The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 272 - The Bath Riots

Episode Date: June 8, 2017

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine The Bath Riots in El Paso, Texas. SOURCESTOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. You're listening to the doll. This is a bi-weekly American History podcast. Each

week I, Dave Anthony, the story from American History, my friend, Gary Reynolds, doesn't know what the topic's gonna be about. God, do you want to look here to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gara. Steve, okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not going to become the tickling podcast. Okay. You are queen fakie of made-up town. All hail Queen Shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to Mingle. And do what? Pray. Hi, Gary. No. I see you done, my friend. No. What podcast do you listen to? You know, Davis, someone involved in the podcast world. I don't listen to a lot of podcasts. Is that true? Yeah, that's true. But you like Punch Drunk, right? I like Punch Drunk. I like Rogan. You like Rogan, yeah. I like

Point Versus Point, my other podcast. Yeah? Yeah, I do like that one. Like your other one? Yeah. You listen to it? That one I'll listen to, but that's just because there's crazy plots going on. So, like, I have to, like, remember like what has happened and, you know, but I don't enjoy, like, I don't like listen to it and go like, I'm having a great time. I'm like, all right, yeah, his hair's falling out because he's tried to bleach his hair. Right, remember. That's crazy. Well, right now on Point Versus Point, Evan is dating Charlize Theron. Sure. That's been going on for a little while. Yeah. As far as I understand. Yeah, yeah. And then last week I brought in a Winona writer. She was on the podcast? It turned out it was a fake. She was dressed

up as Wonder Woman in front of Man's Chinese Theater. And she told you she was? No. No. We were convinced, Evan, I tried to convince Evan that she was Winona writer because I was jealous of his love affair with Charlize Theron. And then he poked holes in the fact that I just hired a Winona writer from the streets. Well, that's an amazing documentary. Oh, that is crazy. What's it called? There is a line in it. They've made a documentary about, like, the Man's Chinese Theater characters, you know, all these characters that stand in front of Hollywood Boulevard, dress up like the Hulk, like Superman, like Batman. And there's a documentary called, I can't remember what it's called, but it basically follows

some of these people. And, you know, you definitely want to give them the benefit of the doubt of not being crazy. But they're all just very crazy. Super crazy. Yeah. I have a, I'm not going to tell the story too much. It's a good one though. I'll just tell it real quick. I'll tell it real quick. Is that okay? Yeah. All right. So my buddy who, yeah, I want to be pretty loose with the details, but basically someone I know worked on, worked in TV and was like, saw the documentary and saw one of the characters and was basically like to one of the, you know, saw the character on the street after seeing the documentary and went up to him and was just basically like, Hey, you know, I saw this documentary. You

know, I saw you're not happy doing this. Oh, can I ask, was it Superman or Batman? Hulk. And so he's like, do you, you know, if you want, I'm sure I could figure out a way to get, you could be an extra on a show if you wanted to work an extra, you know, you wanted to be an extras. And the guy was like, Yeah, for sure. So then, you know, sure enough, the guy shows up and he's there to be an extra. And within like 20 minutes, there's like some weird kerfuffle, like there's, you know, like something going on and my buddy's kind of like, hopefully it's nothing to do with the guy that I got. Hopefully it's nothing to do with the Hulk. And then he goes over there and he's like, Hey, what, what's been going

like, what happened there? I heard something and someone was like, Oh, one of the extra shit their pants. And he was like, Oh, okay. And he's like, do you know who? And they're like, that guy, it's the guy. And he's like, Oh, shit, right away. Right away. We should also point out real quick that we have a book called the United States of absurdity that you can get an order. Please buy it if you like this podcast. And then, you know, and if you want to leave a comment or a, you know, a five star review or whatever, however the hell the reviews work, you know, give it a whirl. You know what I mean? Okay, you just give it a whirl. It's all I'm saying, you know, look, I'm not on a sound desperate.

