As a Washington Post correspondent covering the Texas-Mexico border and immigration, I spend a lot of time on the road and often strike up conversations with people I meet.
These chats sometimes lead to tales of uncles, cousins and grandfathers who lost their lives in detail-scarce encounters with Anglo lawmen generations ago. It hasn’t happened just once or twice in my travels across South Texas, but many times. Spend enough time in the borderlands, and you’re bound to hear the stories.