Juan Nepomuceno Cortina: Proclamation to Texans, September 1859

In the years following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, white settlers migrated into the American Southwest, where disputes over land and wealth led to conflict between the two groups. Juan Cortina, a wealthy landowner in Brownsville, Texas, led a group of men in armed conflict against Texas law enforcement. As Cortina and his followers confronted local law enforcement officers who had murdered and taken the land of various Mexicans, Cortina issued two proclamations to explain and justify his reasons for violence. Local law enforcement and other prominent locals had turned a cold shoulder as Mexicans were targeted. As citizens of the United States, Cortina and his men believed that if the law was not going to be used to help them, they had to take matters into their own hands to protect their community.