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The Plan of San Diego (Plan de San Diego) was drafted in the small Texas town of San Diego in 1915 by a band of Mexican rebels hoping to overthrow the United States government in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and California during the Mexican Revolution. The plan called for the killing of all Anglo men in the Southwestern states, but was exposed before it could be executed. Although there was no uprising in Texas, there were raids into the state from Mexico that began in July 1915. The raids were countered by Texas Rangers and the U.S. Army, as well as local self-defense groups who were suspicious of all Mexican Americans. In total, 30 raids into Texas destroyed large amounts of property and killed 21 Americans. It is not known who was responsible for drafting the Plan of San Diego, but there are theories that Mexican Revolutionary leaders took part in sponsoring the Plan.

Drafting the Plan
During the Mexican Revolution, the Porfirio Diaz government fought with rebellious factions in the years after 1910. This fighting caused some rebels to flee from the Diaz government to the U.S., especially to Texas. These Mexican dissidents upset the political order of southern Texas and caused the state government to worry over the Mexican majority in south Texas. The Plan of San Diego grew out of this migration and unrest.

Declaring the creation of a "Liberating Army of Races and Peoples," the Plan of San Diego called for the recruitment of Mexican nationals, African Americans, and Mexican Americans to rebel against the U.S. The central goal of the plan was to “free” Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado from U.S. control. These states would become an independent republic that in the future could be reunited with Mexico. To the north, rebels hoped to conquer other U.S. states to produce a buffer zone between the United States and Mexico. The appointed start date of the Plan of San Diego was February 20, 1915. It called for the execution of all white American men over the age of sixteen; only the elderly, women, and children would be spared. Also executed would be Mexican American sympathizers who refused to participate in the plan. A notable provision of the Plan required the protection of both African and Native Americans, the latter of whom would be given back their native lands.

The Plan of San Diego was penned in San Diego, Texas, but was actually signed by rebels inside a jail cell in Monterrey, Mexico. Although their identities and motivations remain unknown, there is much speculation as to who was responsible.



One theory insists that Victoriano Huerta, a leader of a Mexican faction vying for governmental control in the Mexican Revolution, was the mastermind behind the plan. This theory rests on the capture of Huertista Basilio Ramos in Brownsville, Texas, in January of 1915. In his possession was a copy of the Plan of San Diego. Under interrogation he admitted to signing the Plan along with eight Huertista cellmates when in jail in Monterrey. A jailer had supposedly smuggled in a copy of the Plan to give to the inmates. Ramos credited the creation of the Plan to another unnamed Huertista who hoped to reconquer the southwestern United States in order to gain domestic support in Mexico for Huerta.

Another theory insists that the Mexican government under Venustiano Carranza, who became president of Mexico in 1914, supported the drafting of the Plan of San Diego in order to exploit the tension between Mexican Tejanos and white Americans inside southern Texas. While the Plan explicitly stated that there would be no aid from the Mexican government, this proved false as the Carranza government was crucial in keeping the Plan in action. Some believe that Carranza wanted to exacerbate conflict between Americans and Mexicans in Texas in order to force the United States into recognizing him as the true leader of Mexico.

On February 20, when the Plan was supposed to be enacted, rebel leaders instead revised the plan to focus solely on the liberation of Texas, which would become a base for advancing the revolution throughout the southwestern United States.

Uprising
The first raids under the Plan of San Diego were conducted in July 1915, five months after the agreed start date of February 20th. These first raids targeted Mexican Americans who were prominent in agriculture and local town politics in Texas. On July 11th at the Magnolia dance ground in Brownsville, raiders shot and killed Tejano deputy Pablo Falcon, the first victim of the Plan of San Diego. One of these raiders was Ignacio Cantu, a Mexican who had been arrested by Falcon the week before.

As raids grew in number, the "high tide" of the Plan of San Diego was August and September, 1915. The raids during this period were led by Aniceto Pizana and Luis De la Rosa, well-known residents of South Texas. They were conducted in the style of guerrilla warfare, with the overall purpose of razing U.S. public and private property. The most notable raids of Mexican gangs caused the disruption of communication and transportation in southern Texas. De la Rosa and Pizana created small bands, somewhat like military companies, constructed of twenty-five to a hundred men. The Rio Grande valley was the focus of the raids where trains were shot at and telegram wires and poles were cut down. On August 8th, nearly sixty raiders struck the Norias Ranch, leaving five men dead when chased by American forces. U.S. authorities learned from this raid and from the wounded left behind that support from the Mexican Carranza government supplied the raiders, half of the men being Mexican citizens. Mexican support was crucial in keeping the offensive alive when the Plan was enacted. Mexico supplied half of the men on guerrilla missions and even used Mexican newspapers as propaganda in the border towns, where they exaggerated the success of Mexican Americans against white Americans and urged further participation.

The combination of raids, propaganda, and general fear of white residents in Texas prompted authorities to send federal troops and Texas Rangers who struggled to counter the raids. Eventually on October 19, 1915, as urged to by his staff in order to appease Carranza, President Woodrow Wilson officially recognized Carranza as the legitimate leader of Mexico. Once this was done, Carranza would use his armies to assist the U.S. in capturing and imprisoning raiders, thus ending the high tide of the Plan of San Diego.

American Reaction and Aftermath
White Americans became increasingly hostile and suspicious of Mexican Americans during and after the Plan of San Diego raids. Small personal conflicts between Mexican Americans and white Americans led to lynching and the execution of Hispanics by Texas Rangers, local officers and law enforcement, as well as by civilians. Local whites founded the vigilante Law and Order League in 1915, fueled by suspicions of Mexican and Tejano insurrection. Federal officials estimated that in late 1915-1916, more than three hundred Mexican Americans were slain in Texas.

In March 1916, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico. In response, the U.S. sent the Pancho Villa Expedition deep into Mexico to catch him. It never did, but the Mexican government responded to U.S. forces entering Mexico by resuming raids northward. The crisis escalated to the verge of formal war, but was resolved by diplomacy. President Carranza was the driving force behind the resurgence of raids. Americans thought that German agents may have been involved as well, but no evidence of that has been uncovered. Threats of Mexican reconquest, reminiscent of the Plan of San Diego, reappeared in Germany's Zimmermann Telegram of 1917, which helped push the U.S. into war with Germany.