The Robin Hood of the Rio Grande

Early life -

Juan Nepomuceno Cortina has been described by the Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie as 'the most striking, the most powerful, the most insolent, and the most daring as well as the most elusive Mexican bandit, not even excepting Pancho Villa, that ever wet his horses in the muddy water of the Rio Bravo'; in Mexican and Tejano culture he is considered a heroic figure who fought against the injustices and blatant racism of the Anglo-Americans.

Born on 16 May 1824 to Trinidad and Estefana Cortina, an extremely wealthy aristocratic couple with extensive land-holdings in Camargo, Tamaulipas, and in the lower Rio Grande valley, Juan Cortina grew up with a fierce pride in his Mexican ancestry. Later, as a cavalry rider in the Tamaulipas Brigade under General Mariano Aristo, he fought in the Battles of Resaca de la Palma and Palo Alto against the United States. After the war was lost and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed, he rejoined the family ranching business and was sent to look after the lands north of the Rio Grande. These were jealously coveted by the Anglo inhabitants of the nearby town of Brownsville, and Cortina soon began to find himself at odds with the townspeople. Frequently, with or without basis, he was accused of cattle-hustling and it was only the high standing of his powerful family that prevented him from being arrested outright.

Turning Point -

For a high-born Mexican accustomed to respect and one who was also chaffing about the defeat of his home country, the arrogant attitude of the Anglos really rankled. They regarded Mexicans as inferior beings with no rights, and every opportunity was taken to humiliate or belittle them. Their lands and cattle were seized from them often with little or no reason, and they had no recourse to official justice, the Sheriffs and the Texas Rangers themselves being biased against Mexicans. On 13 July 1859, while on business in Brownsville, Cortina came across the spectacle of one of his former vaqueros being pistol-whipped by the Anglo city marshal, Robert Shears, and immediately intervened to stop the outrage. The angry exchange that followed escalated and ended with Cortina shooting Shears in the shoulder and riding off from the scene, with his injured employee slung across his saddle front. He had acted to protect his employee, but the Anglo authorities viewed it differently – he had shot a Law Officer! They conveniently ignored, of course, the unlawful conduct of the said officer, and ignored too the fact that Cortina hadn't killed Shears when he so easily could have. Cortina was declared an outlaw, and from a respected rancher he now became a hunted 'bandit'. The First Cortina War had begun.

Taking Brownsville -

If the authorities had handled the episode with Shears more tactfully, a lot of trouble might have been avoided. Instead, now, they put Cortina very definitely on the war-path. There is only so much humiliation any person can take without fighting back, and when that person has been left with little choice or nothing left to lose, watch out! On 28 September 1859, just two months after he had been outlawed, Cortina raided Brownsville with an army of some eighty vaqueros and, clattering through the streets with shouts of 'Death to the Gringos' and 'Viva Mexico', they took control of the entire town. The Republic of the Rio Grande was proclaimed and the Mexican flag was hoisted. Many Mexicans, unfairly imprisoned in the town jail, were liberated; the jailer and five other men were shot dead in the shoot-out. Four Anglos, who had previously got off scot-free after murdering Mexicans, were rounded up and summarily executed, but several others on Cortina's vendetta list managed to elude him by either fleeing town or going into hiding. The rest of the Anglo population trembled, expecting gory savagery now that the Mexicans had taken over the town, but nothing of that sort happened; neither they personally nor their property was touched. Cortina, as he mentioned in the first of his famous proclamations later, had no intention of harming innocent people. In fact they were left at liberty to go and complain about the affront to their town to the Mexican authorities in Matamoros, and as a result Jose Maria Carbajal, an important official, was sent to parley with Cortina. Cortina – and this is another example of reasonable behavior from this 'bandit' - was persuaded to give up his control of Brownsville and withdraw to the family ranch at Santa Rita in Cameron County. It was from here that his first proclamation about his intentions was issued. The following will give an idea of what he was about -

'There is no need of fear. Orderly people and honest citizens are inviolable to us in their persons and interests. Our object, as you have seen, has been to chastise the villainy of our enemies, which heretofore has gone unpunished. These have connived with each other, and form, so to speak, a perfidious inquisitorial lodge to persecute and rob us, without any cause, and for no other crime on our part than that of being of Mexican origin, considering us, doubtless, destitute of those gifts which they themselves do not possess.'

