Bill Text: TX HR706 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Commemorating the 104th anniversary of the Bath House Riots in El Paso and paying tribute to the heroism of Carmelita Torres.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-04-19 - Referred to State Affairs [HR706 Detail]
Download: Texas-2021-HR706-Introduced.html
| 87R19020 JGH-D | ||
| By: González of El Paso | H.R. No. 706 | |
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| 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. | ||
