José Tomás Canales

José Tomás Canales (March 7, 1877 – March 30, 1976) was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician based in Texas. He served five terms in the State House, where he was the only Mexican-American representative at the time. He is best known for his work on behalf of Mexican-Americans and Tejanos in Texas, defending the civil rights of Hispanic Americans.

As a state representative, in 1919 he led a state investigation into the Texas Rangers, who had been accused of crimes and abuses in the Rio Grande Valley, and along with the US 8th Cavalry, were involved in the Porvenir Massacre in deep west Texas on the west side of the Sierra Vieja, north of Candelaria and Ruidosa. The committee heard testimony from 83 witnesses, who revealed extensive abuses by the Rangers of minorities and other poor citizens. After his service in the State House, Canales continued his work as civil rights activist through several Hispanic and Latin American organizations. He was a descendant of José Salvador de la Garza, who once held a Spanish land grant encompassing much of present-day Cameron County. Canales' family maintained significant ranch land in the area when he was born. During the decade of the Mexican Revolution 1910-1920), revolutionary raids across the border damaged American ranches, irrigation systems, railroads and other infrastructure.

Canales served as superintendent of the Cameron County public school system. He worked to emphasize English-language education and rural education initiatives.

Canales investigation A joint committee of the state Senate and House was set up to investigate the actions of the Texas Rangers, with hearings to be held in early 1919. Before the hearings, in December 1918 Canales was directly threatened by Frank Hamer, a noted Ranger, and he reported this to Governor William P. Hobby. Hamer was never disciplined and stalked Canales at the capital. State representative Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr., father of future president Lyndon B. Johnson, was among legislators who escorted Canales to the hearings as protection.

The 1919 Canales investigation, as it became known, heard testimony from 83 witnesses over a period of two weeks, including Anglo, Hispanic, and African-American Texans, and Mexican migrants, who recounted abuses by Texas Rangers. Incidents included the Porvenir massacre in January 1918 of 15 unarmed ethnic Mexicans near the border, whom the Rangers rounded up from their settlement.

Canales had supported a bill calling for professionalization of the force (which also provided for increased pay). Restrictions were added to reduce Texas Ranger vigilante actions against Mexicans and Tejanos in the Rio Grande Valley, and provide for citizen complaints. But the bill which Canales supported to regulate the force was so weakened in its final version that he voted against it.

Civil rights

After his 1920 retirement from politics, Canales became an advocate for Mexican-American civil rights, working with the Order of the Sons of America, one of the first civil rights organizations for Mexican-Americans in Texas. Much of his work was self-published, covering topics such as law, religion, and Mexican-American history. His autobiography, Personal Recollections of J. T. Canales (1945), is his best-known work.

Death Canales died in Brownsville, Texas on March 30, 1976. His wife, Anne Anderson Wheeler Canales, had died before him.