After a borderland shootout, a 100-year-old battle for the truth

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After a borderland shootout, a 100-year-old battle for the truth
Whose story is remembered and celebrated when it comes to the ugly chapters of Texas history?

By Arelis R. Hernández and Frank Hulley-Jones
Illustrations by Raúl Urias
Photography by Desiree Rios
May 15, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

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Cresencio Oliveira Jr. planned to marry María de Jesús “Chucha” Gutiérrez at the Iglesia Católica Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Parás, Mexico.

Texas history has branded these three Tejano men as tequila smugglers who met a deserved fate: gunned down in a borderland corral.

But their indignant descendants have long disputed the official story. For generations, they recorded their version of events in narrative, subversive folk songs known as corridos. The men were among many Mexican Americans with roots in South Texas killed under suspicious circumstances by White law enforcement officers who wielded the power of the Texas government in their trigger fingers, they say.

More deeply, the families are challenging the gritty idealism and heroic vision associated with the Rangers, who personify Texas itself. Organized more than 200 years ago to protect 300 White families invited to settle in what was then Mexican territory, they have been portrayed in dozens of movies and TV series as swaggering, no-nonsense lawmen.

“The Rangers had for years and years a network of enablers and fable factory who promoted this image. That’s what Hollywood wanted and what the newspapers of the day wanted, so that’s what survived,” said Doug Swanson, author of “Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers.” “It’s only half true, if that much.”

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Arelis R. Hernández
Arelis Hernández is a Texas-based border correspondent on the national desk working with the immigration team and roving the U.S. southern border. Hernández joined the Post in 2014 to cover politics and government on the local desk after spending four years as a breaking news and crime reporter at the Orlando Sentinel. Twitter https://twitter.com/arelisrhdz

Frank Hulley-Jones
Frank Hulley-Jones is a designer and developer for The Washington Post. He produces interactive pieces to help audiences engage with complex and important news stories. Twitter https://twitter.com/tobefrankj