Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence Against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928
William D. Carrigan & Clive Webb
“Two brothers-Filomeno Rios and Eifanio Rios-hung from one limb. The oldest of the men, Jorge Rodriguez, was found swinging from another branch of the same tree. Hanging nearby was the corpse of … Blas Mata. Further away … were the bodies of Leonardo Garza, 22, and Jose Maria Rinas, 32. One final victim, Vicente Garcia, dangled a few yards beyond.”
Forgotten Dead: Mob violence against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928 by William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb, offers a thorough study of mob violence towards Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the United States. From the beginning of the Gold Rush in California up until the lynching of Rafael Benavides in New Mexico in 1928, Carrigan and Webb aim to shed light on a demographic often overlooked in research and discussion regarding mob violence in the United States.
Racial prejudice and economic competition fueled organized and self-proclaimed vigilante groups as well as unaffiliated assailants to carry out horrific acts of violence towards people of Mexican descent. In many cases, the perpetrators counted with the protection or direct involvement of local law enforcement. People of Mexican descent fought back through armed as well as peaceful resistance and even diplomatic protest.
Carrigan and Web include specific accounts of some of the victims’ final moments and a detailed list at the end of the book of confirmed and unconfirmed cases of Mob violence towards people of Mexican descent in the United States. For the authors, their book is not about reopening old wounds but “a means to enhance mutual understanding” in a country where “race remains one of the deepest fault lines.”
William D. Carrigan is Professor of History at Rowan University and the author of The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916, the editor of Lynching Reconsidered: New Directions in the Study of Mob Violence, and the co-editor of Swift to Wrath: Lynching in Global Historical Perspective.
Clive Webb is Professor of Modern American History at the University of Sussex, the author of Fight against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights and Rabble Rousers: The American Far Right in the Civil Rights Era, and the editor of Massive Resistance: Southern Opposition of the Second Reconstruction.
Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence Against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928 is a publication by Oxford University Press. Click here to purchase.
William D. Carrigan is Professor of History at Rowan University and the author of The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916, the editor of Lynching Reconsidered: New Directions in the Study of Mob Violence, and the co-editor of Swift to Wrath: Lynching in Global Historical Perspective.
Clive Webb is Professor of Modern American History at the University of Sussex, the author of Fight against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights and Rabble Rousers: The American Far Right in the Civil Rights Era, and the editor of Massive Resistance: Southern Opposition of the Second Reconstruction.
Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence Against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928 is a publication by Oxford University Press. Click here to purchase.
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