Reies Tijerina….
It was on a memorable day in November of 1975 that the legendary Reies Tijerina dropped by the office of our Caracol publication to be interviewed by Cecilio Garcia-Camarillo, the editor and old friend from Laredo. I happened to be around and took a lot of pictures while Reies regaled us with interesting stories, some hilarious….great raconteur.
He was once a charismatic preacher, a great orator with a sect of followers who took up the cause of Spanish land grants because so many of our people had been dispossessed, cheated or forced out of their land. I remember him vividly describing how, during a confrontation, the authorities scattered like quail when the shooting started. Yes, they fired on the authorities! Reies served time in prison for that but returned to his activism as before and became a major driving force in the Chicano civil rights movement of the 1970s.
It was at the Raza Unida Conference of 1972 that I witnessed first hand Reies Tijerina’s oratorical skills. Pictures of that can be referenced in this section on said Raza Unida Conference. Tijerina, like so many from that era, is gone but will never be forgotten….
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