The Significance Of The Porvenir Massacre

Injustice never leaves you.

The Porvenir Massacre of 1918 is a dark chapter in the history of Texas that has been overlooked and forgotten. However, in Monica Martinez’s book "The Injustice Never Leaves You," She begins to shed light on the tragic event and its significance in history, that not only is it part of something bigger but showed just how much Mexican Americans were treated because of discrimination and violence within Texas and the United States. As she writes, "The conference addressed rapidly growing economic disparities between Anglos and ethnic Mexicans, racial vio¬lence, labor exploitation…” This goes to show, the Porvenir Massacre was not just an isolated incident, but it was the direct result of longstanding tensions and

Austin created a small group whose duties required them to range over the countryside, to protect citizens from attacks by natives and bandits, for this reason they became known as "rangers." The Texas Rangers, which were put in power by the state of Texas and made to ‘protect frontier settlers’ played a major role in the Porvenir Massacre. This event unfolded against the heightened hostility between the Anglo-Texan and Mexican American communities in the borderlands. Tasked with settling disputes and raids by Mexicans, the Texas Rangers, who had a reputation for their treatment towards anti-Americans, were deployed to the region. On the night of January 27, “Company B of the Texas Rangers and four local ranchers” (Martinez pg. 121), arrived at Porvenir, where they proceeded to detain fifteen residents and without conducting interviews accused the town's male inhabitants of theft. The following morning, the Rangers proceeded to execute said prisoners, whose age ranged from sixteen to late sixties. Martinez’s graphic depiction of the incident shows just how brutal the massacre was stating, “the arm of one of the young boys lay five feet from his body, while his other arm remained attached by only a thread of skin.” (Martinez pg. 123.) She continues by arguing that the massacre was covered up by media outlets and was supported by local officials, because of the Texas Rangers. Which were a powerful and brutal force in the state at the