Anti-Mexican Mob Violence in the Borderlands: A Lynching in Rocksprings, Texas

https://digpodcast.org/2020/03/08/ant... In November 1910 two tragic events occurred in Rocksprings, Texas, a tiny rural community almost 200 miles east of Austin and San Antonio. The remains of both people were buried a mere 50 yards away from one another, segregated by a fence, a small gate, and a line of trees which designated sacred ground reserved for one shade of skin and another. Over one hundred years later, historical retrospection clouds the realities of those fateful days. The power of media, prejudice, and memory both erase and elevate a central moment in history that shaped actions and opinions for years to come. Within the span of a few days, two individuals were violently murdered, one killed point blank by a shotgun blast to the back and to the head, another burned alive surrounded by a crowd of angry onlookers. Today we are examining violence and lynching towards ethnic Mexican people along the Texas Mexico border during the early twentieth century. Particularly we are discussing the mob violence, or lynching, against Antionio Rodriguez in Rocksprings Texas in November of 1910. Typically when lynching in America is discussed it is in reference to the obscene amount of lynchings against Black people in the United States between Reconstruction and the mid-twentieth century. However, anti-Mexican violence was also a harsh reality of racial violence throughout the American Southwest.