To The Honorable J. T. Canales, President General, League of Latin-American Citizens, Brownsville, Texas, from [PERALES], McAllen, Texas, January 2, 1928.
Item
Dublin Core
Title
To The Honorable J. T. Canales, President General, League of Latin-American Citizens, Brownsville, Texas, from [PERALES], McAllen, Texas, January 2, 1928.
Subject
LETTERS
CANALES, J. T. (Jose Tomas), 1877-1976
DISCRIMINATION against Mexican Americans
ASSAULT and Battery
CRIME and Race
DEATH
MURDER
SÁENZ, José de la Luz, 1888-1953
RACE discrimination
PROTESTS and social movements
Description
Letter to J. T. Canales from [PERALES] regarding the killings and wounding of three Mexicans in Stanton, Texas. [PERALES] discusses protesting to Governor Dan Moody and demanding punishment.
Creator
[Perales, Alonso S.]
Source
Date
1928-01-02
Rights
Content compilation of The Latino/Hispanic American Experience Leaders, Writers and Thinkers copyright 2012 by Arte Publico Historical Collections. All rights reserved.
Format
JPEG
Language
English
Type
Text
Identifier
pera0050
Coverage
BROWNSVILLE (Tex.)
MCALLEN (Tex.)
STANTON (Tex.)
Scripto
Transcription
[HANDWRITTEN - Copy]
McAllen, Texas,
January 2, 1928.
The Honorable J.T. Canales,
President General, League of Latin-American Citizens,
Brownsville, Texas.
My dear Mr. Canales:
Pursuant to my verbal promise of December 30th last, I am pleased to enclose herewith a copy of the general letter which I sent to all the Presidents of the Councils of our League.
I am enclosing a newspaper clipping bearing on the killing of two Mexicans and the wounding of a third at Stanton, Texas, on or about Thursday, December 22nd. Allow me to suggest that you keep track of this case with a view to ascertaining whether or not the guilty parties, one of whom has already confessed that it was a frame-up to collect rewards of $5000 offered by the Texas State Bankers Association for "dead bank robbers," are punished according to law. If justice would be done they should be electrocuted. If they are sent to [Handwritten - the] penitentary for a term of years, or not punished at all, I am strongly in favor of having our League, as a whole, go on record as protesting emphatically and demanding that the guilty parties be given the punishment they deserve. In such event, it seems to me that you, as President General of our League, should address Governor Dan Moody registering such protest and making such demand, and your letter should be given wide publicity. If you do so you will merely be living up to the professed principles of our League. It will [Cross out - mean; replace with handwritten - show] that we are determined to put into practice what we preach and, incidentally, it will be a ["be a: written two times - copy crossed out] big boost for our League. Think it over, if you will, and let me know if you agree with me on this particular point. The fact that apparently the victims were Mexican citizens should not make any difference as far as our League is concerned, it seems to me, because it is a certainty that the murderers did not stop to think whether or not their-would-be victims were American citizens or not.
Prof. J. Luz Saenz, of Peñitas, [empty space] Secretary General of our League has asked me to tell you to feel free to call on him for any assistance which you may need in connection with our League. And right here I avail myself of the opportunity to recommend him very highly as a man of integrity and honor. He is absolutely sincere when he says that he wants to further the general evolution of our race. He is one of the few men in whom I have implicit confidence. He harbors no illegitimate or selfish ambitions and I'll guarantee you that he will never turn a traitor to our cause.
With warmest regards and best wishes, I remain
Sincerely yours,
and a tremendous blow to the ill-intentioned, bigotred cowards that attacked us because of the stand we took in favor of an organization of American citizens of latin descent.
McAllen, Texas,
January 2, 1928.
The Honorable J.T. Canales,
President General, League of Latin-American Citizens,
Brownsville, Texas.
My dear Mr. Canales:
Pursuant to my verbal promise of December 30th last, I am pleased to enclose herewith a copy of the general letter which I sent to all the Presidents of the Councils of our League.
I am enclosing a newspaper clipping bearing on the killing of two Mexicans and the wounding of a third at Stanton, Texas, on or about Thursday, December 22nd. Allow me to suggest that you keep track of this case with a view to ascertaining whether or not the guilty parties, one of whom has already confessed that it was a frame-up to collect rewards of $5000 offered by the Texas State Bankers Association for "dead bank robbers," are punished according to law. If justice would be done they should be electrocuted. If they are sent to [Handwritten - the] penitentary for a term of years, or not punished at all, I am strongly in favor of having our League, as a whole, go on record as protesting emphatically and demanding that the guilty parties be given the punishment they deserve. In such event, it seems to me that you, as President General of our League, should address Governor Dan Moody registering such protest and making such demand, and your letter should be given wide publicity. If you do so you will merely be living up to the professed principles of our League. It will [Cross out - mean; replace with handwritten - show] that we are determined to put into practice what we preach and, incidentally, it will be a ["be a: written two times - copy crossed out] big boost for our League. Think it over, if you will, and let me know if you agree with me on this particular point. The fact that apparently the victims were Mexican citizens should not make any difference as far as our League is concerned, it seems to me, because it is a certainty that the murderers did not stop to think whether or not their-would-be victims were American citizens or not.
Prof. J. Luz Saenz, of Peñitas, [empty space] Secretary General of our League has asked me to tell you to feel free to call on him for any assistance which you may need in connection with our League. And right here I avail myself of the opportunity to recommend him very highly as a man of integrity and honor. He is absolutely sincere when he says that he wants to further the general evolution of our race. He is one of the few men in whom I have implicit confidence. He harbors no illegitimate or selfish ambitions and I'll guarantee you that he will never turn a traitor to our cause.
With warmest regards and best wishes, I remain
Sincerely yours,
and a tremendous blow to the ill-intentioned, bigotred cowards that attacked us because of the stand we took in favor of an organization of American citizens of latin descent.
Collection
Citation
[Perales, Alonso S.], “To The Honorable J. T. Canales, President General, League of Latin-American Citizens, Brownsville, Texas, from [PERALES], McAllen, Texas, January 2, 1928.,” Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Digital Collections, accessed April 28, 2024, http://usldhrecovery.uh.edu/items/show/244.