Speaker 1: In Texas monthly. When you grow up in Texas, you're
Speaker 1: raised on the symbols that define this place. The heroes
Speaker 1: of the Alamo Wildcatters in the whale field and the
Speaker 1: Texas Rangers. No, not the baseball team. Instead, picture this
Speaker 1: a stoic, steely eyed man with a silver star pinned
Speaker 1: onto his shirt, riding his horse through brush land or
Speaker 1: a scheme or high desert, and he's wearing a white
Speaker 1: stetson hat. The Rangers' charisma is undeniable. They offer a
Speaker 1: vision of Texans who are righteous, self reliant, principle and powerful.
Speaker 2: When you went out with the Texas Rangers with the
Speaker 2: white hat the fancy guns, the door would open and boil.
Speaker 2: There was a man, woman, old person, young person. Everyone
Speaker 2: would just kind of melt. You have something that is
Speaker 2: iconic because of both the reality of the Rangers themselves
Speaker 2: and the fact that they're this huge pop culture presence
Speaker 2: that are out there.
Speaker 1: And they're pretty much the archetype for the heroes of
Speaker 1: old Western movies.
Speaker 2: Rangers. Our mission is to stop the outlaw.
Speaker 1: The Rangers were created two hundred years ago by Stephen F. Austin.
Speaker 1: They rode into battle against the commanche. They helped Texas
Speaker 1: wage of war secession against Mexico.
Speaker 2: One Riot, one Ranger is still prophetic and still true today.
Speaker 1: They were the men who finally brought outlaws like Bonnie
Speaker 1: and Clyde to justice. But there's another part of that
Speaker 1: history that gets left out. My name is Jack Arrera.
Speaker 1: When I started tracing my family's roots along the border,
Speaker 1: I talked with Texans about the Rangers. How for some
Speaker 1: Texans the white Hats had become anonymous with justice and protection,
Speaker 1: but how for other Texans those has mean something much different.
Speaker 1: People were very vocal. They're like, we have an image
Speaker 1: of what Texas is, who our heroes are, and we
Speaker 1: don't want that tarnished or touched. Join me as we
Speaker 1: hear true stories of battles and forgotten rebellions.
Speaker 2: Hayes killed one of them, He knocked over two more
Speaker 2: as they rose to their feet, as they rushed him,
Speaker 2: he dropped one, and then another who fell head foremost
Speaker 2: against his shins.
Speaker 1: Stories of survival and of violent injustice, and so they
Speaker 1: actually bring him out and across the street from us,
Speaker 1: they set up eight men and actually set him there,
Speaker 1: and he's like, okay, go ahead, and kill them. We
Speaker 1: know that it was an injustice, and you just kind
Speaker 1: of wonder will it ever be justified to the point
Speaker 1: where you can live with it? And you can't of
Speaker 1: a bloody era that created the social divisions we're still
Speaker 1: living with today.
Speaker 2: My family lying to me, or maybe ancestors were bad.
Speaker 2: You know, how do I deal with this? How do
Speaker 2: I reconcile what I'm being told at home and what
Speaker 2: I'm reading in the textbook.
Speaker 1: It's not just the massacre itself, but it's the injustice
Speaker 1: of the failure to fully acknowledge and reckon with the
Speaker 1: harm cause. This is a search for what defines Texas
Speaker 1: and who gets to be Texan or American for that matter.
Speaker 1: I'm someone who works from a framework that we all
Speaker 1: have space to heal and to learn. This isn't just
Speaker 1: a kumbayah, let's hold hands, but more of telling history
Speaker 1: straight up, because we are living history and what it
Speaker 1: means to live up to the Ranger ideal of justice
Speaker 1: and honor.
Speaker 2: Essentially, history start out with a moral philosophy of who
Speaker 2: we are, good and bad, warts and all, and thinking
Speaker 2: about how we could become better.
Speaker 1: From Texas monthly. This is white Hats a story of
Speaker 1: the Texas Rangers and a battle for the soul of Texas,
Speaker 1: coming November fifteenth,