By Mónica Ortiz Uribe

Tribune-Herald staff writer

For Byron Johnson, director of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, a nearly 70-foot-tall statue of a 19th-century Ranger represents the idyllic image most Americans have of the legendary Texas lawmen.

But for Ernesto Calderon, a Mexican-American and Waco native with roots in the Chicano movement, the statue carries the symbolism a 70-foot-tall noose could hold for an African-American.

Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum photo

Texas Ranger Company F is shown in an 1882 photo. At bottom right is Cecilio Charro, one of an undetermined number of Tejanos who served as Texas Rangers. Artist David Adickes based his preliminary design of the statue to be erected outside the Waco museum on the Rangers in this picture, taking particular note of Charro.

“I think that the Texas Ranger Museum is nothing more than a monument to white racism, and the statue is just an extension of that,” said Calderon, 80.

The proposal to erect a towering Texas Ranger statue outside Waco’s official museum has caused some local Hispanics to revisit horror stories about the Rangers that they grew up hearing from their parents and grandparents.

Meanwhile, museum officials are attempting to give the statue a “generic” design, not representative of any race in particular. Inside the museum, Johnson said, there is a balanced approach to Ranger history that he expects the museum to improve in the coming years.

A history of violence, racism

The stories Hispanics recall are born out of a bloodstained era during the Mexican Revolution when hundreds — perhaps thousands — of Mexican-Americans were killed by Rangers and vigilantes.

Stories continue into the ’60s and ’70s when Rangers were called in to break up labor strikes organized by Latino civil rights activists.

Such stories — some confirmed by historians — continue to be a lingering wound for some Hispanics that smarts at first mention of the words “Texas Rangers.”

Johnson, the museum director, said the proposed statue is meant to attract more people to the museum, where they can learn beyond the mythical legend of the Ranger, including the darker side of their history. But Hispanic critics say more needs to be done to educate the public that Texas Ranger history isn’t without its flaws.

“There are stories that Texas Rangers basically were being paid so many dollars a head for Mexicans,” said Gilbert Montemayor, the director of McLennan County Community College Social and Behavioral Sciences Division.

Montemayor, 60, said he grew up with tales of “los rinches,” as the Rangers came to be called by the Mexican Americans, or Tejanos, of South Texas. He wasn’t taught that kind of history at South Waco Elementary, he said. Not until he was a student at Baylor University did he independently research the Rangers.

Nick Simonite/Waco Tribune-Herald

Christina Stopka, deputy director of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, is the lead researcher for the local attraction. She hopes as the museum expands there will be more room for exhibits about the Rangers' historical missteps, as well as exhibits on minority participation in the rangers.

Nick Simonite/Waco Tribune-Herald

Byron Johnson, director of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, looks at an exhibit about Manuel Trazazas Gonzaullas, from Spain, who joined the Rangers in 1920.

Putting down a rebellion

In the early 20th century, when Mexico was marred by internal warfare, would-be Mexican revolutionaries plotted an uprising against Anglo landowners in Texas that was never fully carried out. Instead, there was a series of raids that resulted in property theft and the deaths of some white settlers.

The raids ignited wide spread panic among the settlers, and the Texas Rangers were called in to protect them.

But protection quickly turned into retaliation, which resulted in the deaths of at least 300 to 500 Tejanos. Some historians claim 3,000 to 5,000 were killed.

“The Rangers responded (to the uprising) with brutality, with assassination, murders, lynchings and massacres,” said William D. Carrigan, associate professor of history at Rowan University in New Jersey.

Among the numerous historical texts that document the violent period roughly between 1915 and 1920 is Carrigan’s book, The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas.

“Thousands of Mexicans fled the region, were killed without trial, taken out of jail and executed,” he said. “It was a terrible, bloody period of violence even defenders of Texas Rangers (write about).”

Sijefredo Loa, a Baylor University Spanish professor and a South Texas native, also objects to the statue plans.

“Putting up a statute to remember the Texas Rangers is a travesty,” Loa said. “It is like an insult to Latinos who had to endure those kinds of atrocities.”

Montemayor said he believes Hispanic bitterness toward the Rangers is justified, but that there is also a way to move forward.

“The justification for that sentiment really lies in the fact that there still needs to be a balanced approach to the history of the Rangers,” he said. “I don’t think modern day Rangers should be held accountable for what happened at the turn of century.”

