DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at San Diego, Duval County tells it — and friends, this one demands you listen close. January 6, 1915. Nine men of Mexican descent gathered in San Diego, the seat of Duval County, and they signed a document.
They called it El Plan de San Diego — a manifesto. A word that carries weight all by itself. What they put their names to was a call for political insurrection, a response to the social and political events pressing down on their world at that moment.
And the reverberations of that signing would reach far beyond any one county, far beyond any one border. El Plan de San Diego called for Mexican Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, and Japanese Americans to rise up in arms across the American Southwest — on a specific date: February 20, 1915. The goal was nothing less than separating Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and California from the United States and establishing a new nation.
The plan didn't just rattle Texas. Historians would come to recognize its international implications, with threads running directly into the Mexican Revolution and into America's preparations for World War I. Now — every plan has a first crack in it, and this one came fast.
On January 24, one of the document's signers, a man named Basilio Ramos Jr., attempted to recruit a merchant. That merchant was Deodoro Guerra, of Hidalgo County. Guerra wasn't moved to join.
He sent word to Hidalgo County law enforcement, and Ramos was arrested. Newspaper accounts of the proposed revolt spread throughout the nation. Panic and fear followed close behind.
February 20 came and went. Nothing happened on that day. You might breathe for a moment there — but don't breathe too long.
Because come July, near-daily raids erupted in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. And what followed was grim, and the marker does not soften it. Many citizens and law enforcement officials resorted to extrajudicial means to terrorize and murder hundreds — and possibly thousands — of Mexicans and Mexican Americans.
That is the marker's language, and it deserves to sit in the air a moment before we move on. Governor James Ferguson asked President Woodrow Wilson to act, and Wilson began sending soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border. Tens of thousands of U.S.
Army and National Guard troops deployed. Historians who've studied this period point to three forces tangled together at the root of all this turmoil: political upheaval and maneuvering by leaders of the Mexican Revolution; efforts by Axis powers to keep the United States out of World War I; and longstanding ethnic and cultural conflicts between the original south Texas settlers of Mexican descent and the newcomers who had arrived after them. Nine men.
One document. San Diego, Texas. January 6, 1915.
What they set in motion — or what was already in motion and found its voice on that page — left a mark on this land that historians are still reckonin' with. The marker stands in Duval County so that reckoning doesn't stop.
What the marker says
On January 6, 1915, nine men of Mexican descent met in San Diego, seat of Duval county, and signed El Plan de San Diego, a manifesto calling for political insurrection in response to contemporary social and political events. The proposed rebellion also had international implications, significantly impacting the Mexican revolution and American preparedness for World War I. El Plan de San Diego called for Mexican Americans, African Americans, Native Americans and Japanese Americans to rise in arms throughout the American Southwest on February 20, 1915, using force to separate Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and California from the U.S. and establish a new nation. Deodoro Guerra, an Hidalgo County merchant, became aware of the plan on January 24, when Basilio Ramos Jr., a signer of the document, attempted to recruit Guerra to join the uprising. Guerra sent word to Hidalgo County law enforcement officials, who arrested Ramos. Newspaper accounts of the proposed revolt appeared throughout the nation, causing panic and fear to spread. Though nothing happened on February 20, near-daily raids occurred in July in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Many citizens and law enforcement officials resorted to extrajudicial means to terrorize and murder hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Mexicans and Mexican Americans. At the request of Governor James Ferguson, President Woodrow Wilson began sending soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border. Tens of thousands of U.S. Army and National Guard troops deployed. Historians attribute the turmoil from El Plan de San Diego and its period in history to political upheaval and maneuvers from leaders of the Mexican revolution, efforts of Axis powers to keep the U.S. out of WWI, and longstanding ethnic and cultural conflicts between original south Texas settlers of Mexican descent and newcomers. (2015)