On May 15, 2004, Kirby Warnock released his film “Border Bandits,” which juxtaposed the myth of the Rangers with the murder of Antonio Longoria and Jesus Bazán in 1915, bringing knowledge about Ranger crimes passed down in families out to the wider public.
Kirby Warnock learned of the double murder of Bazan and Longoria by Captain Henry Ransom and two others from his grandfather, Roland Warnock, who as a young man worked on a south Texas ranch in Hidalgo County owned by former Ranger Sam Lane.
Kirby Warnock interviewed his grandfather for an oral history assignment while an undergrad @Baylor in 1974. In 1992, he published Roland’s memories of borderlands ranching and life in a book later cited by @BenjaminHJohns1 @MonicaMnzMtz and other scholars. Texas Cowboy: The Oral Memoirs of Roland A Warnock and his Life on the Texas Frontier
The elder Warnock saw Ransom and his accomplices shoot Bazan and Longoria off of their horses when the two pulled aside to let them pass. He later buried the two men. Their gravesites, since 2018 hosting a historical marker, can be found by FM 1017.
https://refusingtoforget.org/historical-markers/jesus-bazan-and-antonio-longoria/
The film is a story of the murders and their aftermaths for the Bazán and Longoria families, but also of the gradual realization by Warnock that the beliefs he inherited about the Rangers kept such crimes hidden. It makes excellent use of pop culture around the Rangers.
Warnock’s is not the only voice or perspective conveyed; he also films descendants, including Heriberto Longoria, the one-year old son of Antonio Longoria at the time of the murder, and his son Heriberto Jr., who worked as an attorney for the state of Texas.
As @MonicaMnzMtz writes in The Injustice Never Leaves You on p. 105 , “the film produces a narrative of a lived memory that continues to evolve . . . . remind[ing] us that this violence cannot be relegated to the past.”
The film’s release and reactions to it were covered extensively in the press. Screenings and discussions, some with @BenjaminHJohns1 whose book Revolution in Texas was released in 2003, attracted descendants, local historians, and the general public.
At one point in November of 2014, demand was great enough in San Antonio that the @alamodrafthouse movie theatre had to hold encore screenings to accommodate audiences.
Warnock’s commitment to telling this story earned him the respect of Bazán and Longoria descendants. Here is Warnock with Melba Coody, Jesus Bazán’s great-granddaughter, at the opening of a symposium at the @BullockMuseum.
There can be a sense of pain and loss in confronting dark histories. @TxStHistAssoc ‘s J.P. Bryan complains of stories that “demean the Anglo efforts in settling the western part of the United States for the purpose of spreading freedoms for all.” https://www.galvnews.com/news/lawsuit-seeks-board-balance-among-tellers-of-texas-history/article_20edaf99-0521-5377-ae93-8b6d4e99d6b8.html
Warnock’s film reminds us that honest histories of painful events are also liberating. “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,” writes Paul “But when I became a man, I put away childish things.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2013%3A11-13&version=KJV
Warnock has made his film available for free viewing on youtube at this link.
This thread is a part of the #OTD in Ranger history campaign that @Refusing2Forget is running this year.
Follow this twitter handle or https://refusingtoforget.org/ranger-bicentennial-project/, and visit our website https://refusingtoforget.org to learn more.
Refusing to Forget members are @ccarmonawriter @carmona2208 @acerift @soniahistoria @BenjaminHJohns1 @LeahLochoa @MonicaMnzMtz and @Alacranita, another co-founder is @GonzalesT956
@emmpask @sdcroll @HistoryBrian @LorienTinuviel@hangryhistorian, @ddsanchez432, @elprofeml, and @littlejohnjeff are other scholars working on this project.
