The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986 Page: 38
610 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
are all that remains [sic] for the men who feel its edge." And in The .ost
Gold o/iMontezumas (19o6) Davy Crockett approves of lead ammunition
derived from the ornaments of church windows: "Church lead is as
good as any other to kill Greasers with."
Such rabid hatred is nearly always the handmaiden of racism. Racist
themes are developedd( chiefly by two means: stereotypes and overt state-
ments. Stereotypes are ubiquitous and involve a system of classes based
upon purity of blood lines. On the Mexican side, at the top, are those of
Spanish descent. They do everything better than their inferiors, the
mestizos. The depiction of manners in Anglo-biased novels reveals
sonie amazing niceties of superiority. In La Belle San Antone (1 9o9), for
example, the heroine notices such marks of caste as this one: "She told
herself it was only the true Mexican of high caste who could handle and
dispatch the tamale with such deftness and neatness as did the senior
[sic]." The presentation of mestizos, however, is systematically reduced
to such formulas as this one, from Guy Raymond (19o8): "Gambling
among Mexicans is only a degree less natural than is dancing, and with
them dancing is one of the necessities of a contented existence." Critic
Raymund A. Paredes has defined these two predominant types thus:
"The mestizo was physically unattractive, dirty, cruel, and supremely
treacherous .... The second variety of Mexican was predominantly of
Spanish ancestry, a pathetic, anachronistic figure in the manner of D)on
Quixote 1)ut with few of his saving graces."
In many novels the racism takes virulent forms. In the dime novel
The Trapper's Bride; or, Love and War: A Tale of the Texan Revolution (tgog)
Mexicans are branded as cut-throats, "greasers," and "infernal imps.""
The scurrilous epithet "greaser" receives a full explanation in Bernard
Lile (1856):
An American whose ill fortune has made himn[,] for any number of days, a
sojourner in the city of Metamoras [Sic], can have no difficulty in tracing the
origin of' the term "greaser". ... Narrow, muddy, filthy streets, swarming
with men, women and children as filthy .... The people look greasy, their
clothes are greasy, their dogs are greasy, their houses are greasy-every-
'Ibid., 142 (1st quotation), 377 (2nld quotation); William O. Stoddard, The Lost Gold of the
Alontezumas: A Stot of the Alamo (Philadelphia, igoo), 237.
"Johonnas Bennett, La Belle San Antone (New York, 1o09), 13 1; Edward Plummer Alshury,
Guy Raymond: A Story of the Texas Revolution (Houston, 1i o8), 11 g; Barr, Remember the Alanmo, x
(3rd quotation).
"'W.J. Hamilton [Charles Dunning Clark], The Trapper's Bride; or, Love and War: A Tale of the
Texas Revolution (1869; reprint, New York, i9qo), 12.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986, periodical, 1985/1986; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117151/m1/64/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.