
  22. CHAPTER 13 Stewarding the Personal Narratives of Painful History 244
  23. CHAPTER 14 Reckoning with the Past toward the Here and Now 263
  24. Living Witness 279
  25. Epilogue 283
  26. Contributors 288
  27. Index 295
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