Date

9-17-2026

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)

Chair

Seth Bartee

Keywords

Texas-Mexico Borderlands, U.S.-Mexico Border, Borderlands History, Laredo, Texas, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexican Revolution, Lucio Blanco, Sovereignty, Negotiated Sovereignty, Contested Sovereignty, State Authority, Political Violence, Transnational History, Transnational Political Violence, Border Violence, Law Enforcement, U.S. Marshals, Immigration Service, Mexican Political Exiles, Mexican Revolutionaries, Cross-Border Politics, U.S.-Mexico Relations, Nineteenth-Century Borderlands, Twentieth-Century Borderlands, Rio Grande, Porfirio Díaz, Venustiano Carranza, Álvaro Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles.

Disciplines

History | Political Science

Abstract

The assassination of Lucio Blanco along the banks of the Rio Grande in 1922 was not an isolated episode of political violence but the culmination of nearly a century-old practice of contested sovereignty, border incursions, and lack of law enforcement. This dissertation thus examines the borderlands of Texas and Mexico from the nineteenth century through the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. Within this time frame, this dissertation demonstrates that the international boundary functioned less as a fixed division between two sovereign states and more as a political gray zone in which authority, identity, violence, and political power were continually negotiated. Beginning with earlier episodes of instability, including the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande, the Cortina Wars, and the revolutionary activities of Catarino Garza, this study traces the development of a borderland political culture that was characterized by weak and inconsistent state authority, cross-border violence, overlapping identities and loyalties, and informal systems of power. These conditions persisted into the twentieth century and are the roots of the modern-day border situation. It all culminated in the Mexican Revolution as revolutionary leaders, dissenters, journalists, and political exiles were targeted for assassination by the Mexican Revolutionary Government and assisted by United States law enforcement. Consequently, the border did not merely experience the Mexican Revolution; its geographic, political, and cultural conditions helped fester the angst of the revolutionary movements that operated across national boundaries. The same characteristics that provided sanctuary to political exiles, however, also allowed for political violence to follow them well into the United States. The 1922 assassination of Lucio Blanco and the subsequent investigation led by Laredo District Attorney John A. Valls provided the central case study through which these historical patterns are examined. Drawing upon archival legal records, newspapers, published primary sources, and existing borderlands scholarship, this dissertation analyzes the investigation of Allen Walker and Duke Carver and the eventual failure to secure a lasting judicial resolution. Rather than undermining the historical significance of the case, the unresolved question of Blanco’s murder demonstrates the difficulty of administering justice within a region characterized by competing loyalties, transnational political networks, diplomatic considerations, and selective enforcement of law. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that the Texas-Mexico borderlands constituted a distinct historical space in which sovereignty was negotiated rather than absolute. Lucio Blanco’s life, exile, assassination, and the fruitless prosecution of those believed to have orchestrated the murderous plot reveal the intersection of the United States and the Mexican Revolution. His death, therefore, provides a lens through which to understand the broader historical significance of a frontier where political and cultural worlds collided. So, who killed Lucio Blanco? Only the river knows.

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