I'm just saying, buy the book and leave a good review. You can also leave a review for the podcast on iTunes that helps us out. Oh, man, August. All right. 1914. Okay. I was hoping there'd be more. This is a fucking name. Why don't I look at this? What's going on? The first name is insane. Hit me with it. Ven, Venestiano. Whoa. Venestiano. Coranza. Uh, was sworn into office as Mexico's head of state, which ended the bulk of the fighting of the Mexican Revolution. Okay. President Woodrow Wilson, who just wanted to be done with the Mexican nonsense and wanted to focus on what was going on in Europe and World War

1, withdrew American forces from Mexico. Okay. But Pancho Villa, who was a hard man to control, refused to give up the fight and continued starting border skirmishes with the U.S. Okay. He's, you know, mixing it up. Yeah. He's the inventor of the poncho. During this time, Typhus. Even rain won't stop me. What? A light rain won't stop me. What? Mild snow won't stop me, for I have a poncho. During this? Muddy conditions won't stop me. During this? I could go see Gallagher performing concert

and he would not stop me. During this? No elements will stop me. During this time, Typhus became a problem. Oh boy. It spread from Mexico City to the promises from a Vera Cruz to a Yalisco. Thomas Callaway Lee was born in Missouri in 1877 and volunteered to fight in the Spanish-American War in, uh, 1898. So, you know, early. Yeah. At the end of the war, he decided to stay in Texas and move to the border town El Paso. Sure. Or in, uh, Spanish El Paso. Yeah. I think that, in a way, that.

He became a well-known criminal lawyer and became a known for emotional drama in court. Sure. Okay. At some point, Lee decided to enter politics and ran for mayor in 1914. This was during the progressive area, which did not mean liberal. It meant he was pro-cleaning up the filth in the city. Okay. Very different. Still something to vote for. And, uh, Tom Lee was obsessed with cleanliness. He said he would get rid of the old, dirty, corrupt politicians like incumbent mayor Charles Kelly and all his Mexican supporters. Okay. At the time, there were poll taxes, which

ensured most working-class Mexican-Americans could not vote. Okay. But Kelly illegally paid their poll taxes, so they voted for him. Uh, okay. Which, if you think about it, it makes sense. Yeah. You're going back. You're like, oh, that's the right thing to do. Right. Yeah. With the pledge. Illegal, but you're like, no, no, no, no. But good. With the pledge to clean up this corruption,

Lee was elected mayor in 1915. All right. Using local military troops, Lee had hundreds of quote, germ, I remember I said he was, he was literally, he's literally a germaphobe literally about cleaning up the city. Okay. He really has problems with germs. Right. It's disgusting. So he had hundreds of quote, German-fested adobe homes destroyed in the area of El Paso. Get them all out of here. Chihuahuita, I think. Chihuahuita. Chihuahuita.

In their place, he had American-made brick buildings constructed. Okay. He also had El Paso pass the first ordinance against Mexican hemp. Wait, it El Pas? It El Pas, Pasoed, which we, we call marijuana. Oh, good. I've read about that stuff. At the time, pot was associated with Mexican revolutionaries, which is one of my favorite facts ever.

Yeah. Pot is associated with Mexican revolutionaries. It's awesome. So Tom Lee also used to wear silk underwear. All right. Cool. He did not wear them because he liked how they felt or looked, but because he was afraid of contracting typhus from Mexican immigrants. Will they help?

His good friend, Dr. Clutz. Okay. Okay. Come on. Come on now. You know me. What are you doing to me over here? Dr. Clutz? His good friend, Dr. Stupid, recommended silk underpants. Oh, God. I dropped that. Yeah. All right. And I'll just slice the goiter right. Oh, no. I've done it again.

Oh, I'm such a clutz. I left this thing in your body. The only thing is that we have to use forceps for the forceps because we left them inside of you. I'm so sorry. Oh, no. I dropped the bloody go. Hi. So Dr. Clutz told him that typhus lice did not stick to silk. No. No. Trust me.

Apparently. I'm Dr. Clutz. He was super concerned about his genital area and typhus lice as we all are. Well, the last thing you want is for them to get on your pee pee. So being a germ freak, Mayor Lee sent letters and telegrams to Washington D.C. officials for months asking for a full quarantine against Mexicans at the border. He wanted a quarantine camp to hold all Mexican immigrants for 10 to 14 days to make sure they were free of typhus before allowing them to come into the United States.

