Juan Cortina Military person
Juan Nepomuceno Cortina Goseacochea (May 16, 1824–October 30, 1894), also known by his nicknames Cheno Cortina and the Red Robber of the Rio Grande, was a Mexican rancher, politician, military leader, outlaw and folk hero. He is known for leading a paramilitary mounted Mexican Militia in the failed Cortina Wars. These "Wars" were raids targeting Anglo-American civilians, which Cortina didn't want settling near the several Leagues of Land Granted to his wealthy family on both sides of the Rio Grande. Anglo families began immigrating to the Lower Rio Grande Valley after the Mexican Army was defeated by the Anglo-Mexican rebels of the Mexican State of Tejas, in the Texas Revolution. From 1836 to 1848 when Cortina was 12-24 years old, parts of the Cortina Grant North of the Rio Grande River was in the disputed territory between the Rio Grande & the Nueces Rivers, claimed by both Mexico & the Republic of Texas. The situation had a big impact on Cortina, & his perspective on government & power. When the United States defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American War in 1848, Mexico was forced to conceded the disputed territory to Texas. Needless to say Cortina was not happy, & didn't intend on surrender. However, Cortina's Mexican Militia was easily defeated & forced to flee in to Mexico when the Texas Rangers, the United States Army and the local militia of Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Tamaulipas. According to Robert Elman, author of Badmen of the West, Cortina was the first "socially motivated border bandit," similar to Catarino Garza and Pancho Villa of later generations. His followers were known as the "Cortinistas."
