The Plan de San Diego: Tejano Rebellion, Mexican Intrigue

4. The Mexican Connection

4The Mexican Connection As George Crile noted in his extraordinary book on the war against the Russians in Afghanistan, an insurgent movement simply can’t survive unless it has a sanctuary for its fighters.1 Despite some historians’ assertions that the Plan was a liberation movement led by Tejano chieftains Luis de la Rosa and Aniceto Pizaña and was entirely a homegrown product of Hispanic outrage at generations of prejudice and oppression , it is obvious that if the sediciosos had to operate strictly within Texas their chances of success were nil. They needed a privileged sanctuary as a base, and that sanctuary was across the Rio Grande. Civil war was raging in Mexico between Carranza, backed by Generals Alvaro Obregón and Pablo González, against the Convention, supported by Generals Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. The Convention’s military muscle came from Villa and his formidable Division of the North. In this struggle Carranza desperately needed U.S. diplomatic recognition, for otherwise the United States retained the option of recognizing his enemies. With diplomatic recognition came the privilege of importing munitions into Mexico while the United States curtailed the arms traffic among those factions lacking formal recognition. Historian Robert Mendoza has succinctly stated Carranza’s strategy, The Mexican Connection 27 one that at first glance seems counterintuitive: Carranza, whose forces controlled the Gulf of Mexico ports and the state of Tamaulipas bordering South Texas, devised a plan to secure both diplomatic recognition and the arms he needed to defeat the Convention. The plan consisted of four steps: (1) Carranza armed and funded “bandits” who would raid Texas border communities; (2) The U.S. State Department would demand that Carranza subdue the “bandits”; (3) Carranza would reply that the “bandits” were able to operate only because Carranza lacked U.S. recognition and sufficient arms to combat them; and (4) having received recognition and arms, Carranza “arrests” the raiders. Mendoza asserted that Carranza’s scheme to obtain diplomatic recognition and munitions was disguised as a Tejano uprising.2 Necah S. Furman seconds this interpretation, writing that Carranza’s ploy was to force recognition by a planned program of depredations along the border under the Plan de San Diego. Vida Nueva (the villista publication) charged that the carrancistas were responsible for the movement and that the border raids were being conducted in hopes of provoking a war with the United States.3 Interestingly, Sherburne G. Hopkins, the prominent Washington attorney who had represented Francisco Madero and subsequently Venustiano Carranza, stated that while he was at Carranza’s headquarters in July 1914 he had heard the generals discussing a scheme to invade Texas south of the Nueces River.4 Besides matters of policy, there is a tantalizing allegation regarding Carranza’s personal motives for supporting a rebellion in Texas. According to Adolfo de la Huerta, interim president of Mexico in 1920 and unsuccessful rebel in 1923–24, Carranza always harbored a profound resentment against the United States, a resentment that made him dream of avenging the Mexican War and regaining the territory lost to the Americans in that conflict. Moreover, he believed in the possibility of a race war in the United States, pitting whites against blacks. Mexico might support the blacks in hopes of thus regaining its lost territories. Lastly, Carranza thought it possible that there might erupt class warfare in the United States—workers against capitalists. Again, Mexico might support the workers and thus regain its territories . Of these scenarios, Carranza felt that supporting a rebellion in 28 The Mexican Connection Texas was the most feasible, but he’d have to proceed cautiously and shrewdly. It would be necessary to sound out the blacks, and the best way was to invite them to settle in certain parts of Mexico. To that end, a black representative went to Piedras Negras in 1913 and discussed with Carranza the matter of black colonization in Mexico. For whatever reason, nothing came of these negotiations.5 The Mexican connection was the crucial element in the Plan de San Diego movement. Without Mexican support, the Plan de San Diego would have had the same impact as a precursor manifesto signed by one Francisco Alvarez Tostado on November 26, 1914. It called on “The Sons of Cuauhtémoc, Hidalgo, and Juárez in Texas” to rise in rebellion and establish a republic, thereafter requesting annexation to Mexico. The proclamation ended with the ringing slogan “Restauration...