Militarizing the Border: When Mexicans Became the Enemy

by Miguel Antonio Levario

Overview

As historian Miguel Antonio Levario explains in this timely book, current tensions and controversy over immigration and law enforcement issues centered on the US-Mexico border are only the latest evidence of a long-standing atmosphere of uncertainty and mistrust plaguing this region. Militarizing the Border: When Mexicans Became the Enemy, focusing on El Paso and its environs, examines the history of the relationship among law enforcement, military, civil, and political institutions, and local communities. In the years between 1895 and 1940, West Texas experienced intense militarization efforts by local, state, and federal authorities responding to both local and international circumstances. El Paso’s “Mexicanization” in the early decades of the twentieth century contributed to strong racial tensions between the region’s Anglo population and newly arrived Mexicans. Anglos and Mexicans alike turned to violence in order to deal with a racial situation rapidly spinning out of control.

Highlighting a binational focus that sheds light on other US-Mexico border zones in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Militarizing the Border establishes historical precedent for current border issues such as undocumented immigration, violence, and racial antagonism on both sides of the boundary line. This important evaluation of early US border militarization and its effect on racial and social relations among Anglos, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans will afford scholars, policymakers, and community leaders a better understanding of current policy . . . and its potential failure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623493028
Publisher:	Texas A&M University Press
Publication date:	03/02/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

MIGUEL ANTONIO LEVARIO, an associate professor of history at Texas Tech University, recently contributed a chapter to War along the Border: The Mexican Revolution and Tejano Communities.  He earned his PhD at the University of Texas.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 Cowboys and Bandidos: A Reexamination of the Texas Rangers 17

2 iMuerte a los gringos!: The Santa Ysabel Massacre and the El Paso Race Riot of 1916 38

3 "How Mexicans Die": The El Paso City Jailhouse Holocaust 53

4 iViva Villa!: The Columbus Raid and the Rise of the Mexican Enemy 67

5 "Agents under Fire": Prohibition, immigration, and Border Law Enforcement 88

Conclusion 110

Epilogue: "Where the Bad Guys Are" 120

Appendix 1 Post Returns for Fort Bliss, 1910-16 127

Appendix 2 Demographic Growth in El Paso County and City, 1880-1930 134

Appendix 3 Special Census of the Population of EI Paso, Texas, 1916 136

Notes 137

Bibliography 175

Index 187

Editorial Reviews

"Militarizing the Border establishes historical precedent for current border issues such as undocumented immigration, violence, and racial antagonism on both sides..."—ImmigrationProf Blog

ImmigrationProf Blog - Kevin R. Johnson

"This work represents an important contribution to the continuing effort to excavate the past in order to provide a deeper understanding of the history of the people of Mexican origin in the United States, and more specifically, of the Tejano experience."—Alex M. Saragoza, department of Comparative Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Alex M. Saragoza

" . . . this book is needed . . excellent . . . will make an important contribution to the field . . . exhaustive research in local, state, and national archives . . . other books exist on the subject of racism and its roots, but this book covers different territory . . . unique features"—Arnoldo De Leon, professor of history, Angelo State University and co-author of Beyond Texas Through Time

Arnoldo De Leon

". . . a thoroughly researched, well-organized examination of how militarization of the border affected Mexican racial identity, Anglo-Mexican relations, and United States-Mexico relations."—The Americas

The Americas - Don. M. Coerver

"Miguel Levario, a scholar and a member of the history department at Texas Tech University, has put together a well-researched work on the Texas-Mexican border at the turn of the twentieth century." —Journal of South Texas

Journal of South Texas

"Miguel Levario’s  Militarizing the Border is well written and extensively researched. Militarizing the Border makes an important contribution to Borderlands, Mexican American, and Latino history by examining the delicate interplay between vigilante, state, and federal institutions and border communities, as well as the consequences for ethnic Mexicans, at the turn of the century. This is a fabulous work of historical scholarship. Levario’s book is timely, not only because it examines how Mexicans were made to be the enemy, but also because it helps contextualize much of the animosity that drives current debates around  immigration  reform.”–Felipe Hinojosa

Felipe Hinojosa

"Levario's Militarizing the Border offers readers a gripping analytical narrative of US state policing of ethnic Mexicans in the far west Texas and the New Mexico borderlands from 1893 and 1933. . . The book examines how  border people's perceived transgressions against Anglo authority linked the Mexican community with criminal activity in the minds of officials in Austin and Washington. . . Militarizing the Border makes a substantial contribution to borderlands, migration, and Mexican American history. . . Levario's book shows readers that today's problems are not new."—H-Net

H-Net - George T. Diaz

In this thoroughly researched and conceptually innovative book, Miguel Antonio Levario describes twin processes of militarization and racialization on the US-Mexico border around El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, against a backdrop of modernization from 1893 to 1933."—Journal of American History

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Journal of American History - Casey Walsh

“The work provides a thoroughly researched, well-organized examination of how militarization of the border affected Mexican racial identity, Anglo-Mexican relations, and United States-Mexico relations. It will make an excellent addition…”—Don M. Coerver, The Americas

Don M. Coerver - The Americas

"Miguel Levario, a scholar and a member of the history department at Texas Tech University, has put together a well-researched work on the Texas-Mexican border at the turn of the twentieth century." -- Harold J. Weiss, Jr

JST