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Texas Day by Day

June 19, 1919


Texas congressman calls Mexican president a "spineless cactus"

On this day in 1919, Texas Congressman Claude B. Hudspeth called Mexican president Venustiano Carranza "that spineless cactus of Mexico" on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Hudspeth, a vociferous supporter of American intervention in the Mexican Revolution, was defending Secretary of War Newton Baker's controversial decision to send troops into Juárez against Francisco (Pancho) Villa. Hudspeth, born in Medina in 1877, became editor and publisher of the Ozona Kicker as a teenager and had settled in El Paso by 1902. He was elected to Congress in 1918 and served until 1930, when he declined to run for renomination because of ill health. He died in San Antonio in 1941. Hudspeth County was named in his honor.

Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
HUDSPETH, CLAUDE BENTON
MEXICAN REVOLUTION
VILLA, FRANCISCO [PANCHO]
OZONA STOCKMAN
OZONA, TX
HUDSPETH COUNTY

Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
Belated emancipation forms the basis for Juneteenth celebrations (1865)
"Cowboys' Christmas Ball" published (1890)


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