Loa agrees, adding that history often tends to be written with a “Eurocentric pattern of neglect” toward minorities.

As an example, he cited the controversy surrounding the original cut of Ken Burns’ World War II documentary which critics said lacked a Hispanic perspective.

Johnson says there’s no attempt by the museum to hide any portion of Ranger history. He said the museum is showing a film, produced by the History Channel, about the Porvenir massacre of 1917, when 15 Tejanos were killed outside their homes by Texas Rangers and U.S. soldiers.

Telling both sides

Christina Stopka, museum deputy director, said she anticipates as the museum expands it will dedicate exhibit space to the Rangers’ historical missteps.

“There were a lot of men appointed as Rangers who never should have been given a badge and a gun . . . these are things that when we have more room to develop, (we will tell) this kind of a story,” Stopka said.

Johnson said the exhibit could be titled “Lessons Learned.”

Additionally, Johnson said he hopes to include an exhibit acknowledging the participation of Tejanos in the Texas Rangers as early as the 1830s. Staff members could turn such exhibits into educational programs for area schools.

“The museum is not going to be a one-sided thing,” Johnson said. “We’ve had academic training, we understand why balance has to be done.”

The museum board’s goal is to expand the museum by 20,000 square feet — to about five times its size now — starting in the next five to seven years, Johnson said.

Johnson also said the museum will invite the public to review plans for the statue before it’s built. The board is still in the preliminary stages of designing the statue, which is planned as a “generic” Ranger, not representative of any one race.

Mixed reactions

Gilbert Montemayor	Alice Flores Rodriguez	Joe Carbajal

Not all Hispanics have harsh feelings toward the Rangers.

The Rev. Joe Carbajal, 51, who leads the Mighty Wind Worship Center near downtown Waco, said as a native Wacoan he never heard the horror stories about the Rangers.

“I’ve always felt that the Texas Rangers stood for that which was right . . . and didn’t have any occasion to question whether they were opposed to Latinos or were discriminatory,” said Carbajal, who supports the statue.

Waco city councilwoman Alice Flores Rodriguez, the only Hispanic on the council, said although she knows the history between the Rangers and Tejanos, she supports the statue.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion,” she said. “Mine is that if the citizens and the people that are raising funds (for the statue) feel that this is a great thing for Waco, then I’m not going to stand in the way.”

Courtesy photo

A rough clay model by sculptor David Adickes shows one possibility for the "Watching Over Texas" statue proposed for the Texas Ranger Museum. The nearly 70-foot statue of an early 20th-century lawman would face northwest from the museum on Interstate 35.

‘We cannot undo history’

Earlier this month, the City Council approved museum trustees’ plan to build the approximately 70-foot-tall statue outside the museum, well within view of motorists on Interstate 35. Museum officials already have raised about $235,000 of the $625,000 needed to build the statue. No city funds will go into the construction, Johnson said.

Rodriguez said Johnson has been “helpful” and “informative” to the council about the museum goals and statue proposal.

“I know there are Hispanic Rangers now, and I would never throw rocks at them,” Rodriguez said. “It’s part of history, and we cannot undo history.”

Carrigan, the history professor, views Hispanic sentiment towards the Texas Rangers as one of the challenges of recording history in a multi-ethnic democracy.

“Different groups remember history in different ways,” he said. “This is a challenge. How do we go forward as one people when different people have such contrasting memories of the past (and their own ideas about) what should be remembered?”

Carrigan suggests people don’t have to come to a consensus about what should or shouldn’t be remembered, but rather try to understand each other’s feelings about the past. This can be achieved by healthy and fruitful community dialogue, he said. Another approach could be creating a physical memorial for people to visit and reflect, he said.

Today there are 16 Hispanic Rangers, four black Rangers, one Asian-American Ranger and one female Ranger. They are shown each wearing a white cowboy hat and tie in photos displayed across an entire wall at the Ranger museum.

“This is a heritage that all Texans should be proud of,” Johnson said. “It’s an evolved heritage, which did not always do the right thing . . . but they’ve learned from the mistakes. One racial group or ethnic group did not give up on (the Rangers). They stayed with it, they joined and they have improved it to a point where its a police force that is respected worldwide.”

mortiz@wacotrib.com

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