DUANE
Duane's take
The marker tells it plain, but let me make sure you hear it — this is my telling of what the Texas Historical Commission put into stone on the side of a Hidalgo County road. September 27, 1915. Two men ride out on what ought to have been a routine errand.
Jesus Bazán and his son-in-law, Antonio Longoria — both of them recognized Tejano community leaders, and Longoria a sitting Hidalgo County commissioner. These were not men without standing. These were not strangers to the law.
And yet. A horse robbery had occurred a few days prior at their ranch north of the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County. So they did what upstanding men do.
They rode to the Texas Ranger camp on the Sam Lane ranch to report it. They figured they had the law on their side. And by any measure of what the law is supposed to be, they did.
They met with Ranger Captain Henry Ransom. The conversation, by all accounts, seemed uneventful. Nothing alarming.
Bazán and Longoria left on horseback, heading away from the camp. They made it about three hundred yards. That is when the laborers working on Sam Lane's ranch saw something.
Captain Ransom and two civilians climbed into a Model T Ford and followed the two men down the road. Then one passenger reached outside a window — and shot both men in the back. Jesus Bazán and Antonio Longoria fell from their horses and died on the side of that road.
Now here is the part that stays with you. It was reported that Captain Ransom, unfazed by the shooting, returned to the campsite to take a nap. He left the bodies where they fell, to decompose in the South Texas heat.
No investigation. No explanation. No report from the Texas Rangers.
No report from local law enforcement either. Nothing. Several days later, it was a family friend and neighbor — not any badge, not any official — who buried the men where they had fallen.
Anti-Mexican violence in the region was persistent in those years, and the murders of Bazán and Longoria were not isolated. But they were remembered. And in 1919, as a result of those murders and many other incidents of violence against Mexican Americans, the Texas Legislature conducted a formal investigation into state and local law enforcement practices.
Many law enforcement groups were reorganized as a result. The marker notes something else too — that memories of these murders have carried forward through oral tradition. Families and communities kept the story alive when the official record refused to.
That is its own kind of testimony. Two men rode out to report a robbery. They should have had the law on their side.
Remember their names — Jesus Bazán, Antonio Longoria — and remember who buried them.
What the marker says
On September 27, 1915, Jesus Bazán and his son-in-law, Antonio Longoria – both recognized Tejano community leaders and the latter a Hidalgo County commissioner – traveled to a local Texas Ranger camp on the Sam Lane ranch to report a horse robbery that occurred a few days prior at their ranch north of the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County. Although Bazán and Longoria should have had the law on their side, anti-Mexican violence in the region was persistent. After a seemingly uneventful conversation with Ranger Captain Henry Ransom, the two men left on horseback. When they were about 300 yards from the campsite, laborers on Sam Lane’s ranch witnessed Captain Ransom and two civilians climb into a Model T Ford and follow the men. One passenger reached outside a window and shot both men in the back. Bazán and Longoria fell from their horses and died on the side of the road. Unfazed by the shooting, it was reported that Captain Ransom returned to the campsite to take a nap, leaving the bodies to decompose. Several days later, a family friend and neighbor buried the men where they fell. Neither the Texas Rangers nor local law enforcement investigated, explained or reported the murders. In 1919, as a result of the Bazán and Longoria murders and many other incidents of violence against Mexican Americans, the Texas Legislature conducted a formal investigation into state and local law enforcement practices. Many law enforcement groups were reorganized as a result. Memories of the murders continue through oral tradition, reflecting this violent yet pivotal time in Texas history. (2016)