Refusing to Forget

09/09/2026

The latest episode of The Monumental Project is out now. Listen to "Remembering La Matanza, Part 2: A Descendent Story with Elsie Garcia" at https://www.buzzsprout.com/1949299/episodes/19660413 or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

09/07/2026

La Caminata seeks to bring into the light La Matanza of 1915, a significant and long-suppressed chapter of Mexican American history in Texas. For generations, this painful history has been largely absent from the textbooks used in Texas schools. We walk so that the lives lost are not forgotten, the truth is not buried, and the lessons of history are not lost to time.

The Wreath Ceremony is an act of remembrance and honor. We pay tribute to the Mexican American victims of state-sponsored violence at the hands of the Texas Rangers, whose lives were taken and whose stories were silenced. We remember them not simply as victims of the past, but as human beings whose lives, families, dreams, and dignity mattered—and still matter.

The Rally is a call to conscience and a reaffirmation of our commitment to human rights. We believe every person is entitled to due process of law, access to health care, a quality public education, decent housing, and the equal protection of the law. These are not privileges to be granted to some and denied to others, but fundamental rights in a nation that aspires to be governed by law, justice, and humaneness.

This event is held during the observance of Día de los Mu***os, a cherished Mexican tradition devoted to celebrating and remembering the lives of the departed and welcoming their spirits during the time they are believed to return to visit the living. In that spirit, we walk together to remember those who came before us, to honor their lives and sacrifices, and to carry their memory—and their unfinished call for justice—forward.

09/06/2026

https://www.uvaldeleadernews.com/articles/uvaldeans-fear-border-wall-could-cut-ties-to-porvenir/

Border wall construction more than 300 miles away has two Uvalde women worried they could lose access to the site of the 1918 Porvenir Massacre, where Texas Rangers killed their great-grandfather and 14 other civilians. Elsie Routh and Emma Albarado are the daughters of longtime Uvalde resident Beni...

08/24/2026

today's NYT piece casts a wide net in looking at the cultural destruction of border wall construction.

"“If you value a people’s worth and contributions, then you preserve their history in textbooks and curriculums,” the historian [and RTF founder] Trinidad Gonzales said. “You would preserve these physical markers.”

A century ago, Mexican American families came together to build an adobe church near the border. Can its bell toll again as the wall expansion nears?

08/22/2026

important effort to save another historical site of significance to Mexican American history.

“Ten years ago, when we started doing this project, one of the assignments to my students was to go home and ask your family members, ‘What do you know about Tom Mayfield?’” Alvarez said. “I remember a student coming back, and she lived with her grandmother, and her grandmother responded to her, saying, ‘You are not allowed to ever say that person’s name in this house ever again,’ and that was it.”

There is a reckoning with history happening at an old hotel with a horrific past and the RGV's first and only civil rights museum.

08/22/2026

hear Elsie Garcia and RTF's Monica Muñoz Martinez on the threat to the Porvenir site. Petition in comments.

https://www.tpr.org/podcast/fronteras/2026-08-21/fronteras-revisiting-the-1918-porvenir-massacre-how-border-construction-puts-the-future-of-the-site-in-danger?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawT260VwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMUt2b0dyMjlwNEhHYUl4NXJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeW1PMGGP4kX0ZHyBptmJAdhzShIV80p-fkLooAEFaxjFkJKQv6CwGrk-BP0Y_aem_O_fO8Vp-_X9mheij7GU4zw =1787330552

In 1918, 15 unarmed Mexican men and boys were killed in the remote West Texas community of Porvenir. The commemorative site is now in danger of being bulldozed and cut off by federal border wall construction.

08/20/2026

PETITION IN COMMENTS

“ Still, Mesa feels new urgency around visiting the site and is organizing a group trip out to Porvenir in October. She said descendents feel this might be their last chance to see it before it's destroyed.”

As the Trump administration moves forward with a border wall in the region, a local archeologist says early construction activities have already damaged a notorious historic massacre site in Presidio County. Descendants say the wall threatens to further erase a painful and undertold history they’v...

08/17/2026

Porvenir descendants have launched this petition to protect the site from border wall/infrastructure construction. Please consider signing.

Sign the descendants' petition to protect the sacred ground, archaeological evidence, and continued access to the Porvenir Massacre site.

08/13/2026

Refusing to Forget condemns the latest DHS decision to build a wall that disturbs a sacred site in Presidio County. Stand with us in supporting descendants and their families.

Learn more about this history: https://refusingtoforget.org/
Take action: https://nobigbendwall.org/