The Mexican American Experience, a radio program produced by the Longhorn Radio Network, includes interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns. Program summary: Richard Goodman discusses the lives of two famous Chicano Bandits, Juan Nepomuceno Cortina and Tiburcio Vazquez, as examples of two Mexicans who impacted United States history. Using Rudolfo Acuña's Occupied America, Goodman explains how many Mexican Americans in the 1850s were very poor and oppressed by Anglo society. He explains that they revered bandits who broke Anglo laws because they attacked the same law enforcement structures that oppressed them. While Anglo historians have tried to discredit these figures, many Mexican Americans recognize them as the precursors of the Chicano Movement. Juan Nepomuceno Cortina was an upper class Mexican landowner and cotton merchant active in politics after the American civil war. One day he shot a marshal who was pistol-whipping a Mexican. From then on, he committed himself to defending Mexicans against Anglo abuses. He condemned the oppression of Mexicans and called for the extermination of their oppressors, lawyers, merchants, and Anglo settlers. Only captured once for cattle rustling, he was revered as a hero on the Mexican border. Tiburcio Vazquez operated in California in the 1850, raiding towns and robbing hotels and stores during the California gold rush. Mexicans admired him for his anti-establishment activities. He was captured and hung, but before he died, Vasquez explained that his activities were driven by the hatred and anger he felt towards the Anglos who deprived Mexicans of their rights, and took away the honor of Mexican women. Keywords: Anglo hostility, Border Violence, Brownsville, California, Californios, Cattle Rustling, Chicano Movement, George Beers, Gold Rush, Governor, Hanging, Honor, Juan Nepomuceno Cortina, Landowner, Las Aguilas Negras, Los Angeles, Los Fieles de Cortina, Lynching, Masculinity, Matamoros, Monterey, California, Monterrey, Occupied America, Porfirio Diaz, Rangers, Red Robber of the Rio Grande, Resistance, Robert E. Lee, Rodolfo Acuña, Secret Societies, Social Banditry, Tamaulipas, Texas, Tiburcio Vazquez. Broadcast date: 1976-11-05.
Creator/Contributor:
Longhorn Radio Network (creator) and Goodman, Richard (host)
Date Created/Date Issued:
11/5/1976
Owning Repository:
Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin