JOSEPH HASSE ON RACISM, FAMILY HISTORY AND GROWING UP ANGLO IN BROWNSVILLE

From the editor:  The essay below, written by Joseph Hasse, a balanced dissertation on an Anglo kid growing up in Brownsville, may well resonate with some.

In the current news cycle, a local blogger is fear-mongering against the so-called "Los Juniors" while our president has stated this about Mexican Nationals: “They are not our friend, believe me. . . . . . . They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Hasse projects a different view:

Joseph Walter Hasse

My name is Joseph Walter Hasse, I was born in the southernmost point of Texas in the city of Brownsville on September 30th, 1989. 

Growing up “Gringo” in South Texas was a unique experience having taught me no just about how racist both sides the US border can be, it taught me how there are good kind open-hearted individuals on both sides. 

With the “Americanization” of my family for 150 or so years, I grew up in a home that lacked any real cultural heritages or ties celebrated in the home aside from my fathers Irish Catholic Mother, Mary Hasse ( maiden name Ryan), bringing up my lack of baptism or church attendance. 

As a child I was fascinated at the beautiful and rich culture celebrated by the majority of the 98% Hispanic community that has embraced me and included me, I've never felt left out, although there have been bouts of initial racist attitudes towards my white skin and lack of an accent by individuals most usually end up becoming my friends y compadres. 

I first experienced this in elementary school when fellow students heard my middle name Walter called aloud, this was the whitest name they had ever heard and began to call me “Walter the Pilgrim” Pilgrim the chosen word for in school we were taught the pilgrims where the first to come to our country, therefore being first, they were the whitest. 

It was the meaning of friendship and respect that I learned from the Mexican culture I was immersed in from birth that would later help me in winning over most racists attitudes. 

On the flip side, I've become livid when white Americans make racist claims or slurs around me or worse yet, looking to me for support to their claim, I've come unglued. 

There was a blending of cultures in my home, although we did not celebrate La Posada, I had a Big Bird Pinata on my 2nd birthday, and my mother knowing how to make Tamales for my Tejano Step Grandpa, still makes my favorite Tamales Con Bambii every year when folks bring her deer.

My mother, born in 1968 having moved from her birth town of Yuba City California to Fresno California at the age of 8 when her mother Janet Sue Wade, a native of Missouri, fell in love with her future stepfather Timoteo Sanchez, a Tejano truck driver from Brownsville, moved to Brownsville at the age of 15 . 

My father Charles “Tad” Joseph Hasse, a native of Corpus Christi Texas born in 1958 whom had moved to Brownsville in the 2nd grade after his father Walter Charles Hasse Jr. was contracted by Exxon as a real estate attorney ( he would later help name and plan the streets in Rancho Viejo and South Padre Island Texas) 

After meeting my my Grandmother Janet while she was a blackjack dealer in a local bar in 1986 my Grandmother decided to introduce him to her daughter, my future mother and her later becoming pregnant with me in January of 1989. .

With my mother's family being difficult to trace with little to no records on her side, she did her best to uncover as much research as she could for her children's surname, my sister and I, growing up. 

We once even took a trip to the Texas State Library in Austin to research the Hasse name. My father's family coming from generations of Free Masons and Judges coupled with the fact my last name is rather rare both in Texas and in our ancestral home of Germany, it was far easier to trace back the Hasse family line, which she did, all the way back to my 3rd Great Grandfather Heinrich Hasse who immigrated from Germany through Prussia to the Republic of Texas in 1846.

The oldest story and most prominent in the Hasse family would be that of my 3rd Great grandfather Heinrich “Henry” Hasse,appointed to Judge by Governor Sam Houston only 6 years after immigrating to The Republic of Texas, Heinrich was fellow Freemason giving up his seat as judge along with Gov. Sam Houston’s resignation in protest to the Confederates support of slavery. 

