(Ed.'s Note: The name Juan Cortina still polarizes local residents who either side with him – a descendant of the original Espiritu Santo Land grant – or with the Anglo Brownsville residents, including Stillman, who eventually ended up grabbing the land through questionable methods, using the courts, the U.S. military and texas Rangers to achieve it. The article our reader sent us is no longer available on the Internet, but the title probably refers to the three-day takeover of Brownsville by Cortina and his band of followers. Thanks for the graphic.)
8 comments:
Cortina was a cruel thug! tell the real story, bro!
The "article our reader sent us is no longer available on the Internet"? Damn those oppressive gringos who censure the truth to cover their sins but not ours
Why outlaw pinche gingos...
Who was actually the "outlaw?" Juan or Chale? Chale stole or pretended to buy all the land from Juan's side of the family. Ask the gringos of Dr. Kearney, Dr. Knopp and Anthony Zavaletta.
Juan Nepomuceno Cortina is seen as a hero in Tamaulipas and the whole country of Mexico plus the Mexican-American communities that lived in the ranchitos in the Texas-Mexico border because Cortina defended many campesino hands from arbitrary anglo rich such as sheriff Shears.
If you go to the "Sala de Cabildo" in Matamoros, they used to have(I don't know if they still do) a wall with pictures of all the governors of Tamaulipas and you could see a picture of Cortina there.
One book claims that Stillman, King, and Kennedy were making so much money running guns during the civil war, that they didn't know what to do with it. They couldn't trust local banks with so much cash in 1860's, so they just started buying up land. Thus was formed the King Ranch.
Pancho Villa
I enjoy reading about who the hero should be. I remember in Cuba it would be Castro who saved the common man, oh that didn't happen, ask any Cuban.
In the book by Ruel McDaniel, a book collector gives the following except "author calls the perpetrator of these incidents a Mexican outlaw but, frankly, to the Mexicans he was a hero. As a matter of fact, he became Governor of Matamoros and was a candidate for President of Mexico. Ranchers including Kennedy and Richard King of the King Ranch claimed Juan Cortina stole more than 900,000 head of cattle. The facts are clear however, that at the height of his career, he captured two U. S. Army Forts, two U. S. cities and a dozen more villages while obtaining $100,000 in gold ransom and destroyed all semblance of order in an area in Texas almost as big as New England."
I don't read much myself but have heard the name Juan Cortina and often wondered why he wasn't given a tribute locally like the bronze statue of Confederate heros being torn down around the country.
Glad to see this blog is keeping the history alive but just wonder sometimes of the blog writers are too negative.
Maybe a Dale Carnegie course is appropriate for these blog writers. Carnegie course teaches "don't complain condemn or criticize".
Maybe it's good to know these negative things going on and maybe in another era the politicians will learn the other "c". Don't cheat.
I do appreciate this blog regardless and do read it often but again reading can be tedious.
Look forward to more mud slinging and hope that the positive is remembered too. Like we have a first class University and Junior College.
Both with a beautiful campus.
Despite the faults of some the disgraced college leaders you have to hand it to them they did a great job in building up the higher level education system,. Especially the last one who was fired, I understand that there were millions saved during that administration that now will be spent paying the cost of a legal settlement.
Life is so cruel.
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