Why not just drape them in silk? That's what I'm talking about. What about making them out of silk? Yeah. I have ideas. Yours maybe goes a little far. So the El Paso Public Health Service officials thought the Mayor's request was a little bit extreme, a little bit out there.

Sure. Yeah. Holding for two weeks seems a little extreme. Dr. BJ Lloyd. Okay. What's going on? Are you making these up? Dr. Klutz and Dr. Blowjob?

I have to sit here and deal with? Look, this is what the town was. I'm panning you a picture. You know, I'm actually going to need to have a look under those silk boxers. They fell on your dick. God damn it, Klutz, I'm in the middle of something in here. Get out of here. I'm about to do my thing.

Oh, sorry. I thought that this was the bathroom. I keep thinking this one's the best. Don't I cut his pee-dee-go? Why is there a skateboard? Yeah, Jen and a closet bromow. Dr. BJ Lloyd, the health, the public health service official on El Paso wrote to the U.S. search in general, quote, Mayor Lee wants an absolute quarantine against Mexico.

When Mayor Lee gets excited, he always writes someone in Washington. The last time this occurred, he sent a message to the president. Oh, boy. Lloyd went on. Typhus fever is not now and probably never will be a serious menace to our civilian population in the United States. We probably have typhus fever in many of our large cities now. I'm opposed to the idea of quarantine camps for the reason that the game is not worth

the candle. The game is not worth the candle. That must have been a phrase back then. The game is not worth the candle. Oh, you know what that means. Maybe he used to say flame and when I was typing it, auto corrected. The flame is... The game is not worth the candle?

Well, the only thing I could think of, well, I mean, I'm probably making it up, but it probably is the flame. What's your idea with the game? If you were to be partaking in some sort of game... With a candle? Yeah. It's not worth wasting a candle on said game. Okay.

No, that might be exactly right because this is back when... Boy, I really... I couldn't read you on that one. I thought I was about to get reamed. But this is... They might be setting up electricity in certain places, but there's definitely a lot of places that don't have electricity. So to play a game, they might have to burn a candle.

Right. And you're saying it's not worth wasting a candle? I think you might be right. Okay. We're going to go with that one. Okay. So quarantine camps were not put in place, right? Good.

But Lloyd was not as great as he sounds. Instead of camps, he thought it would be a good idea to set up de-lausing plans. Oh, boy. What? Let me finish. I'm horrible. Using very similar racist languages, Lloyd told his superiors he was cheerfully writing to quote, bathe and disinfect all the dirty, lousy people who are coming into this country

from Mexico. Dirty lousy. Yeah, that's what he said. We shall probably continue the work of killing lice in the effects of immigration, the Mexican border for many years to come, certainly not less than 10 years and probably 25 years or more. So good for him from not putting them in camps, but de-lassing is no walk of the book. Mexican border crossers were not considered illegal in the US until 1917 when a new law

imposed heavy barriers to entry. Mexican nationals for the very first time needed a passport to enter into the United States. And even though there were only 31 typhus cases in the entire United States and only three typhus related deaths in El Paso in 1917, US officials quickly adopted a policy of sanitizing Mexican immigrants at disinfecting station in El Paso. Disinfecting station. No reason for it.

I mean, what is the process of the disinfection station? You'll get there. The policy applied to all Mexicans entering the US in El Paso and soon spread to the Laredo Nuevo crossing and along the US Mexican border all the way. At the border, Mexican men and women were separated. Any child coming would go with the women. They were then taken into separate buildings and stripped of all their clothing and valuables. The clothing and valuables were steamed.

Other stuff like shoes, hats, or belts were exposed to cyanogen gas. Then inspectors examined the now naked people for lice. That's not the meaning. No, no, no, no. A cousin's inspector would check his or her, quote, hairy parts, scalp, armpits, chest, genital areas for lice. Oh, God. If any lice were found.

Hairy areas. Men. Hairy areas. If any lice was found, men's hair was clipped close to the head and then the clippings were burned. Women's hair was doused with a mixture of vinegar and kerosene. Oh, my God. You're a bomb.

