GARZA, ALBERTO (?-?). Alberto Garza (Caballo Blanco), bandit and cattle rustler, was possibly born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. In the 1860s and 1870s driving stolen cattle became too dangerous; therefore rustlers of the period in the Duval County area would drive cattle into isolated areas of the prairie and kill and skin them there, then take the hides to Brownsville or Matamoros to sell them. In 1873 Garza robbed and pillaged a store at Concepcion, Duval County. In 1874 he and forty men attacked Blain's Store at Los Olmos in Nueces County. Garza forced George Blain, co-owner of the store, at gunpoint to open the store safe, expecting a large sum of money that Henry Blain, the principal owner, had already taken to Corpus Christi. A group of rangers had been notified and approached the store. The bandits escaped in an exchange of gunfire, and the rangers tracked them to the border.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Arnoldo De León, They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes Toward Mexicans in Texas, 1821-1900 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983). Agnes G. Grimm, Llanos Mesteñas: Mustang Plains (Waco: Texian Press, 1968). Hobart Huson, Refugio: A Comprehensive History of Refugio County from Aboriginal Times to 1953 (2 vols., Woodsboro, Texas: Rooke Foundation, 1953, 1955).
