The Buenavida Dilemma: Whether to Become "Gringos"

All Rights Reserved © 2003 by jose n. uranga

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ISBN: 0-595-27261-4

ISBN: 978-1-4697-7878-5 (ebook)

Printed in the United States of America

The U. S./Mexico border is a challenging, inspiring place in the 21st Century. Jose Uranga’s book The Buenavida Dilemma helps us understand how this region has come to be through the painful decisions a family was forced to make when international boundaries changed a century and a half ago. As I work and travel on the border today, I see my neighbors through a clearer lens after reading this insightful book. It is an American story in the broadest and best sense.

Judith L.Messal, College Assistant Professor

New Mexico State University

Las Cruces, New Mexico

The Buenavida Dilemma has brought back so many memories of what it was like for me, a Chicano, growing up in a home where Spanish was the predominant language. Jose Uranga’s book has put into words what I (and I’m sure what many others) have felt about being a Chicano in an Anglo dominated culture. More importantly, it has given me a historical perspective that has helped me to understand why I feel the way I do. The Buenavida Dilemma is both informative and courageous.

Michael A.Vasquez, Esq.

Founder/Partner

Vasquez & Estrada Law Firm

San Rafael, California

For my parents, whose hard work and sacrifice enabled my siblings and me to have a better life.

Buenavida Family Tree

United States General Scott admitted that the volunteer United States Army soldiers, which invaded Mexico and eventually captured Mexico City, were sorry representatives of their culture and that many atrocities were committed. From Washington to Mexico City the volunteer soldiers in the Mexican War left a dismal trail of excesses and disorders (p. 144).

Singletary, OA, The Mexican War, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois (1960).

Contents

Prologue, 1850

Part I  Becoming Gringos

Chapter One—The Decision

Chapter Two—Some U.S. History

Chapter Three—Ft. Stockton

Chapter Four—Hispanics in Texas

Chapter Five—The Johnson Alliance

Chapter Six—Manifest Destiny

Chapter Seven—Defense of Tolerance

Chapter Eight—Arrival

Part II  The Third Generation—Acceptance Comes Slowly

Chapter One—Military Service

Chapter Two—On the Farm

Chapter Three—Ft. Bliss, Texas

Chapter Four—New Mexico History

Chapter Five—The Send Off

Chapter Six—Medic Corpsman

Part III  The Fourth Generation—Assertion

Chapter One—The Baptism

Chapter Two—Walking a Line

Part III Chapter Three—Picking Cotton

Chapter Four—Mi Abuelita

Chapter Five—Understanding Discrimination

Chapter Six—Trading Tortillas for Pecan Divinity

Chapter Seven—My 1951 Ford

Chapter Eight—A Dance to Remember

Chapter Nine—High School Graduation

Chapter Ten—College Experiences

Chapter Eleven—The Law School Fixation

Part IV  The Fifth Generation—Assimilation, But At What Price?

Chapter One—Hispanic Politics

Chapter Two—Integration of Schools

Chapter Three—Civil Rights Violations

Chapter Four—English Only

Chapter Five—Environmental Justice

Chapter Six—An Act of God

Chapter Seven—Achievement

About the Author

Prologue, 1850

Rancho Buenavida was part of an original land grant from King Carlos of Spain. By 1845, it consisted of 1,200 acres of land just northeast of the Rio Grande River and west of the Pecos River. The Buenavidas had always been cattle rancheros and were prosperous enough to have four vaqueros and two housemaids to help run the rancho. The Buenavida hacienda, barns, and stock corrals were nestled in a fertile valley in the middle of the ranch. Due to their remoteness, the Buenavidas and their neighboring ranchos organized to defend against infrequent Apache and Comanche skirmishes.

It had been a heart wrenching decision, to go west and south, cross the Rio Grande River and remain Mexican citizens or accept the new status of United States citizenship by staying put. To Juan Buenavida, the eldest son of the Buenavida children of three sons and three daughters, the decision was his to make, as long as his mother, Lucia agreed. His father Jose had died of wounds suffered while serving to futily defend Mexico from the invasion of United States army soldiers at the Battle of Vera Cruz in 1847. His family’s fear and hatred of the gringos were major obstacles he would have to overcome in convincing his mother they should remain in what was now the United States and become United States citizens, or gringos themselves.

