Artifacts on a Hanging Tree, Goliad, Texas (a series of 70 Mexican Lynchings, 1857)

“Site for court sessions at various times from 1846 to 1870. Capital sentences called for by the courts were carried out immediately, by means of a rope and a convenient limb. Hangings not called for by regular coursts occurred here during the 1857 “cart war”—a series of attacks made by Texas freighters against Mexican drivers along the Indianola-Goliad/San Antonion Road. 
About 70 men were killed, some of them on this tree, before the war was halted by Texas Rangers.”
—State Historical Survey Committee Texas Marker near the tree

Last 5 TripAdvisor Reviews of Goliad’s Hanging Tree, as of 6/23/18
          Title: Love old court houses (6/20/18)
          Review: This hanging tree was just a bonus on the court house square and the history that took place there was moving.

          Title: Spooky when you think of the tree’s use! (6/18/18)
          Review: One of the sites in Goliad is the hanging tree a beautiful tree which was used to mete out “justice” after trials.

          Title: Beauty of a tree (6/19/18)
          Review: Well the name sort of says it all, but that is a beautiful tree. The courthouse is a class Texas courthouse, so the day was great.

          Title: Interesting in a gruesome kind of way (5/27/18)
          Review: This is a huge oak tree outside of the courthouse in Goliad. You really can picture the sentences being carried out.

          Title: Huge old live oak tree (5/7/18)
          Review: The tree is located in the center of town on the grounds of the county courthouse. The tree has quiet the history.
          When convicted, the prisoner was walked outside and hanged from this magnificent live oak tree.


TalkToTheOakTree:AskTheCityTo TearYouDown.CityFortifiesWithStone.AskTownToGoIntoHiding.StateErectsMetalPlaque.AskTouriststoLeave.AndTheyTestYourStrengthToHoldTheirWeight.AskThemIfTheyNoticeYourShadow'sShapeIsAMassBurialOfTwitchingLegs.LetThemMemory.
 

El árbol, No. 10, as a series of narrowing translations:
El que a buen árbol se arrima, buena sombra le cobija. |...| He who nears a good tree, is blanketed by good shade. |...| The one that comes to a good tree, good shadow blankets them. |...| To near the tree, receive a blanket of shadow. |...| To near the tree is to blanket yourself in darkness.

brd

stdnt sks                  
             hw s th flyng thng splld?

 

tchr sys        
             ll th sft lttrs hv blwn ff
             spll brd
                                                                            lk         brd

 

tchr tlls stry
                        frst mnfst dstny
                        th bffl wr hntd nd skltns stckd
                        th ntv ppl wr pshd n slghtrd
                      
             tk wht th y cn s

             thn crps plntd nd plntd nd plntd nd plntd
             thn dry nd ht nd dry nd cld nd dry nd ht
                        thn rbbts nd rbbts nd rbbts
                        thn mn clbbd ll th rbbts
             pld nd lghd
                        vrythng brnd
                        ll th ppl thrstd nd th lnd crckd
                        brd jst lft bfr snrs nd snst
                        brd dsspprd
                        thn nsts mpty
           

stdnt sks       
             wht hppnd t brd?

 

tchr sys         
             brd sys n brnchs t prch nd crps cllps nd hrvsts nd n wrms s hngry
                      
             brd sys           spk sky                        spk
                                                                                                 drk spk                      
             ll thngs trnd psdwn
                       
                                                                           thn blw wy
                      
             nd trnds nd hrrcns nd wrs nd dss
             nd nthng lvng


stdnt sks       
             dd brd knw?

 

tchr nswrs    
             brd knw          trd t spk
                                      thrt splt

             brd ndd wtr

 

stdnt sys       
             whts wtr?

El Arpa, a Mexican Lynching, No. 53

“The office of sheriff is a critical part of the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement. We must never erode this historic office.”
-Jeff Sessions, former U.S. Attorney General, February 12, 2018 to the National Sheriffs’ Association

1. The inheritance of the heir is never a dandelion disbursal. Scattershot. Floating beyond fences. Growing elsewhere.

2. The inheritance of the elsewhere is a cave of collapse.

3. The cave of collapse is work.

4. The work is never inheritance of the heir’s or of the heir’s heir, as well as the heir’s heir’s heir.

5. The inheritance of repetition is a soundless gavel buried in a shallow grave.

6. The shallow grave is the redness of the bouquet a florist selects.

7. The bouquet is a leaning into the quiet of a funeral.

8. The quiet of a funeral is the Americas.

9. The Americas is a platform, built by the settlers, sheriffs, and miners, for the lynching of the other.

10. The lynching is in a vigilance committee of NAFTA, Operation Wetback, Maquiladoras, ICE, silences, the
      agricultural prison industrial complex, congressmen, and US presidents.

11. The silences is a gerrymandering of census data.

12. The census data is learning about the word incarceration through the storytelling project playing on public radio.

13. The incarceration is an ombligo of shirts in a forest of screams.

14. The ombligo is feeding again and never hungry.

15. The feeding is a church of excommunications inside a cage of teeth.

16. The cage of teeth is elected into office.

17. The elected are voting to eliminate whatever and everything.

18. The voting are no longer asking permission.

19. The permission is trafficking.

20. The trafficking is now asked to self-report.

21. The self-report is now asked to fill out a binary form in ink, online.

22. The binary is seeking a fourth option during the election.

23. The election is a wall.

24. The wall is a type of silence.

25. The silence is a type of America.

26. The type of America is in the arrest.

27. The arrest is defined as the cessation or stoppage of motion.

28. The cessation or stoppage of motion is the fabric veiling the artifice.

29. The fabric veiling the artifice is a factory of harps.

30. The factory of harps is a maker of a stringless harp.

31. The stringless harp is the mute progeny.

32. The mute progeny is now the inheritance of the heir.