When his picture appeared on the cover of Texas Monthly, Joaquin Jackson became the icon of the modern Texas Rangers. Nick Nolte modeled his character in the movie Extreme Prejudice on him. Jackson even had a speaking part of his own in The Good Old Boys with Tommy Lee Jones. But the role that Jackson has always played the best is that of the man who wears the silver badge cut from a Mexican cinco peso coin--a working Texas Ranger. Legend says that one Ranger is all it takes to put down lawlessness and restore the peace--one riot, one Ranger. In this adventure-filled memoir, Joaquin Jackson recalls what it was like to be the Ranger who responded when riots threatened, violence erupted, and criminals needed to be brought to justice across a wide swath of the Texas-Mexico border from 1966 to 1993. Jackson has dramatic stories to tell. Defying all stereotypes, he was the one Ranger who ensured a fair election--and an overwhelming win for La Raza Unida party candidates--in Zavala County in 1972. He followed legendary Ranger Captain Alfred Y. Allee Sr. into a shootout at the Carrizo Springs jail that ended a prison revolt--and left him with nightmares. He captured "The See More Kid," an elusive horse thief and burglar who left clean dishes and swept floors in the houses he robbed. He investigated the 1988 shootings in Big Bend's Colorado Canyon and tried to understand the motives of the Mexican teenagers who terrorized three river rafters and killed one. He even helped train Afghan mujahedin warriors to fight the Soviet Union. Jackson's tenure in the Texas Rangers began when older Rangers still believed that law need not get in the way of maintaining order, and concluded as younger Rangers were turning to computer technology to help solve crimes. Though he insists, "I am only one Ranger. There was only one story that belonged to me," his story is part of the larger story of the Texas Rangers becoming a modern law enforcement agency that serves all the people of the state. It's a story that's as interesting as any of the legends. And yet, Jackson's story confirms the legends, too. With just over a hundred Texas Rangers to cover a state with 267,399 square miles, any one may become the one Ranger who, like Joaquin Jackson in Zavala County in 1972, stops one riot. (200603)
One Ranger: A Memoir (Bridwell Texas History Series)
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At last there is a personal recollection that does justice both to the Ranger legend and to the Tejanos whose story was long left from the pages of the Texas experience. (Michael L. Collins East Texas Historical Association )
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Joaquin Jackson told me that West Texas weather is so dry and hard on women that his wife put Crisco on her face. That is the colorful storytelling you can expect in this book . . . really wonderful tales that are told in true Texas language. (Ann Richards, former Governor of Texas )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Real Man,
By
This review is from: One Ranger: A Memoir (Bridwell Texas History Series) (Hardcover)
My wife and I know Joaquin & Shirley Jackson as NRA friends. That said, I have rarely read anyone's memoirs where the truth about a "real man" matches what is present when met in person. It happens in Joaquin Jackson's One Ranger. I'm in my 77th year and have collected Ranger books since the late 1930s. With all my reading over sixty years about Rangers, this is the first one that left me with the feeling "That's what it takes and that's what it is like."
Few are gifted to be a great Ranger and even fewer to write meaningfully about it. I can guarantee any reader you won't be able to put it down this book. You will have been entertained royally. One Ranger makes it evident what's wrong with our present system of law enforcement - it takes giants and they are in short supply.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Only in Texas,
By Don H. Ford Jr. "author of Contrabando" (Seguin, Texas United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: One Ranger: A Memoir (Bridwell Texas History Series) (Hardcover)
One Ranger is the well-told Memoir of H. Joaquin Jackson.
Having been on the other side of the law, (I was a marijuana smuggler), I anticipated a book that would tell how the cops are the good guys and all the crooks are evil and how the Texas Rangers are far superior to any cop on the planet. While an element of pride does creep into this work in places, it is offset by an honest and frank view of the world from Jackson's eyes. He peers into the gray areas in his life and that of others and talks of racial prejudice, greed, pride and even contempt for the law. Of the fears and doubts he felt. He addresses flawed policies on the war on drugs and border related issues with courage and conviction. He also does a good job of painting the world from which he comes-a world he loves dearly-perhaps more than his own life. Almost to a fault. For those that love Texas and the border regions you will find interesting history and perspective woven into the stories and accurate and colorful portrayals of the land and the people that make this country what it is. He shows us how flawed people can be good people, a lesson all of us need to learn. He stares into what certainly is his biggest personal nightmare and takes the reader with him-a nightmare that will continue to haunt him for the rest of his life-the fact that his son, a son bearing his name, would grow up to kill another human and be sentenced to prison for murder. I couldn't help but share in the pain and doubts he lives with. Why did this happen? Being the eldest son of an equally dynamic and successful man, and also bearing the name of my own father (don means "sir" in Spanish), I think I understand. The only thing I have to say publicly is this: the grace of God is greater than all of this. And sometimes a man must die (figuratively or literally) to overcome the curse into which he is born. I want Mr. Jackson to know that hope remains for his son and that sometimes God takes a person from the lowest of places and raises him up to do his will. This is an exceptional book. Buy it and read it. You will profit from the experience.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The 1950's Ended in 1993 in Texas,
By
This review is from: One Ranger: A Memoir (Bridwell Texas History Series) (Hardcover)
H. Joaquin Jackson was the in the last group of Texas Rangers to be sworn in by the legendary - some say infamous depending on ancestry - Homer P. Garrison Jr. in 1966 and the LAST of the "Garriaon" Texas Rangers to retire in 1993. Jackson's career stretched from enforcing the legal elections of La Raza Unida candidates in Zavala County in 1972 - don't we wish he had been there to enforce the ballot counting in the Lyndon Johnson Coke Stevenson 1948 Senatorial election - to training Afghan mujahedin in Brewster County. If anything, Jackson was a leader in moving the Texas Rangers - socially - from the 1880s to, at the very least, the 1950s. It is unknown at this time if the Texas Rangers have really be socialized into the 21st century or for that mater, Texas itself!
I'm sure that literary reviewers will have a hay day with this book. It is not "high" east or left coast literature. It is not David McCullough's "John Adams", but it is a darn good read. Jackson wears his heart and his beliefs on his sleeve and backs down on neither. He is not the paragon of virtue and neither is his family. The stories of his parents bring up their family in dust bowl west Texas - dry land farmers during the week and honkey tonk habitues on Saturday night along with all the country singers and illegal whiskey sellers. His own children grew up into two totally opposite men. The oldest is serving life in a New Mexico prison for a double homicide while the youngest is a decorated Border Patrol Officer on the Rio Grande. Throughout the book is written with the "I was there and did my job" approach. Jackson doesn't shrink from the spot light but he always gives credit to superiors, peer and subordinates where credit is due. He doesn't shirk from calling an idiot and idiot and has many paragraphs set aside to superiors who were especially idiotic. If the book lacks for anything it is an index. I really had to search to confirmI read the LBJ/Stevenson citation here! Grab this book and read it. You'll get some insight into how the Texas Rangers operated in a critical transition period - Ann Richard's governorship. You'll come away with an appreciation for those who serve us in law enforcement. And you'll learn one heck of a lot about H. Joaquin Jackson - especially how a white bread west Texas boy got the name Joaquin.
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