MCM Books News

So what was happening in San Diego while Basilio Ramos was being arrested and jailed in the Rio Grande Valley? Not much that was related to the Plan of San Diego. At least six county officials were arrested in relation to a property owners’ fight over an audit of county books. Among those arrested in January 1915 were County Judge Tobin; District and County Attorney Palacios; County Treasurer Lopez; Constable Aleman; ex-justice Gonzalez and County Commissioner Luciano Hinojosa. Four other arrests were expected. Sheriff Augustine Pena made the arrests. (The Corpus Christi newspaper provided no first names for those arrested except for Hinojosa.) Newly elected Senator Archie Parr received a unanimous vote in the Texas Senate to create a new Lanham County out of Duval County. He was proposing that Benavides serve as the county seat for the new county. In news not related to politics, Hilario Alanis was being held in the shooting death of Linton Shaw, son of Postmaster Joe Shaw. Linto...

Approximately Jan. 18, 1915, Basilio Ramos arrived in McAllen and is said to have contacted Dr. Andres Villarreal and presented him with a copy of the Plan of San Diego in the hopes of enlisting his help. The good doctor, instead, turned him in to the law. Dr. Villarreal called his friend Deodoro Guerra, a merchant and sometimes law enforcement officer, and informed him of Ramos’ activities. Guerra in turn contacted Hidalgo County Sheriff A. Y. Baker (at left). Ramos was supposed to meet the doctor at 11 p.m. that evening at the Rio Grande Hotel. Sheriff Baker and Guerra waited with him but Ramos did not show. The following day, Jan. 19, Guerra arrested Ramos and called Sheriff Baker who came to pick him up and took him to jail in Edinburg. Guerra had taken 11 documents from Ramos, including the Plan of San Diego, and put them in his safe at his mercantile store. (As a parenthetical note, there have been claims that Deputy Tom Mayfield arrested Ramos, but Mayfield’s name does not appea...

Although the Plan of San Diego bares the town’s name, many historians believe that it was not written or adopted in that town. Much of the reason why they believe this to be the case is that Basilio Ramos, who signed the plan and on whose person the plan was first discovered, said that it was given to him and the other signers in a Monterrey jail and they were asked to sign it in order to be released from the jail. The problem with this assertion is that Ramos then proceeded to make his way to Texas to begin organizing for the Plan. If indeed he signed it only to be released, would he have continued with its implementation? In 1959, the  Houston Chronicle  ran a story that in which John Sutherland, an old-timer from San Diego, said that the Plan was indeed hatched in San Diego. Sutherland, an attorney in San Diego, claimed to be the person who first reported the Plan to the Attorney General’s Office in Washington. The 84-year-old Sutherland said that the conspirators met at a ...

On January 6, 1915 six men added their names to a document they called “El Plan de San Diego (Tejas)”. It was a revolutionary plot aimed at securing land lost by Mexico to the United States during the Mexican War of 1848. Once the land was secured, an independent republic would be established and later it would rejoin Mexico. Before the year was over, thousands of South Texans had lost their lives. The Plan fizzled and for a long time has remained buried in the crevices of history. Although most people today have never heard of or know little about the Plan, they should become familiar not only with the Plan, but more importantly with the reasons that gave rise to such an idea. This event in the history of South Texas contributed to the region’s development and to its people’s understanding of the place called South Texas. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Plan, I will publish my first novel entitled, Balo’s War: A Novel About the Plan of San Diego.  The book will d...