87R19020 JGH-D
By: González of El Paso H.R. No. 706
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, January 28, 2021, was the 104th anniversary of the
famous "Bath House Riots" in El Paso, when Carmelita Torres and
other Latinas bravely resisted inhumane and brutal treatment from
U.S. border authorities; and
WHEREAS, In 1917, all Mexicans crossing the border between
Ciudad Juárez and El Paso along the Santa Fe Bridge were required to
pass through a federal "delousing" facility; men and women were
separated into different buildings, with children accompanying the
women, and then required to strip naked and submit to inspection by
federal agents, while their clothing and valuables were steamed or
treated with cyanide gas; and
WHEREAS, If a man was found with lice, his head was shaved and
the clippings burned, and if a woman was found with lice, her hair
was doused with kerosene and vinegar, after which she was required
to wait half an hour for a secondary inspection while wearing only a
towel; if lice were found again, the process was repeated; after
this, everyone was sprayed with a toxic mixture of gasoline and
soap, and, once dressed, vaccinated and presented with proof of the
process in the form of a certificate that was valid for only one
week; and
WHEREAS, On the morning of January 28, 1917, a 17-year-old
Mexican woman named Carmelita Torres was crossing the border on her
way to her job as a maid in El Paso when the trolley conductor
ordered her to leave the trolley and enter the "bath house"; she
refused and quickly rallied the other women on the trolley, who were
also domestic workers, to refuse as well; and
WHEREAS, Soon a crowd of around 200 women were actively
resisting this humiliating and racist process, some of them
throwing rocks and bottles and injuring several trolley operators;
as the crowd grew, many of the women placed themselves on the tracks
to keep the trolley cars from moving, while others removed the
operators from the cabins and destroyed the trolley controls; a
number of the women were arrested, including Ms. Torres; and
WHEREAS, The incident shut down the border for two days, but
unfortunately the protest did not stop the fumigations, which
became even worse; starting in the 1920s, officials in El Paso began
dousing Mexicans crossing the border in Zyklon B, the cyanide-based
pesticide that was later used in the gas chambers of Nazi
extermination camps during the Holocaust; the demeaning
fumigations continued for another 40 years, until the 1960s; and
WHEREAS, Following the protest of 1917, Carmelita Torres is
lost to history, but she and the other women who spontaneously stood
up for themselves that January will forever be remembered for their
courage, their determination, and their insistence upon their
essential human right to be treated with dignity and respect; now,
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 87th Texas
Legislature hereby commemorate the 104th anniversary of the Bath
House Riots of 1917 and pay tribute to the heroism of Carmelita
Torres.