#OTD June 16, 1901, a large posse in search of Gregorio Cortez lynched an unnamed Mexican man near Belmont for suspicion of harboring Cortez, in an act of violence that shows the connections between mob violence and law enforcement.
The events that brought Cortez to fame, and prompted widespread violence against Mexican-American communities in central and south Texas, began four days earlier with a bungled translation and gunfight over allegations of horse theft.
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cortez-lira-gregorio
After a shoot-out that left Karnes County Sheriff W. T. Morris (a former Ranger) dead, and Gregorio’s brother Romaldo gravely injured, Cortez began 10 day flight, in which he walked at least 120 miles and rode another 400.
Rangers, sheriffs, and posses that reached hundreds in size tried to catch Cortez, whose endurance and backwoods prowess made him a folk hero for many Mexican Americans, immortalized in a corrido and later Américo Paredes’ “With His Pistol in His Hand.” https://refusingtoforget.org/publication-of-paredes-with-his-pistol-in-his-hand/
One posse hunting Cortez came across a home in western Gonzalez county, about 60 miles east of San Antonio, in which they believed Cortez was staying. The group attacked the home, killing one occupant in an exchange of fire and capturing two others.
According to press accounts, one captured man admitted to harboring Cortez and giving him a fresh mount. After refusing to give more information, he “was taken to a convenient tree and lynched.”
The lynching of the unnamed man on the 16th was just a small part of the retaliatory violence wreaked on ethnic Mexicans in Gonzales, Refugio, and Hays Counties, in which “at least nine persons of Mexican descent had been killed, three wounded and seven arrested. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cortez-lira-gregorio
Rangers played a role in the manhunt and some of the killings, deepening an antipathy between the Ranger Force and Texas’ Mexican community. It should be noted that Captain John Rogers arrested Cortez and brought him to court rather than turning him over to a mob.
Cortez on the run
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.
A critical source for this thread is Américo Paredes’ classic “With His Pistol in His Hand” and the Lynching in Texas Project.
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.
