Good Trouble: The History of the Change the Ranger Mascot Campaign

Join the SAC student group Somos La Gente as they share “How we got here” and “What comes next” in the momentous Change the Ranger mascot campaign.

(A digital exhibit on this history will be posted in Oct. 2020 as part of Raza Heritage Month.)

Why Change the Ranger?

Glorification is an Incomplete History

Romanticizing the Texas Ranger of this era contributes to the Noble Cowboy vs Mexican Bandit narrative, essentially creating a good vs evil binary.
Not recognizing or acknowledging the Ranger history erases the suffering of the family members and community who survived La Matanza and paints a picture that their trauma was justified because Tejanos were “bad hombres”.

UTRGV Cafecito y Charla

In summer 2019, Somos la Gente was invited to speak about our campaign by the Center for Mexican American Studies at UTRGV.

We recommend watching this video for a more thorough description of the history of the Texas Rangers and why we fought for the removal of the Ranger mascot at SAC.

Click Here to Watch

Educating Ourselves, Educating Others

Change the Ranger! was an Education based campaign. We believe in arming ourselves and others with knowledge.

Our education into the real history of the Texas Rangers began in the MAS classroom and extended into research on our own time. Monica Munoz Martinez's book, "The Injustice Never Leaves You," was an invaluable resource. We had the opportunity to meet with Munoz and hear her speak a few times. Her work, along with testimony from the families of victims of Ranger Violence that we heard at the J.T. Canales Conference in Austin, Texas, put into perspective the legacy of trauma that remains and why the fight to remove the mascot is worthwhile work.

RANGERS: The Violent History of Our Mascot Zine

The Somos la Gente Zine we created was pivotal to our campaign strategy. The zine contains information on the history of the Texas Rangers, and the SAC mascot, as well as suggestions for further reading. Our goal was to create a compact, accessible source of information to hand out to students on campus.

CLICK HERE to read the Zine

Action

Getting Into Good Trouble.

Antonio the Maked Ranger

In October of 2019, after alreading having spoken to Dr. Vela about the need to remove the mascot, Antonio the Masked Ranger was unveiled at a pep rally in the SAC Gymnasium. Somos La Gente felt our concerns had been dismissed.

In response, Somos la Gente issued a Statement of Opposition. From this point on, our methods changed from purely educational to direct action.

We spoke to the media, rallied community allies and formed the Change the Ranger! coalition.

Somos La Gente Statement of Opposition

National Chicano Student Walkouts Conference

In November of 2019, Nati Roman addressed attendees of the National Chicano Student Walkouts Conference in San Antonio. At this conference we were able to rally support and get signatures for our petition from community members. Many Chicana/o activists in whose footsteps we follow expressed their support for our campaign such as Jose Angel Gutierrez, Aurelio Montemayor and Mario Compean (pictured below).

Online Petition to Change the Ranger

In 2019, former Somos la Gente member Johanna Briones created an online petition that garnered over 300 signatures.

Click Here to view Petition

The Removal

In 2020, the efforts of Somos la Gente, the MAS Program, and many SAC allies resulted in the sucessful removal of the SAC Ranger mascot!

College Council Vote

The ultimate decision to remove the Ranger mascot would come down to the college council. While only a few people were allowed to address the council directly on the day of the vote, many more sent in statements in support of removing the SAC Ranger mascot. We will continue to collect these statements and preserve them here in this exhibit.

against the ranger.docx

Dr. Christopher Carmona, UTRGV

Dr. Sonia Hernandez, Texas A&M University

Nati Roman, Somos la Gente, SAC

Public Feedback Survey

Prior to the College Council vote, a Public Feedback Survey was created by SAC administrators. The results of this survey were likely taken into consideration before the vote was made. The link below will take you to the complete survey results which includes written testimony submitted at the time of casting a vote. This testimony gives us an interesting insight as to why people voted for or against removal.

Click Here to See Complete Survey Results

Statements of Support and Solidarity

After the removal, we received statements of support, solidarity, and congratulations from throughout the community.

Statement of Solidarity

The Mexican American Studies Program at UTRGV

Statement of Support

The School of Interdisciplinary Programs and Community Engagement (SIPCE) at UTRGV

What Comes Next?

Our work doesn't end here.

Somos La Gente will continue to push for a Non-Human, Non-Violent, Non-Racist mascot.

In May 2021, the official SAC mascot became the Armadillos.

The Work Continues

The demand to administration crafted by Diana Flores, for a Non-Human, Non-Violent, Non-Racist mascot still stands. Not only should this be the groundwork for selecting a new mascot but should also ignite reflection on our curriculums and methods of teaching. We also need anti-racist classrooms!

SAC Mascot Committee

Somos la Gente leader, Greg Estrada, will be one of the student representatives on the committee. They will be working with the Student Government Association, faculty and staff to develop a process for selecting a new mascot.

Mascot Legistlation

We are collaborating with Dr. Chris Carmona and a team of educators to create a report for legislation that will lead to a bill to ban human based mascots and challenge the conferederate and Texas Ranger named schools.

Press & Presentations

Those who amplified our voices in news reports, panels and presentations contributed to spreading our message to the community. This was essential in gaining allies as well putting pressure on administration to take action.