Get out there. That's why we call you candle. They would then wrap into the towel and it would be left on the hair for at least 30 minutes. Then they were reinspected to see if they still had it. That's going to be a very, I mean, they're not, they're not salons. So you fucking show up. They take off your clothes. They take all your shit.

Yeah. They check your genitals, your pits. Yeah. They check your, your whole. They put vinegar and kerosene in your hair and then they're like, come back in 30 minutes. So they're reinspected. If it turned out all the knits had not been removed, the process was repeated. Oh, God.

The word knits makes me want to throw up. Why? It just grosses you out. Just the idea of little tiny lice eggs. I want to vomit all over everything. Once inspectors just don't think about it too much, man, because in reality, once inspectors declared the lice test had been passed, the naked people were gathered in a bathing area and sprayed with a liquid soap made of soap chips and kerosene oil.

Okay, naked people, naked people, over here. Gather over here. So you guys are congratulations. You have made it to round two. We're now going to spray you like cars. With oil and soap. Okay. This is our wave saying, fuck you.

Oh, well, that's not in the talking points, Deb. Sorry. That's not real. After they would get their sanitized clothing, immigrants were then evaluated by a foreman, vaccinated, and given a certificate that they had completed the procedure, they would then enter the Immigration and Naturalization Service Building for Processing. So it's kind of a horrible thing. Good lord.

It's a bit horrible. Some people call it demeaning. Yeah. One woman who worked as a maid in El Paso during the revolution said she felt humiliated for being treated as a, quote, dirty Mexican. On one occasion, the U.S. customs officials put her clothes and shoes through a large dryer and her shoes melted. Oh, god.

Anyway, have a good trip to America. Well, that's probably based on the ticks. That's probably not us. They burned. Yeah, those are, yeah, they're tick-fired. You know, the old saying, these shoes are not worth that candle, or we made your shoes a candle. Yeah, whatever it is.

Good luck walking. All right. See ya. Over 127,000 Mexicans were deloused at the Santa Fe International Bridge in 1917 alone. Wow. That's cool. Pretty large. That's cool.

Yeah. That's cool. Welcome to America. I'll always be the worst. Besides basic humiliation, Mexican women discovered that they were secretly being photographed by custom agents and the photos were being displayed at a local bar. Oh, my god. What the f***?

Why? No. That's just obviously was going to happen. But you would hope in some way it just was always going to happen. Yeah, I know. A few months later, 16 prisoners were being bathed with gasoline at the El Paso Jail House. Who's advising the... I don't know, but there's a lot of gasoline cleaning going on.

Yeah. Well, who's the person who's going with gas? I know. Well, there's a lot of gas around then. Sure. It's... Soap, too, I'd imagine. I assume that it kills a lot of the bugs.

Sure. It's gas. Yep. So put it on a dude. Oh, now you guys finally smell good. So they were being bathed in gasoline and somehow a cigarette got involved and 16 guys died. No.

Here's the thing. Don't bathe in gas. Yeah. That's one of the first things to tell you at the gas bath. Don't light a smoke. No smoking at the gas bath. This is seriously, you guys. Last week, 16 guys didn't listen to me.

Hey, all these rules are stressing me out. I'm going to have a smoke. No. In 2017, Camelita Torres was one of the women who made the daily trek. She was a 17-year-old Juarez maid who crossed the Santa Fe International Bridge into El Paso from Juarez each morning to clean homes. At 7.30 a.m. on May 28th, Camelita was asked by the customs officials at the bridge to get off the trolley, take a bath, and be disinfected with gasoline.

Now, so she's someone who does this every day, so she's like, why the fuck should I... Yeah. Like, I do believe that there were people who did it every day, and then once it happened a couple times, they're like, okay, you're clean, you can go. So she's upset. Yeah. She refuses. Okay.

Instead, she got off the electric streetcar and quickly convinced all the other 30 female passengers to get off with her and demonstrate their opposition to the humiliation of de-lossing. Okay. They crossed to the Mexican side and began to demonstrate. An hour later, the group had grown to 200 Mexican women, and they now blocked all traffic into El Paso, and it went on. By noon, the press estimated their numbers as several thousand. Geez.

