In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• five  The Prodigal O n May 17, 1922, my paternal grandmother, Esther Peña de la Garza, wrote a letter from Guerrero, Tamaulipas, to her secondson ,twenty-yearoldFabioLorenzo,inSouthTexas.(Having been born on August 10, on his father’s birthday and the feast day of San Lorenzo, it was practically inevitable that he should have that middle name, although his older brother was already Lorenzo Jr.) In the letter, Esther laments that Fabio has been gone from home for some time and that she still cannot become accustomed to his absence: “Ya tienes tiempo de estar lejos y no puedo acostumbrarme.” She adds poignantly: “Miro a mis hijos y veo que me falta uno. Eres tú” (I look at my children and notice that one is missing. It is you). Gently chiding him, she reminds him that he had promised to visit his family in Guerrero during the month of May and that he was to bring his cousin Neíto” (Irineo de la Garza Jr.) with him, but in his latest letter he had made no mention of the visit. She makes excuses for them, though, remarking that they are probably too busy to make the trip. Esther is also philosophical about the reason for Fabio’s absence, saying that she knows that he needs to bewhere his work is. At least she is reassured that he is with family members: “Estoy conforme, sé que estás con los de tu familia.” Fabio was indeed with family members in South Texas, the family of his uncle Irineo de la Garza, and, specifically, he was working for—or with—his cousin Irineo Jr., whose business letterhead identified him as “Comerciante en Mercancías Generales” (proprietor of a general store) in Donna, located in Hidalgo County. Mamá Esther and her six children had spent the most difficult years of the Mexican Revolution—from 1913 until 1916 or 1917—with her brother and sister-in-law in South Texas, and when she returned to Guerrero, Fabio may have stayed behind with his • 104  From the Republic of the Rio Grande uncle’s family. However, it is more likely that all the children returned to Guerrero with their mother because the year 1916 saw a surge of violence against Mexicans in South Texas instigated by Anglo vigilantes and Texas Rangers in response to unfounded irredentist plots alleging that Mexicans planned to take back Texas. In addition, the following year, 1917, brought the entrance of the United States into World War I and with it the possibility of Mexican males being conscripted to fight in Europe. Both situations would have hastened the self-repatriation of Mexican refugees, and Mamá Esther would have been loath to leave either of her older sons in Texas under those circumstances. It is most likely that Fabio returned to Texas after 1918. Some surviving holiday cards indicate that he was living in Texas in 1920, for he sent NewYear’s greetings in Januaryof 1921 to his youngest sister, nine-year-old Nela, whom he addressed rather formally by her seldom-used first name, Octavia, wishing her “muchas felicidades te desea tu hermano en el año nuevo” (best wishes for the new year from your brother). In contrast, he addressed his baby brother informally, as Rafaelito, and hoped that the new year would be a very happy one for him and that God would keep him well, together with the “auto” (obviously, a toy car) that Fabio had sent him for “Cristmas,” a gift that Rafaelito had yet to acknowledge. Neither holiday postcard carried postage, so perhaps they were enclosed in a letter to his parents. Although Lorenzo and Esther were undoubtedly grateful and relieved that they and their family had survived revolution and exile, life for them and for most Mexicans in the aftermath of the Revolution did not pick up where it had left off before the uprising. Many people who left Mexico during the Revolution did not return afterwards, and those who did found a different Mexico when they came home. In the Villas del Norte, where ranching was the principal livelihood, families like my grandparents on both sides were able to reclaim their ranches when the violence had subsided and began the task of reconstruction. Grandfather Lorenzo, though, did not, or could not, resume his commercial activities, which had been the buying and selling of agricultural products, perhaps because the agricultural sector had been too disrupted by almost ten years of violence. Still, the ranch...

Share