BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS - San Benito resident Federico “Fred” Garza slipped a handwritten note to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador when he met him in Matamoros last Monday.
Asked what he wrote in his note, Garza said: “I basically just thanked him for having made all the effort to finally recognize Catarino Garza, my great-great-uncle. I gave him a little note thanking him and telling him, it has taken 131 years but, thanks to you, it happened.”
President López Obrador, otherwise known as AMLO, was in Matamoros to commemorate one of his heroes, Catarino Erasmo Garza Rodriguez, a Mexican revolutionary who fought to overthrow Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz. AMLO unveiled a monument to Catarino Garza in Matamoros, and also had the remains of Garza’s body returned to Mexico from Panama.
Catarino Garza, a former Mexican Consul in Missouri, was born in Matamoros on Nov. 25, 1859. He died in combat in Panama on March 8, 1895. He lived for a time in Brownsville. He is described in Wikipedia as a journalist, folk hero and revolutionary.
Catarino Garza was Fred Garza’s great-great-uncle. Catarino Garza’s brother, Encarnación, was Fred Garza’s great-grandfather. Catarino and Encarnación Garza fought together against Díaz’s army and the Texas Rangers.
The Rio Grande Guardian secured an exclusive audio interview with Fred Garza, a tax consultant, following the unveiling of a plaque for Catarino Garza last Wednesday at the old city cemetery in Brownsville. Mexico’s Consul in Brownsville, Judith Arrieta Munguia, gave the keynote speech at the event. This was immediately followed by the showing of a documentary about Catarino Garza that had been commissioned by the Mexican government. Fred Garza is featured in the documentary at the Harlingen gravesite of his great-grandfather. The documentary was shown at the Brownsville Historical Museum.
Asked why AMLO has shown so much interest in Catarino Garza, Fred Garza said: “Because he wrote a book on Catarino. He wanted to find out the ideas of liberalism that started way before the Magón brothers tried to do the revolt on Porfirio Díaz. Catarino did it 18 years before that time. He did it in 1895.”
Asked when he first knew he had a famous descendent, Fred Garza said: “Oh, ever since I was a small kid. My mother used to tell me about the stories of Catarino way back when. And we used to have relatives from Vermont who would come down to visit us, and they would tell us about the stories of Catarino Garza. These stories have been kept alive from generation to generation.”
Fred Garza said his great-great-uncle is seen in the U.S. as a “bandito” but in Mexico (and Panama) he is recognized as a hero, especially among the poor.
“Even on this side (of the Rio Grande), people were seeing him as a hero, and that's why it was very hard to catch him. He had a lot of sympathy from a lot of the people that he was helping because he fought for the underprivileged, both in Mexico and in Texas.”
Fred Garza continued: “He fought for the rights of the people. He fought the Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers were taking away the land of some of the Mexican people. They were beating them up. So, he wrote the story. He was a journalist. He was a newspaperman.”
Fred Garza said Catarino Garza edited and published a newspaper in Laredo until the Texas Rangers intervened.
“They destroyed his printing press, and they shot him. They tried to kill him. And so he said his famous words, ‘So, today I give up my pen and take up the sword to fight for justice.’ Those are the kind of stories I heard as a youngster.”
Fred Garza said his great-great-uncle and his great-grandfather had to flee the Texas Rangers.
“Both my great-grandfather and Catarino went by horse from here to Cuero, Texas. In Cuero, they separated. One went by train the other went by a buggy. And they met in Houston. They were being sought out by the Porfirio (Díaz) regime. They were being sought by the Texas Rangers. And they were being sought out by the US military. So, they took up pseudonyms.”
Fred Garza said he thinks his great-grandfather used the name Martinez to hide his true identity. He said his great-great-uncle used the name Betancourt.
“From Houston, they took a train to New Orleans. In New Orleans, they took a steamer to Key West, Florida. My great-grandfather stayed there, and Catarino went on to Cuba.”
Fred Garza said Catarino Garza went from country to country trying to recruit soldiers to fight against Díaz’s army. He said he was unsuccessful when he sought help in both Cuba and Nicaragua.
“He finally went to Costa Rica where he found some support. There he became prominent. They even elevated him to the position of general in the army. Meanwhile, Encarnación, my great-grandfather, was arrested in Key West and taken to San Antonio to be tried for violation of neutrality peace laws. They never got anywhere, so they let him go.”
Fred Garza said the U.S. tried to extradite Catarino Garza from Costa Rica so he fled to Panama, which was then part of Colombia.
“That's where he joined the revolution in Colombia and tried to fight for his liberal principles over there. And he gets killed in Bocas del Toro, Panama, which at that time was Colombia. But he's a hero in Bocas del Toro. They have a school named after him. So, it is (a) really amazing (story),” Fred Garza said.
Encarnación Garza is buried in El Muerto Cemetery in Harlingen, Texas. In the documentary about Catarino Garza that was commissioned by the Mexican government, Fred Garza is interviewed alongside his great-grandfather’s grave.
Fred Garza said the graves of three of Catarino Garza’s descendants were dug up, two in Brownsville, in order to extract the DNA to prove that the revolutionary had been buried in a mass grave in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Once the DNA match proved conclusive, Catarino Garza’s remains were exhumed and brought to Matamoros to be laid to rest inside the monument that President López Obrador unveiled last Monday.
“You know, in 1893, Catarino wrote to his wife, Carolina, and tells her, ‘No peirdo esperanza de ser distinguido y apreciado en mi propio pais,’ which means, ‘I never lose hope that one day I will be seen as a distinguished and appreciated in my own country.’ Now, 131 years later, it happens.”
Fed Garza attended both of the ceremonies for his great, great uncle - the one in Matamoros and the one in Brownsville. It was put to him that this must have been an emotional week.
“Yes, it was very emotional because my mother always talked about Catarino. In fact, I went to the gravesite of my mother and told her, ‘Mom, it finally happened.’ She was always wanted it (recognition for Catarino Garza) to happen. So, yes, it was emotional.”
Editor's Note: Fred Garza highly recommends the book "Catarino Garza's Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border," by Elliott Young., which is available through Amazon or all good bookshops. "It's a very good book, Garza said.
Editor's Note: Click here to read an excellent story of how the remains of Catarino Garza were exhumed in Bocas del Toro by writer Marianna Ortiz in the Bocas Breeze newspaper.
Editor's Note: Click here to watch a video recording of President López Obrador unveiling the monument to Catarino Garza in Matamoros, Mexico.