All women. That's a... What's happening? Yeah. We got a revolution, motherfucker. Yeah. They marched as a group toward the disinfection camp and called out those who were submitting themselves to the de-lossing process.

Immigration and public health service officers tried to disperse the crowd, but the protesters responded by throwing bottles, rocks, and plenty of insults. It's good protesting right there. One customs inspector was hit in the head with a bottle. Okay. I'm fine with that. Yeah. Is that the end of him?

I mean, he lived. Yeah. He's hit in the head. All right. I'm okay with that. Fort Bliss Commander General Bell. I'm okay with it. You ever seen when Justin Bieber got hit in the face with not a glass bottle, but a plastic

bottle? Oh. You did not like that? It's just dead hit. Yeah. Really? Yeah. You're just like, oh, yeah.

I mean, I'm not... Hey, I'm not... But I'm okay with that. I like that. Yeah. If you have those kind of skills. Yeah. Fort Bliss Commander General Bell ordered his soldiers to the scene, but the women did

not give a shit. They just shouted remarks at Bell and his soldiers and kept control of the street. Okay. The women would be referred to in newspaper stories as the Amazons. The Amazons? You know, giant Amazon women who are... Oh. They...

It's racist. It's not racist. It's, you know, you're not calling them ladylike. You're saying... Right. You're basically saying... It's misogynist. You're saying that these giant, like, not women women...

Right. They're not... Not womanly women. Not ready for America women. Right. No, you have your place. It's just not here in this industrialized world. No, we're just saying go back to, you know, the thing, wherever you're from.

You forget what it's called, but go to your little, you know, thing and, you know, and, you know, just get out of here. We're just... Look, look, look, guys. Like we said, it's either D'Laucing or the highway. So... Our phrases are really fucked up. They're not good.

You know, a half a candle or an apple, you make the pick. If you're playing a game, not gonna need a lighter, are you? One Amazon woman hit Sergeant J.M. Peck in the face with a rock and cut him. Again, I'm fine. Yeah. Again, I'm fine. The protesters next laid down on the tracks in front of trolley cars to prevent them from moving.

After the street cars stopped moving, the women ripped out the motor controllers... Oh, God. ...of the hands of the American motormen. One of the motormen attempted to run back. Doesn't seem very Amazonian. That's pretty Amazonian. To know where the motor is? That's not Amazonian at all.

One of the motormen attempted to run back to the American side of the bridge, three or four female rioters grabbed him as he tried to flee and beat the shit out of him, giving him a black eye. Oh, yes. I'm telling you, this is fine. Another motorman ran into a Chinese restaurant on Avenida Juarez. I'll have a number 30. Hey, I guess I'll take a burrito with the rest of these.

Getting chased a lot. What is the fastest? 32, and then let me get Crab Rangoon to go. Later in the day, one woman showed a reporter three controllers she had taken from trolley cars. That's pretty great. She's the best. I'm making souvenirs.

And the El Paso Herald, quote, the women took complete control of the port prohibiting any traffic between Juarez and El Paso. General Francisco Marquilla, hopefully, shut up with his troops to stop the all female riot. His Calvary was known as El Escuadrón de la Muerta. OK, the Death Squad. Yes, that's exactly right. Great. And it was very intimidating.

Well, that name is kind of bold. It's not a good name. It's bold. They won insignia of a skull on crossbones and were known for taking no prisoners. Sure. OK. The Calvary men arrived, drew their sabers, and pointed them at the mob of women. You there.

Hello. But to the women, again, yeah, they didn't give a shit. They mocked, yelled, and hooted at, and then attacked the soldiers. The El Paso Herald reported, quote, the soldiers were powerless. According to El Paso Herald, quote, one of the men who gathered to watch the women's demonstration yelled, Viva Viva. So that's Ponzo Viva, OK, and was made a prisoner by the Caronza soldiers and taken to military headquarters where he was immediately court-martialed for sentence to death.

