DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Laredo had been holding annual elections for city officials since 1767 — long before Texas was Texas, long before most of this country was anything at all. By 1886, though, those elections had developed a little... personality.
Two rival parties had dug in deep, and the names alone tell you something about the spirit of the thing. On one side, the Guaraches — named for the Mexican Indian sandals. On the other, the Botas, meaning boots.
Dario Gonzales led the Guaraches. A French immigrant by the name of Raymond Martin led the Botas. You might picture boots and sandals squarin' off in the street, and friend, that is not far from what happened.
Trouble started comin' to a boil before the first vote was even cast. Shortly before the April election, a Bota city councilman was killed. Then Sheriff Dario Sanchez — himself a Bota — appointed several special deputies, and Guarache resentment flared up hot.
April 6th, though, election day itself, came and went peacefully. The Botas won nearly everything — all places except two. And right there is where a wiser party might have said, well, we won, let's go home.
But the Botas were not feeling particularly wise that evening. Against the advice of their own party leaders — and I want you to notice that detail, because somebody tried to stop this — the Botas planned a mock funeral procession for their defeated opponents. On the evening of April 7th.
A parade. To celebrate the other side's loss. Now the Guaraches had been humiliated at the ballot box, and they were not about to stand there and watch a funeral march thrown in their honor.
They determined to stop that procession. And they had a cannon. A ceremonial cannon — which they loaded not with powder and ball, but with nails and scrap iron — and they fired it directly into the Bota parade.
Both sides opened up shooting after that, and a full battle broke out in the streets of Laredo. It took U.S. soldiers, dispatched by Colonel R. F.
Bernard, the commander at Fort McIntosh, to end the fighting. Martial law was imposed on the city. When the count came in, eleven dead were known — and casualties were estimated even higher than that.
Colonel Bernard, when he weighed in on the cause, didn't let either side off clean. He blamed factions within both parties, and he blamed the lawless outsiders and renegades who had gathered on both sides of the border in the days before the election. A victory parade that nobody asked for, a cannon full of nails, and eleven people known dead.
The boots and the sandals both paid the price for one night's worth of spite.
What the marker says
Annual elections for city officials, held here since 1767, were followed by rioting in 1886. Citizens were divided among two rival parties. The Guaraches, named for the Mexican Indian sandals, were led by Dario Gonzales. Raymond Martin, a French immigrant, led the Botas (boots). Shortly before the April election, a Bota city councilman was killed. Sheriff Dario Sanchez, a Bota, appointed several special deputies, and Guarache resentment flared. The April 6 election was peaceful. Bota candidates won all places except two. Against the advice of party leaders, the Botas planned a mock funeral for their defeated opponents on the evening of April 7. The humiliated Guaraches determined to stop the procession. They fired their ceremonial cannon, filled with nails and scrap iron, into the Bota parade. Both sides began shooting, and a battle ensued. U.S. soldiers, dispatched by Col. R. F. Bernard, commander at Fort McIntosh, ended the fighting. Martial law was imposed. Casualties were estimated higher than the 11 known dead. Col. Bernard blamed the violence on factions in both parties, and on lawless outsiders and renegades gathered on both sides of the border in the days preceding the election. (1976)