Gregorio Cortez

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Gregorio Cortez Lira (born June 22, 1875 near Matamoros, Tamaulipas—February 28, 1916) was a Mexican American who became a hero to some Mexican American Texans and a symbol of the willingness to fight for equal rights.

1 The Incident
2 Flight and Capture
3 Trial, Conviction, and Exoneration
4 Post-prison Life and Death
5 The Legend
6 In Song, Literature, and Film
7 Sources
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] The Incident

On June 12, 1901, while investigating a horse theft, Karnes County sheriff W.T. "Brack" Morris went to the Thulemeyer ranch outside of Kenedy, where Gregorio and Romaldo Cortez were tenant maize farmers, after learning that Gregorio had acquired a mare from a Mexican Kenedy resident by way of trade. After misunderstandings between Morris and the Cortez brothers resulting from poor translation by a deputy, Morris shot and wounded Romaldo, prompting Gregorio to shoot and kill Morris.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Flight and Capture

Cortez, now a fugitive from the law, spent ten days on the lam, repeatedly evading authorities (including the Texas Rangers), and at times aided by compatriots. During his flight, Texas newspapers were highly critical of Cortez, some lamenting that he hadn't been lynched. Popular hatred for Cortez among Anglos provoked violence against Mexican communities in Gonzales, Refugio, Hays, and other counties. Cortez was finally apprehended on June 22, 1901, when an acquaintance turned him in.

[edit] Trial, Conviction, and Exoneration

Immediately following Cortez's capture, his supporters began forming organizations to publicize the case and raise money for his defense. At his first trial (in Gonzales), he was sentenced to fifty years' imprisonment for second-degree murder. While appeals were being denied, a lynch mob of three hundred attempted to hang him. He was also tried and convicted in Karnes City and Pleasanton. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned all the verdicts. His last trial was in Corpus Christi in 1904, after which he began serving a life sentence. Efforts to have him pardoned began with his incarceration and finally succeeded in 1913, when governor Oscar Colquitt issued him a conditional pardon.

[edit] Post-prison Life and Death

Upon his release, he thanked those who worked for his freedom, joining the Huertist forces of the Mexican Revolution in Nuevo Laredo. Shortly after remarrying for the fourth time, he died of pneumonia.

[edit] The Legend

Like many folk heroes who have acquired legendary status, many of the facts about his life have been obscured by time, embellishments, and the variation inherent in oral histories. According to legend, he was an excellent marksman and had a way with animals that allowed him to track and find them with uncommon aplomb, qualities which alleged to have helped him evade law enforcement. Legend also ascribes to him the values of respectfulness, temperance, and obedience, which are contrasted with his brother's laziness, disrespectfulness, and short temper. (In some versions of the story, his brother is called "Ramón".) Legends also dramatize his many narrow escapes, his humiliation of the Texas Rangers, and his impassioned courtroom pleas to simply be tried by the law of the land rather than prejudicially because of racist attitudes.

[edit] In Song, Literature, and Film

The story of Cortez was popularized and disseminated through various ballads called El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez, starting as early as 1901. Writing in the 1950's, folklorist Américo Paredes exposed a wider audience to the legend with his With His Pistol In His Hand, originally published in 1958. The work angered a Texas Ranger who threatened to shoot Paredes. The legend was turned into the film The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, starring Edward James Olmos, in 1982.[1]