Jesus. And it was reported he was executed that afternoon. Good lord. Look, they got a good, they got a turn around. They got a really good court system. It's very smooth and fluid. I'd like to appeal. No.

You go this afternoon. The appeal is that you're going to be killed. I'll see you miss final meals. The several shots were fired in the area of the riot, but no one was hurt. Extra guards were then placed on duty. Just after 12 o'clock, Mexican officials sent a representative to ask American officers at the bridge for a conference to American officials came to Juarez. The Mexican authorities and the American authorities agreed they would do anything in their power

to disperse the mob. And then the Mexican soldiers with American soldiers charged and the women quickly dispersed. Traffic between Juarez and El Paso was quickly resumed. Camelated Torres and other so-called leaders were arrested. Today she's known as like the Rosa Parks sort of. I didn't want to make that comparison before, but there's. The difference is, is that Rosa Parks led to great change with a sledge of no change. There was no change.

Still. I mean, you are the the spark in some sort of really impressive fucking for sure. The balls. Well, that's not the right thing to say. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? The balls on. We're going to take it all back.

There was no change to the delasting program at the border. Instead, it went on for decades. Wow. Soon DDT and other insecticides would be used. Shut up. They're using DDT on straight up on people. Oh yeah. There's pictures of them just fucking spraying people in the face.

You just don't don't ever get sprayed. No. Whatever. Anytime anyone's ever saying a spray. Never. No. Avoid all spray. Yeah.

Eventually, the process was stopped when authorities realized the chemicals were dangerous. That was in the late 1950s. U.S. officials beginning in the 1920s started delousing and spraying clothes with Zyclone B. Well, that sounds good. The fumigation was done in an area of the building called, quote, the gas chambers. Good. Good.

Good. Good. You know, I just know there were a hot buzz term around then, so it's cool to capitalize on that gas chamber heat. Yeah. In 1938, a German scientific article in a journal was written that praised the El Paso method of fumigating Mexican immigrants with Zyclone B. Well, that's certainly his seal you're after.

Approved by Germans. At the beginning of World War II, the Nazis adopted Zyclone B as a fumigation agent at a German border crossing and concentration camps. Later when the final solution was put into place, the Nazis used Zyclone B pellets in what they called, quote, gas chambers to kill human beings. That's familiar. That's America. We export stuff.

We're exporters. Do you ever just think about us? God, we're rascals. So if you put together the fact that we exported eugenics and we apparently, according to this book that I read, exported the idea of gas chambers. So we are the architects. Well, we're a think tank for genocide. Where would I like to call a, what was the one called from the last one, pad?

Oh, a jam pad? Jam pad. We're a jam pad. We're a jam pad. America is a jam pad for horrific ideas. Yeah. We're a jam pad. Oh, God.

You feel good? It's been a rough night. Just putting DDT on people just spraying people with DDT. Oh, my God. Just delousing human beings. We just allow it. For no fucking reason. I mean, they're just doing it to fuck with them.

It's a Trump move. It's a move to stop people. I mean, that's what I was going to say. Again, when you think of what happened in London just now, the idea that any kind of ban on people, correlating that to the idea of not wanting Muslim immigrants at all to come into this country under a travel ban is, I mean, it's like the same, you know. It doesn't fucking matter. People who are going to be, first of all, they're mentally ill and then...

But it's... But these are people... A lot of times, these are nationalists. So these are people who live in the... So these people are domestic. Right. They start here. They start...

Or they... In this case, they started in England. They're not... Right. They're radicalized in the country. So again, you're like, you're... You know, I mean, it's the same thing as... You're just bringing a knife to a gun fight.

Are you saying D-Lows Muslims? You know, now that I'm hearing a pitch back. No. Is that what do you think I'm saying? No, I'm just fucking with you. Oh, yeah. I was going to say, hopefully that didn't come across, it's late. But again, I mean, like, you know, there's just no correlation.

But yeah, we allow this stuff because we want to send some kind of message. The message always backfires. It's good. It's good. Oh, it'll be exciting to see how it turns out. It's not going to turn out. I'm excited to see how it turns out. We signed...

Schminkers! Schminkers! Schminkers! Schminkers!