Soy de Duval

  Mexicans who allegedly attacked the King Ranch met their fate at the hands of Texas Rangers and their allies. ( General Photograph Collection, UTSA Special Collections. ) Dr. Trinidad Gonzales La Matanza—Truth y Reconciliation: History y Justice will be the next presentation of Las Brasadas El Encuentro in Rios on June 4, beginning at 2 p.m. The featured speaker will be Dr. Trinidad O. Gonzales, Assistant Chair, Department of History at South Texas College in McAllen. During the turbulent years from 1910 through 1920, the Texas Rangers (Los Rinches) and vigilantes indiscriminately slaughtered Tejanos and Mexicanos all along the Rio Grande, from Brownsville to El Paso. This has come to be known as La Matanza . Dr. Gonzales is among the founders o Refusing to Forget , which chronicles this era. The lawless lawmen did not discriminate between “women and men, the aged and the young, long-time residents and recent arrivals.” Dr. Gonzales has received several awards for his research...

  (Editor’s note: I knew that my father, Servando Cárdenas , had a column in the newspaper La Voz which he published in the 1930s. I, however, had not taken the time to read any of them as I was working on a book on his poetry, La Voz de Amor . Recently I read one of his columns and discovered where I got my opinion writing skills. His column, Kaleidoscope , was the predecessor of “Telling It Like It Is,” a regular feature of the Duval County Picture . Who knew, especially since my father, unlike his youngest, had a very reserved personality. Hope you enjoy his pronouncements, which may seem outdated, but they are still relevant today and always.) Without caring about the smooth or stormy turns of politics, I will try to embellish something on one of the purposes of the recent political organization called “Progressive Political Club” (Club Político Progresista). “We solemnly declare once and for all: that we keep a sincere and respectful devotion for our racial origin.” If all t...