'To defend ourselves, and making use of the sacred right of self-preservation, we have assembled in a popular meeting with a view of discussing a means by which to put an end to our misfortunes'.

This proclamation was printed in the local paper and the Editor's vituperative opinion stands out in stark contrast to Cortina's elegantly couched, rational message.

The Editor -

'The arch murderer and robber has been induced by some inflated coxcomb to allow his name to be put to the following collection of balderdash and impudence.'

'He professes to be at the head of a secret society, organized for this object. He claims modestly for his co-villains all the virtues, especially those of gentleness, purity, and liveliness of disposition'.

This was the kind of intolerance that was prevalent amongst the Anglos of the period, and, not surprisingly, nobody attempted to defuse the situation by offering concessions to the wronged Mexicans. In fact, right after Cortina's proclamation, a town posse was organized to go after him and one of his men, Tomas Cabrera, was unfortunately captured. Then banding together to form 'The Brownsville Tigers', twenty of the townsmen, backed by a Mexican militia from Matamoros and two cannons, launched an attack on Cortina's ranch. It was a stupid move. Unlike the Mexican government, which opposed Cortina from fear of starting another war with the United States, the ordinary Mexicanos and Tejanos idolized him as their protector against the racist Anglos. Many of them had rallied in his support and by now Cortina had over six hundred fighters under him. The attackers were repelled with an almost insulting ease and they scattered in a wild disarray. Cortina, understandably low on good temper now, announced that unless Cabrera was released, they would burn down Brownsville. The town was saved from capitulation by the timely or rather untimely, depending on the way you view it, arrival of the Texas Rangers.

The Texas Rangers -

The Rangers, led by Captain William Tobin, coolly disregarded Cortina's message, hung Cabrera the very next day, and launched another furious attack on Cortina. This attack too, however, failed ignominiously, and the thwarted Rangers then began indiscriminately punishing any Mexican they encountered south of the Rio Grande. Cortina protested against this injustice by issuing a second proclamation on 23 November 1859. This was addressed to Governor Sam Houston, asking him to protect the Texan Mexicans. Like the previous proclamation, this too was ignored, and instead the Rangers were reinforced with 165 regulars under Major John Ford and Major Samuel Heintzelman. The fierce fighting that followed drastically affected the entire area from Brownsville to Rio Grande City, disrupting civilian life and destroying property. Then, on 27 December 1859, Heintzelman defeated Cortina in the battle of Rio Grand City and forced him to retreat across the border into Mexico. After recouping his strength here, Cortina attacked La Bolsa on the Rio Grande River and captured the steamboat Ranchero belonging to his enemies Richard King and Mifflin Kennedy. However Major Ford's rangers put paid to any idea of crossing the Rio Grande, and Cortina's plans were further spoiled by the arrival of the Commander of the Eighth Military District, Colonel Robert E. Lee, who threatened to invade Mexico if this was what it took to quell Cortina. The Mexican government would have gladly turned Cortina over to him, however, Cortina was not to be found. He had retreated into the wilderness of the Burgos Mountains, and he was to remain there until the secession of Texas from the Union the following year. Then began what is known as the Second Cortina War.

Death -

In May 1861, Cortina's attempt to seize Carrizo in Zapata County was foiled by the Confederate Captain Santos Benavides; seven Cortina men died in the battle and eleven others were captured and subsequently executed. Cortina, undeterred by the continuing setbacks, retreated into Mexico and became embroiled next in the Nationalist Struggle against French Intervention and also in the American Civil War in which he sided with the Unionists. He was one of the defenders of San Lorenzo at Puebla on 5 May 1862, and fought at Matamoros and in Central Mexico – where he witnessed the execution of Maximilian at Queretaro. In 1863, Benito Juarez, the Nationalist leader, made him a general in the Mexican army and later appointed him as the Governor of Tamaulipas. He was Governor again briefly in 1866, but then handing charge to General Tapia, Cortina returned to his old stamping ground near Brownsville. He was still considered an outlaw in these parts and his stature remained unchanged despite a petition for pardon drawn up by some of the leading citizens of Brownsville. The United States, unforgivingly hostile, accused him once again of disturbing the peace and hustling cattle, and Cortina himself was not one to make life easy for anybody bent on bothering him. At last the new Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz, under immense pressure from the United States, arrested Cortina and had him imprisoned in Mexico City in 1876. He was held until 1890, and died four years after his release in Atzcapozalco on October 30, 1894, proud and defiant to the last.