The former Judge played a pivotal role in organizing a secret town hall meeting amongst fellow german immigrants to Texas and along with five other German immigrants drafted “The Beigel Letter” protesting the Confederate Draft. In an article by the Fayette County Historical Commission titled Draft Resistance in Fayette County by Gary E. McKee, the author states “In 1862, local Confederate General William G. Webb received information that local citizens, of mostly German ancestry, were holding meetings to oppose the draft. 

In January of 1863, a delegation of Germans visited General Webb and presented a written declaration. This brave letter of defiance is an excellent test of democracy in time of war, but also gives a great snapshot of life during this time”

In his January 4, 1863 letter to Brig. Gen. William G. Webb of La Grange, my Grandfather Heinrich and company open with “The measures taken by the Government to protect this State against invasion are so far-reaching and serious in their consequences that they fill our minds with dread and apprehension.The past has already taught us how regardlessly the Government and the county authorities have treated the families of those who have taken the field. We have been told that they would be cared for, and what put of this time has been done? They were furnished with small sums of paper money, which is almost worthless, and which has been refused by men for whose sake this war and its calamities were originated.” 

After illustrating the troubles with starvation being faced the upcoming winter, the letter also stated “Besides the duty of defending one's country there is a higher and more sacred one—the duty of maintaining the families. What benefit is there in preserving the country while the families and inhabitants of the same, nay, even the Army, are bound to perish in misery and starvation? 

In view of the foregoing we take the liberty hereby jointly to declare that unless we obtain a guarantee that our families will be protected, not only against misery and starvation, but also against vexations from itinerant bands, we shall not be able to answer the call, and the consequences must be attributed to those who caused them.”. 

This letter did not set well with General J. B. Magruder which caused him to declared martial law in Fayette county, Austin county and Colorado county. The General whom the letter was addressed to William G. Webb immediately sent word to the Confederate Texas Governor named Francis Lubbock. Governor Lubbock immediately visited La Grange for several days and gave the German delegation a very plain, “positive talk”. The Governor’s “persuasive speech” included an artillery piece from the Confederate Cavalry Brigade. My 3rd Great Grandfather did end up serving in the draft. 

Heinrich Hasse had 6 boys and 4 girls, one of the sons,was my Great Great Grandfather Adolph Henry Hasse he was a rancher and settled just south of San Antonio in Floresville. 

His son, Walter Hasse Sr. was a munitions disposal expert in the first world war, later he was a Banker up until the stock market crash when he bought the Hasse Family Ranch located between Floresville Texas and Pleasanton Texas. 

This new cattle ranch was a former 1800’s slave plantation. After demolishing the former Plantation house and slaves quarters he built a new House, Garage, Barn, Cattle Dip and stockades but with the former plantations Cotton Gin still standing. Latter in my infancy there was a fire that claimed the Barn and many acres yet keeping the house, garage and chicken coop intact. 

His son Walter ‘Charlie” Charlies Hasse Jr. was my Grandfather, a real estate lawyer and former JAG Lawyer in the Korean War. Grandpa Charlie married Mary Ryan of Oklahoma and had three children, my father and two aunts Margret and Joanie. 

He would be the one moved his family down to Brownsville from Corpus Christi. Tragically he passed away of a heart attack after fishing on South Padre Island in the 1970’s. 

My two Aunts married two of the Cowen brothers of Brownsville, now both divorced and sadly both brothers John Cowen Sr. and Tommy Cowen having passed away in 2018 and but with both sets of my cousins being Cowens the entire family has always made me feel loved and treated me as one of their own.

My father had two children, myself and my sister. Being the last male Hasse to pass on my branches name I am forever grateful for how much my mother helped me uncover the wealth of history and inspiration bestowed to me upon me by an ancestor I can never know. 

I will forever stand up in defence of my family and others as my wise Grandfathers had. Years of family research has lead me to have a profound respect and reverence for the struggles faced and the actions forced to take by my ancestors. 

I’d especially like to say thank you as well to Heinrich Hasse, my inspiration each time I take the podium in a public forum to speak up on behalf of what is right.

Joseph Walter Hasse