Kirby Warnock

MISSION, September 16 - The producer of an acclaimed documentary about the so-called border bandit era says Rio Grande Valley residents should record the life stories of its elderly citizens while they are still around.

Dallas filmmaker Kirby Warnock said the Valley has a rich contemporary history but much of it has been told orally, with little written down or taped.

Warnock said he has recently become inspired by the work Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who has asked her students to go out and record the stories of Latinos and Latinas who fought for the United States in World War II.

“I spoke to Maggie Rivas’ class and it was emotional for me to see the 17 and 18 year-old students receive their assignments,” Warnock said. “I agree with Maggie, if Latinos do not go out and record it themselves, it won’t get done. You can’t rely on other people.”

Warnock said the work Rivas-Rodriguez and her students were doing was all the more important given that a new documentary about World War II by filmmaker Ken Burns has ignored the heroism of Hispanics. Burns’ documentary will air on PBS this month.

Warnock made his comments after another showing of his Border Bandits documentary at the Border Theater in Mission. Warnock’s great grandfather was shot and killed just a few blocks from the site of the theater in 1915.

That incident is included in the documentary although much of the focus revolves around the Sept. 30, 1915, killing of two Tejanos, 68-year-old Jesus Bazan and his son-in-law Antonio Longoria, by the Texas Rangers.

Roland Warnock, Kirby Warnock’s grandfather, witnessed the killings – Bazan and Longoria were shot in the back - while working as a cowboy on Guadalupe Ranch near Edinburg. The killings followed a raid on the ranch of James McAllen.

The documentary goes on to examine how much of the Valley’s land was transferred from Tejano to Anglo ownership between 1910 and 1920.

Kirby Warnock made an audio recording of his grandfather’s story while a student at Baylor University.

“My grandfather named names, dates and places. His mind was sharp right up to the day he died, aged 76,” Warnock said. “Once you have the names, the dates, the places, you can check the newspapers and check court records. If you don’t have names, dates and places, boy, you will be at it all year. This stuff is not digitized. It’s not on Google.”

As with previous showings of Border Bandits, Warnock hosted a lively question and answer session afterwards.

Ninfa Guerra, a retired former teacher from McAllen, said the documentary was “incredible” and that its storyline reinforced a story she was told by her mother about the killing of an innocent young man by the Texas Rangers in Los Saenz, near Roma, in Starr County. Guerra believes the shooting occurred in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

“The Texas Rangers shot the wrong twin, while the young man was asleep. Afterwards, when his family came back from church, the Rangers would not allow them to come onto their own property. The parents were not allowed them to see their son. They wanted the body so they could bury him and the Rangers would not let them,” Guerra said.

“I made sure this story was told when we taught students about the Texas Rangers. Unless we tell these stories, they are going to get lost.”

Marti Guillen, of Raymondville, told of a story he had heard about a young man, Russell Williams, who worked on King Ranch during the time its owners sought to gain more land.

“During the day, his job was to buy property for the King Ranch. At night, his job was to kill entire families who would not sell. On his deathbed, this man told his grandson that he would hear the voices of the crying children every night for the rest of his life. They were crying out, asking him not to shoot them,” Guillen said.

Eddie Olivarez, Hidalgo County’s director of health, said this was the fourth of fifth time he had seen Border Bandits. He said it was important that the youth of the Valley realized what great history the region had and that the history did not solely revolve around the McAllens, the Closners, the Champions, and the Conways.

“I brought my son and I brought my son’s best friends. They need to know that the Texas history they learn in school is not always the most accurate,” Olivarez said.

“Kirby is right. We need to write the stories down. Do a video of your grandparents, your uncles, your aunts. There’s an old saying, who’s going to remember you when your children’s children die? We have a great tradition of oral history, telling stories on the back porch. But we have to write it down.”

Warnock thanked state Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, for his help in promoting the documentary and for trying to get a state historical marker at the gravesite of Bazan and Longoria.

Peña said the sad thing was that the current national debate on immigration and border security made it harder for him to win support in the legislature to get funding for a marker.

“An anti-immigrant sentiment has developed and many of my colleagues are uncomfortable promoting anything that may cause them to lose votes back home,” Peña said.

“But, this movie caused me to learn a lot more about my history. I found about state Rep. J.T. Canales, a hero the history books do not tell us about. He stood up on his own and took on the Texas Rangers.”

Warnock said he brought his documentary back to the Valley in part because of the national debate on immigration. He said the “trouble” with most Americans who are anti-immigrant is they have little knowledge of history.

“All of a sudden people are trying to demonize anybody with a brown skin. They say, oh they should go back where they came from. I’m sorry, they were already here,” Warnock said.

“There are Hispanic families in the Rio Grande Valley that can trace their heritage back to 1750. They were here before we were fighting the battles of Concord and Lexington. They had clear title to their property. If people could understand history it would help, instead of getting on some talk show and screaming.”

Before the two showings of Border Bandits at the Border Theater, Warnock held a hastily arranged presentation of the documentary at Texas A&M University-Kingsville at the request of Dr. Jose Angel Gutiérrez.

Write Steve Taylor

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