While secondary sources are vital to understanding this phenomenon, they are primarily useful for helping students establish a basic context to look at these images. The documents selected for this site include illustrations, photographs, and written accounts of lynching of Latinos in the Southwest. Using documents such as these is vital to examining ethnic, racial, and economic relations between the Anglo American community and the Latino community. The illustrations vary significantly from the photographs in how the photographer or artist has represented the image. By looking at the two, students should gain an understanding for the way the Anglo American community perceived the Latino community and how they perceived the morality of their actions. Photographs, while often graphic and disturbing, are able to transmit the sobering reality of vigilante justice. Written accounts, although five out of six are reproductions of the originals (see Note to Teachers 1), allow students into the Latino community's perception of lynching of their people. Engaging with perspectives from both communities, students can create a deeper and multidimensional interpretation. By examining a body of primary sources, students are able to engage in critical thinking and developing interpretations independent of teacher or textbook direction.
Racial prejudice traditionally has not been a significant factor considered by historians in the lynching* of Mexicans due to the prevailing belief in the necessity of vigilante justice in Western settlement (Carrigan, 2003, p. 415); however, racial prejudice was the primary force in mob violence against Latinos (Carrigan, 2003, p. 417). Necessity of vigilante justice in the Southwest due to a lack of formal law enforcement hardly justifies the lynching of latinos (Carrigan, 2003, p. 415). Lynching occurred both in established communities with local law enforcement and court systems as well as sparsely populated areas (Carrigan, 2003, p. 416). Further, local law enforcement even in some instances condoned mob violence (Carrigan, 2003, p. 416). When a latino was lynched in a community with an established judicial system, the Anglo-American community essentially assumed that the Latino’s testimony was not valid against the Anglo’s testimony (Carrigan, 2003, p. ). Often, the ritualistic manner of lynching associated with Latino lynchings was void in the instances of Anglo lynchings (Carrigan, 2003, p. 419). Lynching was intended to assert the message of Anglo superiority to the Latino community (Carrigan, 2003, p. 419).
Largely, racial prejudice grew out of a number of issues, particularly “the Alamo, Goliad, and the U.S.-Mexican war” (Carrigan, p. 29) development of the stereotype of latinos as “unprincipled, conniving, and treacherous” (Carrigan, 2003, p. 420). Men in particular were characterized as cowardly lacking male honor by which the male Anglo community defined itself (Carrigan, 2003, p. 420). Some of the issues that produced these derogatory stereotypes included competing economic interests between the races within the Southwest, particularly the California gold rush (Carrigan, p. 28; 2003, p. 421), strife between the governments of Mexico and the United States related to Anglo-American fear of Mexican revolutionaries during the Mexican Revolution as well as tension over the U.S. and Mexican border (Carrigan, 2003, p. 422-423). Mexican revolutionaries who fled to the U.S. opposed the systematic pattern of lynching and at times retaliated with violence further complicating Anglo stereotypes of Latinos (Carrigan, 2003, p. 423; Waldrep, p. 175).
Socioeconomic status additionally contributed to racial discrimination (Carrigan, 2003, p. 418). Most Latinos belonged to the lower working class. Due to socioeconomic prejudice, latinos were isolated into remote and oppressive neighborhoods (Carrigan, 2003, p. 418-419). Economic oppression led at times to lawlessness, which further confirmed Anglo stereotypes of Latinos (Carrigan, 2003, p. 418-419). Ultimately, the existing segregation between the Anglo and Latino communities led to a mutual misunderstanding between two the groups (Carrigan, 2003, p. 418).
Historical analysis of lynching has largely been restricted to African American victims (Carrigan, 2003, p. 412-413). While unquestionably a significant and unjust phenomena deserving careful and thorough investigation and attention, lynching of Latinos, especially Mexicans, in the Southwestern United States has all but been ignored in the analysis of lynching in the U.S. Research shows that the threat to Mexicans in the Southwest rivaled that of African Americans in the South (Carrigan, 2003, p. 414). Arguably, African American oppression by Anglo Americans still exists, primarily in the South, often through socio-economic factors. Similar to the decline in African American lynching, decline in lynching of Latinos was less related to grassroots resistance efforts as it was to protecting the U.S. foreign reputation in addition to economic pressure put on the U.S. by Mexico. Neither address racial stereotypes and institutional racism.
While systematic vigilante justice executed by mobs or vigilance committees no longer is a significant tool of oppression, Latinos arguably continue to experience discrimination in other, more subtle and socially accepted forms. Racial tensions continue to ruminate around economic issues related to immigration policy as well as socioeconomic class distinctions. As students examine the patterns and motives driving lynching of Latinos in the Southwestern U.S. from the mid-1800’s through the first few decades of the 20th century, they should be able to make connections with contemporary forms of discrimination.
* Lynching has been defined in various ways by historians, civil rights committees, legal documents, etc. Most sources include the following two characteristics when defining lynching: 1. a person is killed, and 2. the murder is the result of a group claiming to execute justice of some kind. Christopher Waldrep (2006) notes that "nineteenth-century people defined lynching as violence sanctioned, endorsed, or carried out by a neighborhood or community acting outside the law" (p. xvii).
Notes to Teachers:
1. Due to the lack of historical representation of lynching of Latinos, very few primary textual sources are available in their original format. This site utilizes reprinted translations of texts. Reformatting primary sources in this way affects the efficacy of the degree to which they can be interpreted. Foremost, the source has been removed from its original context, which is arguably equally as important as content. As students engage with these sources, they should comment on the limitations of evaluating a primary source devoid of context.
2. Before engaging with this site, students should have a basic understanding of the political structure of Latin America (particularly Mexico) and the United States between 1850 and 1930 including relations between them, a basic understanding of the racial and economic climate of the Southwestern U.S. during this time, and a basic understanding of lynching.
