VOCES

In West Texas, in Porvenir, Texas, people were still just using horses in the early 1900s. And it was, in essence, the Wild, Wild West. It was a real rough way to live. Didn't have a lot of the basic things that we take into consideration. So life was rough. We are now in a very isolated area. But along the way, a lot of things happened, not all of them good, not all of them much to be proud of. Mexicans had lived and worked on the Texas border frontier for generations. (gunshots booming) When Texas claimed independence from Mexico in 1836, it set the stage for the coming clash between Mexican and Anglo cultures. (gunshots booming) A decade later, the United States and Mexico went to war. Mexico, defeated, lost half of its territory. Mexicans on the border became Americans overnight. Mexicans became citizens of this country because of American westward expansion, and they have a claim, certainly, to South and West Texas that is deeper than anybody else's. The 1848 treaty guaranteed land rights and civil rights to these new citizens. But a great gulf would arise between original settlers and Anglo newcomers. (gunshots booming) (people yelling) The Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910.