#OTD in 1963, Texas Gov. John Connally dispatched Ranger Captain Alfred Young “A. Y.” Allee to Crystal City. Connally did so to “keep the peace” during the local election cycle for city and county offices. Instead Allee would go on to brutalize several Mexican Americans.
Allee had a bad reputation among Mexican people, who called him “el pinche rinche.” He was mean spirited and quick to use his fists or the butt of his gun to hurt people. He also later used violence against Mexican Americans in other locales. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/allee-alfred-young
Crystal City had long been ruled by Anglo elites even though it was majority Mexican American. In 1962 the newly created Citizens Committee for Better Government (supported by the Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Orgs) nominated 5 Mexican Americans for city council.
Even though such organizing was in line with American participatory democracy, white leaders saw it negatively. Connally sent Allee under the guise that there had been violence, but the only violence came from Allee. He really hoped to halt a likely Mexican American victory.
Allee put Crystal City under martial law and implemented a curfew – solely for Mexican Americans – that the Rangers enforced. Allee and local police also indiscriminately harassed local residents. More seriously, he beat 18 year old activist José Angel Gutiérrez. After a political rally at which Gutiérrez spoke, Allee stopped and arrested several of his friends. When Gutierrez attempted to intervene, Allee slapped the high school senior to the ground and kicked him in the abdomen.
The 5 Mexican American candidates easily swept to victory. But the Rangers refused to leave town and denied the newly elected councilmembers access to city hall. When the new mayor Juan Cornejo complained, Allee shoved him against a wall and banged his head on it 6 times.
A few weeks later, A.Y. Allee’s brother, Tom, began a recall campaign against the newly elected council. Although it failed, the recall seemed to show that the Allees, and state leaders like Gov. Connally, simply did not want to see Mexican Americans exercising their rights.
Ranger Allee would continue to oppose Mexican American activism and use violence to do so throughout the 1960s before he retired in 1970.
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.
The key sources for this thread are @historybrian’s Fighting Their Own Battles and Armando Navarro’s The Cristal Experiment
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.
