Media Credit: Stuart Sevier 'Border Bandits' documentarian discusses factors in Tejano murders

Kirby Warnock was 10 years old when his grandfather told him the story of two Texas Rangers shooting and killing two Tejanos near present-day Edinburg, close to the Texas-Mexico border.

In 2005, Warnock produced the documentary "Border Bandits," which details this account and a broader untold story of the Texas Rangers. The School of Journalism held a panel discussion about the film Thursday in the Texas Union Theatre. Panelists included Warnock, author Dan Arellano and Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez associate journalism professor.

"This is my quest to find out what the heck happened," Warnock said about the film. "Border Bandits," set to begin a three-day tour of Southern Texas, details the treatment of Tejanos during the opening decades of the 20th century.

In the early decades of the 20th century, many factors contributed to what Warnock called "the perfect storm." These factors included the Mexican Revolution, non-sanctioned land transfers, thousands of U.S. troops along the Texas-Mexico border and the superfluity of the governor appointing people as Texas Rangers.

The storm resulted in terror toward Tejanos, and whenever Texas Rangers saw a Tejano they would just shoot them, Warnock said. "They all look the same" was an excuse Texas Rangers may have given, he said.

"It's damn embarrassing," Warnock said. "Hardly anyone's talking about it because no one wants to talk about it."

Rivas-Rodriguez, who since January has been involved in efforts to include the Latino experience in a PBS World War II documentary, said, "It's really the part of history we don't get as much. It's the part not gotten in high school."

Arellano said that period of history is "excluded, concealed and outright distorted." His book, "The Battle of Medina," is the history of a battle that many textbooks exclude.

"We are trying to bring our stories to the forefront where they belong," Arellano said.

"Border Bandits," named Best Documentary by the Deep Ellum Film Festival in Dallas, continues its Texas tour in San Antonio with a Sept. 14 screening at the Alamo Drafthouse Westlakes.

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