The Whitewashing of History

The Whitewashing of History

In my research I recently came across this page in a book I'm reading. It's a history of Refugio and it was written by the "Refugio County Extension Homemaker Council" way back in '85. I was fortunate to come across it at the local college where I teach. The Chairman and person driving this book is a descendant of the Fagan's. Her name is Lucile Fagan Snider. It's like over 500 pages and a collection from many of the prominent and local families of Refugio. They gave me everything I needed and some. Believe me, this book is loaded.
In of the pages, Fagan is fawning over and adoring who else, but James Power. Yes, he is a "God" in this neck of the woods. In this part of the passage Fagan is discussing how Indians and Mexicans were apparently already situated on Refugio lands. I can only imagine that Becerra was one of the Mexicans that already had cattle and horses out there by 1828. Fagan describes the Mexicans as stirring up trouble with their petitions and what not.
Yes, Becerra was already cultivating a ranch way before 1828. Yes, he lived a good part of that in Goliad but would make his way to his ranch. So, I thought it was interesting to expose this little snippet she wrote about that. It exposes how these deep rooted "gringo" attitudes still prevail:
"Petitions and disputes of land, contentions of various parties and the decisions are included in great detail in "The Texas Irish Empresarios", but these accounts are only of slight interest to Refugions of today, who are interested in history, but shall it be said, not "the fine points of the law."
This is what I mean when I call it the "Whitewashing of History." They want to see history through rose colored spectacles. They want to ignore the realities that arose during that time. You know like calling Mexicans "greasers," lynching, stealing of land, overt racism, undignified labor, etc. I think she could have used an education and realized that history is not just what you want to see. It's the totality of the human experience, ugly or not.
Mark


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