A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis’s class of 2021, Carmen Herrera Lawrence majored in American Culture Studies with double minors in writing and design. She wrote her Latin Honors Thesis on the collective memory of anti-Mexican violence in Texas during the early twentieth century and the current movement to make this history visible to the public today. During her four years in St. Louis, Lawrence was an active member of City Faces, a student-run non-profit that builds relationships with children living in the Clinton-Peabody housing community, and served as the group’s public relations chair for two years. Passionate about the written word, Lawrence read manuscripts during the summer of 2020 for the New York City literary agency Gernert Company. She lives and works in New York City.
By Carmen Herrera Lawrence
By
Carmen Herrera Lawrence
The Texas Rangers are held up as an emblem of Texas exceptionalism, the American protectors in the wild west. First appearing in cinema in 1910, they were depicted as handsome saviors galloping into town to implement law and order in the dusty wake of their stallions’ hooves. For Tejano communities inside Texas and along the border, however, the Texas Rangers were private agents of Anglo terror, responsible for little-known acts of violence that only now are being told.