Juan Cortina

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Juan Nepomuceno Cortina Goseacochea (16 May 1824 – 30 October 1894), known as Cheno Cortina, was a Mexican ranchero, caudillo, military officer, and politician who effectively controlled the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and twice acted as its governor. In the lower Rio Grande borderlands he is remembered for leading the armed risings of 1859–1861 commonly called the Cortina Wars (Spanish: Guerras de Cortina). Anglo-american newspapers and later Texas Ranger lore called him the "Red Robber of the Rio Grande." Tejano and Mexican popular memory more often treated him as a defender of people of Mexican origin after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and in contrast referred to him as the "Robin Hood of the Rio Grande." Modern scholarship treats him as a frontier caudillo who combined genuine grievances over land, law, and racial violence with personal honor, family interest, cattle raiding, and shifting wartime allegiances.

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