Militarizing the Border: When Mexicans Became the Enemy by Miguel Antonio Levario (review)

Centering on the region that includes El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Miguel Antonio Levario of Texas Tech University traces the progressive militarization of the border between 1895 and 1933. Federal, state, and local authorities—as well as civilian organizations—promoted this militarization, which led to ethnic Mexicans being considered the enemy. Militarization also contributed to the racialization of social relations. These changing attitudes took place as the area experienced the early stages of modernization and a major increase in Mexican immigration. The image of border residents as violent and lawless further complicated an increasingly volatile situation. In exerting authority, officials also had to contend with the fact that the area involved was still very much a frontier region.

The author begins his discussion of the different players in the struggle with a reexamination of the Texas Rangers, who had the longest history of law enforcement along the border. The Rangers were part of a long-running conflict that had become highly racialized and would escalate into racial warfare between the Anglo and the Mexican communities. The Rangers often found law enforcement in the El Paso region a challenge, with outlaws able to escape across the river to the safe haven of Juárez, and they were a major contributor to the racialization of social relations in West Texas.

Chapter 2 discusses the Santa Ysabel massacre and one part of its aftermath, the El Paso race riot of January 1916. The massacre involved the systematic execution by troops identified with Mexican revolutionary, Pancho Villa, of 17 Americans who had attempted to return to Mexico to renew mining operations. When the bodies of the Americans were brought to El Paso, disturbances between Anglos and ethnic Mexicans quickly escalated into a riot, requiring the sending of troops from nearby Fort Bliss and the declaration of martial law. Set against the background of the Mexican Revolution, the race riot demonstrated the growing Anglo tendency to view Mexicans and Mexican-Americans as a security threat.

In chapter 3, the author shows how difficult and unpredictable race relations had become by examining how a typhus scare led to another race riot. El Paso health officials, concerned that immigrants from Juárez into El Paso might bring in typhus, introduced a policy of delousing and chemical bathing in a mixture of kerosene, gasoline, and vinegar for both immigrants and jail prisoners. On March 6, 1916, an explosion and fire took place when jail prisoners were taking the chemical bath, leaving 27 dead, 19 of them Mexicans. Rumors soon began to circulate that the fire and explosion were deliberate, further racializing the situation.

In chapter 4 the author deals with the attack by Pancho Villa's forces on Columbus, New Mexico and the massive increase in the militarization of the border that resulted. The emphasis is not so much on the Punitive Expedition as it is on the National Guard, the Home Guards, and duty on the border. In the 1920s and early 1930s, militarization of the border took on new dimensions as the enforcement of Prohibition and immigration restrictions moved to the forefront. The period also saw the establishment of the U.S. Border Patrol in 1924, adding another agency of authority to the regional mix of enforcement institutions. The author concludes his work with some more recent examples of the further militarization of the border.

The work provides a thoroughly researched, well-organized examination of how militarization of the border affected Mexican racial identity, Anglo-Mexican relations, and United States-Mexico relations. It will make an excellent addition to such works as The Secret War in El Paso (2009) by Charles H. Harris III and Ringside Seat to a Revolution by Louis R. Sadler and David Dorado Romo (2005).