More than a century after 15 boys and men in a small Texas border community were brutally killed by a group of Texas Rangers, U.S. soldiers and ranchers, descendants of the victims are continuing a yearslong fight to obtain their ancestors’ death certificates.
A state historical marker stands along a rural stretch of highway northeast of where the community of Porvenir once stood, and where the boys and men were shot and killed on Jan. 28, 1918 in what would become known as the Porvenir Massacre.
The killings were part of a larger trend of cross-border violence during the Mexican Revolution, when the Texas Rangers killed scores of Mexican-Americans. Porvenir, a small farming and ranching community that was located in Presidio County, was abandoned by residents after the killings.
Though it’s been more than a century since the tragedy, only one formal death certificate for a victim of the massacre has ever been issued.
Descendants have been trying for years to change that.
Earlier this month, Yolanda Mesa and two other descendants of the Porvenir Massacre victims submitted “Court-Ordered Delayed Certificate of Death” forms to officials in Presidio County for 13 of the boys and men killed in the massacre. According to Mesa, there are 14 victims in total who have not received their death certificates, but she did not have enough of the proper state forms to request all of them.
Under state law, this kind of death record is issued if a death certificate hasn’t been filed within a year of a person dying. The form must be submitted to the probate court in the county where they died, signed off by a judge and then issued.
In a letter published this month in the Big Bend Sentinel, Mesa described the effort to obtain the documents from Presidio County as a difficult, yearslong process, but also a worthwhile cause that will bring closure to families.
“For many, a death that happened over a century ago may be of little significance, but for the families and descendants of these men, these certificates are an important part of their history,” she wrote.
Mesa is also pushing for the victims’ cause of death to be officially listed as homicide and for the documents to state that they were “shot and killed.”
In 2019, Presidio County issued a death certificate for Longino Flores, Mesa’s great-great-great grandfather and one of the people killed in the massacre. Since then, the effort to get the rest of the victims’ death certificates has stalled. Mesa said descendants have faced a number of challenges, including problems acquiring the proper paperwork and costly court fees.
“It's definitely been a lengthy process, which has not gone very well because here we are many years later with nothing,” she said in an interview with Marfa Public Radio.
Presidio County Clerk Carolina Catano confirmed that she had received the recent requests for the death certificates. She said the next step is for hearings to be scheduled where Presidio County Judge José Portillo would decide if he will accept and issue the delayed certificates.
“We are following the rules as far as we know,” Catano said. “They have been filed and they will go to a hearing with the judge and the judge will make his final decision.”
Portillo said he couldn’t comment on the matter because he oversees probate matters for the county.
Catano said there were two previous instances where descendants were improperly charged over $250 in court fees when they requested a death certificate. The mandated price by the state is one dollar per delayed death certificate.
Whether the death certificates are ever issued may come down to how local officials interpret state law — specifically, what information is required for a delayed certificate of death and who can provide that information.
Instructions on the state “Court-Ordered Delayed Certificate of Death” form say that if a doctor or funeral director cannot confirm a death, two individuals must file affidavits detailing how a person died. One individual is required to be unrelated by blood or marriage and have “personal knowledge of the death facts.”
Since the massacre took place over 100 years ago, locating a person with “personal knowledge” of how the victims were killed may be difficult, if not impossible. But Mesa and other descendants believe the historical record of the massacre should be enough.
Still, a former county official who signed off on the only death certificate received by descendants has previously suggested that bit of progress was actually a mistake.
In 2021, then Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara, who approved Longino Flores’ death certificate, told the Big Bend Sentinel that she had misunderstood the state law on the matter.
“That was a mix up so they [Flores’ descendants] were kind of fortunate to get those,” she said.
After Flores’ death certificate was approved, Guevara later refused to issue a death certificate for massacre victim Manuel Moralez. Still, Mesa believes the law is on the descendants’ side. She argues the Porvenir Massacre is well documented and there shouldn’t be any doubt about how the victims died.
“For us, as families, descendants, we do not feel like there should even be a question if they have a historical marker in their county with these men's names listed,” Mesa said.
Katherine Saldivar is another descendant and has worked with Mesa on this effort. Her grandfather Ambrosio Hernández and her great grandfather Eutemio González were killed in the massacre. She says obtaining all of the death certificates will help her and other descendants heal.
“We just want their souls to rest in peace,” she said. “To be able to have this certificate and filed in the courthouse – it’s proof. It happened, it really did.”
