El Corrido de "Juan Garcia"
The
ballad of Juan García is a little-known corrido of the twentieth century
that explores the notion of smuggling and intercultural conflict. Juan García
was a native of San Vicente, which is on the Mexican side of the border, approximately
twenty miles from Piedras Negras, Coahuila.
In
1928, García was convicted of stealing sheep from El Indio Ranch, which
was an Anglo-owned ranch at the time. For his alleged crime, García
spent two months in the Blue Ridge prison farm, but escaped eventually to
return to Piedras Negras. His escape earned him heroic status, because he
escaped from an Anglo prison, which was seen as a source for intercultural
conflict. Seeing his escape as rebellious against Anglo authority, the owners
of the ranch continued to accuse García of stealing sheep, cattle,
and horses and selling them as an occupation. In addition, Anglo authority
accused García of smuggling liquor across the Río Grande, accusations
which were never actually proven. By 1931, Anglo authority had grown tired
of García maintaining freedom from prison and engaging in supposed
illegal activity, so they decided to ambush him to get rid of him as a folkloric
hero of intercultural conflict. A large group of Anglo “rinches”
ambushed him at the edge of the Río Grande as he was traveling to the
United States side of the border. The authorities killed García and
strapped his body to the running board of a car, displaying the body to the
public through the streets of Eagle Pass, and later placing the body on display
at the local morgue.
The actions of the authorities were viewed as heroic by the American side of the border, especially to the Anglo population, but the population of Piedras Negras viewed the action as appaling and escalated intercultural conflict between each side of the border. Juan García has become a folkloric hero of the border, similar to individuals of the past that battled the “rinches”, even though he was accused of smuggling liquor and stealing livestock, further showing the lack of negative attitude toward smuggling in the border society at the time.
Link to El Corrido de Juan Garcia