Gregorio Cortez was a legendary Mexican American outlaw. In 1901, Cortez led authorities on an extensive ten-day manhunt throughout Texas. As a fugitive, Cortez developed a reputation as a clever and resourceful figure due to his ability to elude the Texas Rangers, a legendary law enforcement agency. He was eventually captured, and his imprisonment and trial garnered extensive media attention; public support for Cortez would lead to a pardon in 1913. Gregorio Cortez’s story was commemorated and disseminated through a variety of oral media, but achieved especial fame through a popular corrido (ballad) sung throughout northern Mexico and southern Texas.
Gregorio Cortez, played by Edward James Olmos (at right) in the television film The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982) allegedly shot and killed a county sheriff in Texas. He evaded an enormous manhunt for over a week, and his subsequent trial, conviction, and ultimate exoneration became a point of tension between the Anglo-American and Mexican American communities in Texas. (PBS/Photofest)
Stories about Gregorio Cortez usually portray him as a sympathetic antagonist of the Texas Rangers, which was a state law enforcement agency that the Mexican American community of the era viewed as corrupt and racist. Particular emphasis is put on Cortez’s work as a vaquero (ranch hand) and the corresponding fact that he, like the majority of the Hispanic community in south Texas at that time, worked with his hands. Moreover, virtually every performance of Cortez’s story stresses that he was greatly outnumbered throughout his flight, an imbalance he was able to overcome due to his intelligence and familiarity with the landscape. Like many other outlaw heroes, Gregorio Cortez is talked about as an everyman fighting against the injustices and excesses of institutionalized authority.
On June 10, 1901, a sheriff and deputy, the latter serving as a translator, questioned Gregorio Cortez and his brother Romaldo about a recent horse theft. A mistranslation involving the words caballo (stallion) and yegua (mare) led to a fight in which the sheriff shot Romaldo. In response, Gregorio shot and killed the sheriff. A posse was formed to capture Gregorio Cortez, and when he was found on a nearby ranch, a shootout ensued, during which two more law enforcement officers were killed. Cortez again escaped, traveling on foot nearly 100 miles until reaching the home of a friend who would lend him a horse. On this horse, which would become an essential part of his legend, Cortez traveled more than 400 miles, consistently evading a posse that included as many as 300 men. He was eventually captured on June 22 when a friend turned him over to a member of the Texas Rangers.
While he was on the run, Cortez’s flight became a popular story in newspapers, most of which portrayed him as a threat to the region’s safety. Some newspapers reported that Cortez was not alone, that he was traveling with a gang of thieves. While this coverage enflamed many Anglo-Texans, which led to violence against Mexican communities throughout Texas, the Hispanic population began sharing tales of Gregorio Cortez’s decency and bravery as a corrective to what they saw as biased coverage. Within days of his capture, perhaps even during his flight, “El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez” began spreading as the true story of the Mexican American outlaw.
Cortez would be tried for a variety of crimes in a variety of jurisdictions, all of which received extensive coverage in newspapers. A number of groups raised money for Cortez’s defense, including one group in Mexico City that sold broadsides featuring “El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez.” During his first trial, Cortez married a woman named Estefana Garza, which may have contributed to one of the more curious additions to the Cortez legend: supposedly, Abraham Lincoln’s daughter fell in love with Gregorio Cortez, and she requested that the governor pardon him, which Cortez refused because he was already in love with another woman.
In Gonzales, Gregorio Cortez was found guilty and sentenced to fifty years in prison. Unhappy with the sentence, a lynch mob of more than 300 people formed outside the jail where Cortez was being held. He was found guilty in two other trials, but the Texas Court of Appeals overturned both of those decisions, which perhaps contributed to the many legends celebrating Cortez’s ability to persuasively speak on his own behalf in court. At his last trial in Corpus Christi in 1904, Cortez was found not guilty, yet because he had been found guilty in the initial trial in Gonzales, he went to jail immediately following this last exonerating decision.
Strong popular support for Gregorio Cortez, especially among the Mexican American community, would continue throughout his incarceration, eventually resulting in a pardon in 1913. Following his release, Cortez became involved in the ongoing Mexican Revolution, but returned home after being wounded in battle. He likely died of pneumonia in 1916, yet his family maintained that he had been poisoned by his enemies.
The legend of Gregorio Cortez largely survives through the corrido that bears his name. “El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez” remains the most well-known border ballad, and it is still being circulated throughout the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It has been recorded countless times by musicians working in a variety of genres. Indeed, the corrido’s presence has been so strong that it has acquired legends of its own: supposedly, the song had once been outlawed by the president of the United States. The folklorist Americo Paredes conducted an extensive study of the corrido in his 1958 book With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero, which, in turn, inspired a 1982 cinematic adaptation of Cortez’s life entitled The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez.
Todd Richardson
See also Ballad; Murrieta, Joaquín; Outlaw Heroes; Villa, Pancho
Further Reading
Castro, Rafaela G. 2001. Chicano Folklore: A Guide to the Folktales, Traditions, Rituals and Religious Practices of Mexican Americans. New York: Oxford University Press.
Convis, Charles L. 2008. Outlaw Tales of Texas: True Stories of the Lone Star State’s Most Infamous Crooks, Culprits, and Cutthroats. Guilford, CT: TwoDot Press.
Paredes, Americo. 1958. With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Robinson, Charles. 2001. The Men Who Wear the Star: The Story of the Texas Rangers. New York: Modern Library.
Vargas, Zaragosa. 2011. Crucible of Struggle: A History of Mexican Americans from the Colonial Period to the Present Era. New York: Oxford University Press.