Once the United States had annexed Texas, which Mexico still considered part of its territory and war with the United States appeared imminent, Juan had left Mexico City for home to help run the rancho as soon as his father, a former army officer, volunteered to defend Mexico. Juan’s studies at the National University, while cut short, had served him well and politically matured the rural northern Mexico son of a rancher. Juan was fluent in English having studied the language at the University and having worked various translation jobs in the government ministries part-time.

The two years since the war had been difficult for Juan and his family. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo clearly provided that Mexico lost its former territory north of the Rio Grande River and the United States guaranteed to confer the rights of United States citizenship to those former citizens of Mexico residing there. The United Stages also covenanted to protect their individual land holdings. Unfortunately for the Buenavidas, the United States quickly forgot its treaty obligations.

First, it was the Romeros to the east. Then the Montoyas to the north and now it had happened to them. Corrupt Texas county and state tax assessors were easily bribed so that huge tax assessments were levied on their 1,200 acre rancho. And once the Buenavidas could not pay the exorbitant taxes, the responsible Texas ranchers bought the rancho at sheriff’s sale and the whole proceeding Juan learned was proper and legal. Juan’s letters to the Governor of Texas went unanswered and a letter to Washington was replied to by the State Department: Mr. Buenavida, property taxes are a state matter and must be paid. The Texas land tax assessment program appears to be fair. The fact that many of the ranchos never received notice of their tax delinquencies prior to sheriff ’s sale was ignored. The fact that the Mexicans who did receive tax notices could not read or understand English was also not a concern.

Part I

Becoming Gringos

Part I

(Quote from Article VIII—Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo, concluding the war between the U.S. and Mexico, February 2, 1848):

"…(residents of the former lands of Mexico) shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being subjected, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.

Those who shall prefer to remain in the said territories, may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. But they shall be under the obligation to make their election within one year date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty;…and those who shall remain in the said territories after the expiration of that year, without having declared their intention to retain the character of Mexicans, shall be considered to have elected to become citizens of the United States.

In the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to Mexicans not established there, shall be inviolably respected. The present owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may hereafter acquire said property by contract, shall enjoy with respect to it guarantees equally ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the United States."

Chapter One—The Decision

June 3, 1850 Rancho Buenavida, State of Texas

After losing their rancho at sheriff ’s sale, the Buenavidas were faced with a dilemma. Juan and his brothers could hire out to Joe Stanley Austin, the rancher manipulator of the fraudulent tax assessments and stay in the area. The other choice was for the Buenavidas to sell some or all of their livestock to finance their relocation elsewhere.

Lucia Buenavida Navarrete was especially traumatized by the events of the last two years. She and her husband, Jose, had had so many plans for the future. Their rancho, although small compared to others, was their future and their children’s future. And now it was gone. Jose’s death was still not rationalized or accepted. Juan’s political explanation of the United States’ manifest destiny and its drive to fill in coast to coast seemed so blatant. The war with Mexico was the most expedient way for the United States to acquire the territory it coveted. Somehow Jose’s death and the inability of Mexico to defend itself seemed so much in vain to Lucia.

The prospect of becoming vaqueros and campesinos, especially in the employ of someone like the despicable Austin, was unacceptable. The open hatred that the Anglos had for their new fellow citizens was incomprehensible and almost insane. Even though their legal status in the United States was not questioned, they were still despised as Mexicans, a derogatory label based on racism and not nationalism. It was clear to Lucia that the Texans only wanted their lands and they and the other thousands like them in Mexico’s former frontera, (border) were now second-class citizens.

We have to leave, Juan declared the day after the Buenavida’s rancho was sold. The thought of working our own former rancho for someone else—I just can’t stomach it!

And where do you propose we go Juan? Back to Mexico? Lucia asked, not relishing that thought at all. The reports of impending revolution and economic chaos in Mexico sounded all too true.

No, Juan said, "I think we should go north to the new territory of ‘Nuevo Mexico’ (New Mexico). I understand that the territory was founded in 1609, is over 80 percent Hispanic and the towns all have Spanish names. I hope we’ll be treated