Plan de San Diego
The Plan de San Diego was a failed insurrection in 1915 in south Texas, whereby Hispanics were called on to massacre all the Anglo men and reclaim the entire Southwest for Mexico. It was suppressed by Tejanos and the Texas Rangers.
After 1911 the ferocious civil wars in Mexico led 600,000 to 1 million refugees to flee north across the border, which was generally open. In south Texas a band of radicals newly arrived from the killing fields of Mexico issued the manifesto "Plan de San Diego" in 1915 calling on Hispanics to reconquer the Southwest that had been lost in 1848 and kill all the Anglo men. The leaders were two adherents of Venustiano Carranza, a revolutionary general in Mexico. Rebels assassinated opponents and killed several dozen people in attacks on railroads and ranches before the Texas Rangers smashed the insurrection, with probably a thousand killed in skirmishes, as most rebels returned to Mexico. Tejanos strongly repudiated the Plan and affirmed their American loyalty by founding the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). LULAC, headed by professionals, businessmen and modernizers, became the central Tejano organization promoting civic pride and civil rights.
Bibliography
- Coerver, Don M. "Plan of San Diego" in Handbook of Texas Online (2008)
- Johnson, Benjamin H. Revolution in Texas: how a forgotten rebellion and its bloody suppression turned Mexicans into Americans. (2003).